Marketing Channel Processing Rules - Paid Search

[heatherthompsonreg]

Do you guys follow the recommended processing rule for paid search per the AA documentation? https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/marketing-channels/c-rules.html?lang=en

I am seeing an unusually high amount of traffic without a search referrer from mobile devices, but with my paid search campaign code. I know users can save those URLs and navigate back to them, but the amount of traffic seems too high for that. I'm wondering if there is a known issue with any device or browser that may not pass the search engine referral data and therefore making it fall into the direct channel?

[yuhuisg]

Yes, I follow the recommended Marketing Channel processing rules, including for Paid Search.

Some things to check:

• Build a table with Marketing Channel dimension and Marketing Channel Instances metric. Are the numbers of "Paid Search" still very high?
  • If the numbers are still high, then breakdown Marketing Channel by device or browser or operating system. Does any device/browser/operating system "stand out"?
• Have you configured your report suite's Paid Search detection properly?
• Could your Paid Search tracking code(s) have been used wrongly with URLs in the app?

[heatherthompsonreg]

As I mentioned, I'm seeing the majority of the traffic without a search referrer coming in from mobile, which made me wonder if mobile browsers might be more likely to fail to pass the proper referrer information. 

[yuhuisg · Accepted solution]

I had probably misread your original post, so got the wrong understanding from it. 

I think mobile browsers are still able to pass referrer information properly. But then, there are 2 kinds of mobile browsers: in-app browsers and standalone browsers. So the referrer information (and cookies etc) stay within each kind of mobile browser, i.e. if the user has opened a web page in an in-app browser, then presses the button to open that page in the standalone browser, it will be as if the user has opened that page directly, i.e. without any referrer.

Making things complicated: if the user had searched with a search engine app (e.g. Google Search app), then found your ad and opened it in the standalone browser, I don't think the referrer would be set. If so, then it would be tracked as direct too, yet the Entry Page's URL would have your paid search tracking code. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this point about the search engine apps.)

[heatherthompsonreg]

I tested out the google search app and it does appear to pass the referrer as expected. The only spot on mobile where I don't see a referrer pass is if you long press a search result and choose to open the link in a new tab. That doesn't seem like a user behavior that would drive as much volume as we're seeing though, so I'm still stumped.