Identifying 3rd party email as a channel

[aedelnevo77]

Hello, we place tracking codes on links within 3rd party emails. 

With regard to our marketing channel processing rules, rather than solely relying on a tracking code as the criteria to define a channel, we also add the condition to have a referrer present too.

But we have noticed that in most cases, the referrer info isn't past across by the browser and the traffic falls into Direct. Has anyone else had this issue and do you know the best way to deal wiith this?

PS, the reason we include the additional condition for the referrer is to ensure that the traffic isn't just come from a bookmark, six months after the email is sent.

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

This is because many emails are read through desktop programs and these do not set referrers, as they are not websites... I don't even know if Mobile App email programs provide referrers... some of them might (like apps based on webmail: google, outlook, yahoo, etc)... but something like a mobile app's default mail reader may not set a referrer.

If you are trying to get Email Campaigns into your Marketing Channels, it's best not to have "referrer present" as part of the rule... or have 2 rules... one that includes the referrer (if referrer is part of your "details") and a second one right after it that looks solely at the campaign values (i.e. medium=email) that will catch all the emails that are coming from programs that do not set referrers.

While a nice thought to prevent tracking potentially bookmarked pages, unfortunately, the way most email readers work prevent that sort of "protection"... you may just have to go with "this page originated from an email at some point... even if it was saved elsewhere"

[aedelnevo77]

thanks.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You're welcome... It would be nice if ALL email readers would be updated to force a referrer (no matter if desktop, mobile app, or web based) so that it would make analytics easier.... but I don't see it forthcoming any time soon....

[yuhuisg]

Another possible reason for the referrers not coming through is that some websites just don't pass it on. This can be done in HTML or via a website Content Security Policy. Unfortunately, in such cases, there's nothing that you can do to overcome it.