Marketing Channel Instances - Incorrect Marketing Channel Categorization

[WesPhg]

Been noticing many instances of marketing channel instances going into the incorrect marketing channels ignoring all rules set up in processing rules . In this example, there is traffic that should be going into 'Paid Search' (which has #1 top priority in processing order) however they flow into 'Referring Domains' instead (which is at a much lower priority/processing order).

Please refer to the screenshots below for the exact Processing Rules for 'Paid Search' and also a screenshot of the Paid Search detection rules setup. We have 4 conditions which must all match in order for the traffic to flow into 'Paid Search'. All conditions have been precisely satisfied, yet it still fails to flow into the correct marketing channel. Anyone know why does this happen?

[SarahEOwen · Accepted solution]

Hi WesPhg -

Good news, I believe the Marketing Channel Rule logic is working as you expect it to and that Paid Search is getting captured as Paid Search (not Referring Domain).

My hunch is that the report in your screenshot shows the Paid Search eVars (v122, v19, v20) under Referring Domain because of eVar persistence.

• Traffic that is coming in as Paid Search will have a utm_source and a utm_medium in the URL.
• Traffic that is coming in as a Referring Domain will not have a utm_source or a utm_medium in the URL.
• For traffic that came to your site via Paid Search, then later came back via a Referring Domain, they will still have the Paid Search eVars persisting. I believe this is what you are seeing in the report you shared.

There was a really good Summit session in 2020 regarding Marketing Channels that I think you will find helpful too: https://business.adobe.com/summit/2020/behind-every-good-report-is-solid-data.html

Hope this helps -
Sarah

[matt0000001]

Is Paid Search eVars (v122, v19, v20) even needed since Paid Search Search Detection has GCLID?