Referral Traffic vs. Campaign Traffic in Google Analytics
-
I have two sites: a blog and an ecommerce site. The blog funnels people to the ecommerce site. In Analytics I'm seeing declines in referral traffic from the blog to the ecommerce site. During the same time I'm seeing an increase in campaign traffic to the ecommerce site, with most campaign traffic coming from the blog. I believe the increase in campaign traffic is largely a result of simply having installed more tracking links. This leads me to believe that the declines I'm seeing in referral traffic is simply a result of the increase in campaign traffic. In other words, what was once counted and reported as being referral traffic is now being counted and reported as campaign traffic. So my question is this: In Google Analytics is campaign traffic ALSO reported as referral traffic, or is campaign traffic reported separately and not duplicated in referral traffic reports?
I'll provide a concrete example to make this more clear in case it isn't:
Say site X sends 1000 visits each month to site Y. Say 50 of those visits come from a single link on X. If that link is changed so that campaign Z data info added (via the Google URL Builder), would you expect to then see 950 referral visits each month from site X to site Y plus 50 campaign visits to site Y via new campaign Z, or would you continue to see 1000 referral visits plus the new 50 campaign visits?
Many thanks in advance to anyone that can shed some light on this.
-
Thank you very much, Martijn and ThompsonPaul, for your responses. I searched everywhere for an answer online, but couldn't find an answer to this somewhat obscure question. Your answers finally clarify this for me. Thanks again!
-
As long as the link is correctly tagged with full primary Analytics variables (utm source, medium and campaign) it will show only under campaigns, Mark. It's an either/or process. Traffic can't be recorded under 2 sources or else your analytics would be completely inaccurate (artificially inflated for every tracked link).
Hope that makes sense?
Paul
-
Hi Mark,
This really depends on how you've tagged your outgoing links to your ecommerce site. If you provide another medium or source within the UTM parameters it might be that it will only pop up under campaign traffic instead of referral traffic. Could you provide us with an example to help you out?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should Google Trends Match Organic Traffic to My Site?
When looking at Google Trends and my Organic Traffic (using GA) as percentages of their total yearly values I have a correlation of .47. This correlation doesn't seem right when you consider that Google Trends (which is showing relative search traffic data) should match up pretty strongly to your Organic Traffic. Any thoughts on what might be going on? Why isn't Google Trends correlating with Organic Traffic? Shouldn't they be pulling from the same data set? Thanks, Jacob
Reporting & Analytics | | jacob.young.cricut0 -
Google Analytics Average Position
I'm looking at Google Analytics -> Acquisition -> Search Engine Optimization -> Queries reports. I'm looking at keywords and the average position. What Google reports and what I see in a Google incognito search is different (usually my search is much lower). For example, for one search term, Google reports 5.8 average position and every time I search it is 8. My local result is 4. Anyone know why this is? I'm wondering if Google is averaging the Local results into number?
Reporting & Analytics | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Google Analytics
Is there any way around being able to set up 20 goals in Analytics? What if one of my clients want to set up 10 pages with separate actions to track on each page. Will then each actions count as a separate goal? If this is the case, how could I work around creating more than 20 goals? Would I have to look into hiring/buying a third party or separate software? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | flcity150 -
How "Assisted Conversion value" is calculated on Google Analytics?
Hi guys, Can any of you tell me how the Assisted Conversion Value is calculated under Assist Interacion Analysis? For the channel Direct, we have Assited Conversions: 6 Assited Conversion Value: 451,59 Last Click or Direct Conversions: 10 Last Click or Direct Conversion Value: 786,54 Assisted/Last Click or Direct Conversions: 0,60 How the value 451,59 is calculated? Thanks. Regards
Reporting & Analytics | | footd0 -
Need help setting up a Google analytics goal.
I'm just now getting my feet wet with the goals in GA. I'm trying to figure out how many visitors to a certain page, click on a certain link (which takes them no a certain page on my site.) What's the best way to go about this? Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | NoahsDad0 -
How can I verify if someone is Google Analytics certified?
I am looking to hire an IC to help with analytics. I need to know how I can verify if they are GA certified. They gave me a link to a http://www.starttest.com profile. Is that legit?
Reporting & Analytics | | inhouseseo0 -
Google analytics for your mobile sub-domain
Hi All, I have just started mobile sub-domain for my desktop site. But I don't to know how to configure analytics for mobile sub-domain. I want to track result between desktop and mobile site. Can any one help me to sort out this problem? Waiting for reply
Reporting & Analytics | | Hexpress0 -
Conflicting Analytics: Getclicky vs. Google Analytics
Removal of an old getclicky code (and installation of new tracking code) from my site after some changes resolved inaccuracies in my page view/bounce rate information. Prior to adding the correct getclicky code, getclicky was showing 95% plus bounce rate on my site. I knew this was wrong because GA showed around 40%. Ironically, now that my getclicky account is working (showing a 30% bounce rate), GA bounce rate is steadily climbing. Is it best to just stick with one analytics account so that the codes don't conflict? Is it possible to have two accurate analytics accounts at the same time?
Reporting & Analytics | | JSOC0