Which data column shows where the customer is coming from?

[mxyle]

Hello!

Of the default data columns in the Analytics data feed, which column would show me the source of the visitors? For example, I would like to know if they came via e-mail, search (Google), social, etc. I see that some of the values in the page_url column has UTM parameters--in which case I can refer to the utm_medium. However, I also see that there is a first_hit_ref_domain that shows additional related data. Just a little confused on what I should be looking at.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hi,

first_hit_ref_domain is the very first referring domain that was ever recorded for that user (all time), which probably isn't what you are looking for. I assume you are looking at the visit level, in which case you will want to use ref_domain, ref_type and referrer (all of which should be at the entry level)... you can also use campaign for your UTM content (assuming that you are actually capturing this data in your Campaign Variable).

I don't believe that marketing channels come through the raw data feeds, as these are based on classifications and can be changed as rules are updated.... only the raw data collection come through your feeds.

[mxyle]

Thanks for your response! Would the utm_medium not serve as the marketing channel here? I see several visits with utm_medium = email. I’m relatively new to the space so not totally familiar with all the concepts.

EDIT:

I also see visit_ref_domain—is that what i want to be looking at?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

No worries... technically yes, your UTM_Medium is part of your marketing channels... but there is also some built in logic and the ability to add custom classification rules to break your actual tracking codes down to more meaningful groupings (since these rules can be changed and reapplied to past data they only appear in the interface and not in raw data... but the absolute values of your UTM Medium are available and you can process those as you wish)

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/marketing-channels/c-channels.html?lang...

(Personally, I use the raw UTM data more than marketing channels myself... but that is because we use UTMs to track more than just "marketing campaigns", so I build reports looking for specific UTMs and UTM combos to pull the data for the specific team that needs it... )

Ahh, I forgot about visit_ref_domain, that is also a good option   Yes, you can use this.

One thing to remember about referrers... sometimes you can have multiple referrers in the same "visit"... since there is a 30 min timeout for visit sessions.. users could be using Google and Facebook to try and find something, and could enter your site multiple times via links. I believe that even the visit_ref_domain is the last touch value... and could change values in the same visit_num. Now that I think of it, ref_domain probably is the raw collected referrer (including your internal references). Sorry about that, I don't generally work directly with the raw data, I help support my internal team that does.

Here is an extra tip that a lot of people miss...

The data you see in your Workspace Reports has been filtered for all the bot rules and exclusion logic that is applied to the suite... your raw data is not... so if you are just starting out, you should know that you will need to apply logic to remove the same data (using exclude_hit) or you will have inflated data.

[mxyle]

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@Jennifer_Dungan wrote:

Now that I think of it, ref_domain probably is the raw collected referrer (including your internal references).

This is very helpful, thank you! Can you elaborate on the piece above? Is the ref_domain a more accurate data point than visit_ref_domain? As an example, I'm seeing quite a few visits where the visit_ref_domain is Google but the ref_domain is the domain where the content was downloaded. Which one should I be looking at?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I believe that 

visit_ref_domain is the "last touch" referral domain for the visit. If someone had multiple referral domains within the same visit, I believe that the first set of pages that came from Domain A would say "A", and if the user left and re-entered the site within the same visit from Domain "B" all the pages in the second half of the visit would say "B".... in most cases, you will only have one... but there are people who have multiple tabs open that could hit the multi-referral scenario.

ref_domain I believe is the referring domain for each page... so let's say the user came from Domain A, the first page of the visit would say "A"... but now the user is in your site and visiting multiple pages... I believe that this would show your domain throughout the rest of the visit. Since they are going from a page on your domain to another page in your domain... you could in theory use this to see traffic from "inside your site" (something which is actually hidden in the Adobe Interface). This is in essence the "raw referring domain" for each and every page.... 

Both have valid use cases... but if you are trying to make an equivalency between what you see in Workspace and what you see in your raw data, I believe that the visit_ values are the ones to go with... 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Here is a simple diagram to visualize:

And here is one showing the "multiple referrers in the same visit"

[mxyle]

Gotcha and thank you for the diagram! Just to confirm I'm understanding correctly...

In most cases, the visit_ref_domain will always show you the domain of the "last touch" of the entire visit but the ref_domain will be the referring domain for each page.

Sorry, one more question. There are columns called va_closer_detail and va_finder_detail. I'm reading that they are variables used in the last touch dimension. How do these relate (if at all) to the visit_ref_domain and ref_domain?

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Yes, I believe we are on the same page... I don't have a raw data feed in front of me to 100% confirm, but based on the names and descriptions (and what I see in the referrer data when testing an implementation) this should be what you are getting.

No worries about the questions... this is tricky stuff when you are starting out (and even when not starting out )

To be honest, I have not used those last 2 fields: va_closer_detail and va_finder_detail, but they actually seem to be tied to Marketing Channel info... I just didn't think that would come through since that is based on Classification Rules and can be changed... but maybe in this case they are sending the value through based on the current or default rule sets?

However, my best guess is that va_closer_detail would be the last touch 'Marketing Channel", and va_finder_detail would be the first touch "Marketing Channel"... both of these must be based on the "at the time of raw data export" rules set... but also, the default Attribution of Marketing Channels is 1 week

So you need to bear this in mind, that the first touch value in a 7 day span could be a completely different value than what you see in the visit data for this user...  maybe 7 days ago they came via Social Media, and today they came via a Search Engine (or even directly - and directly would result in no ref_domain on the first page / visit_ref_domain for the visit)

[mxyle]

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@Jennifer_Dungan wrote:

So you need to bear this in mind, that the first touch value in a 7 day span could be a completely different value than what you see in the visit data for this user...  maybe 7 days ago they came via Social Media, and today they came via a Search Engine (or even directly - and directly would result in no ref_domain on the first page / visit_ref_domain for the visit)

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Gotcha, and yeah good point about the timing of the attribution of the marketing channel. A lot of information so thank you for helping me make sense of it! I'm sure I'll have more questions down the line but this was very helpful--thank you again!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You're very welcome! Good luck with your data processing!