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
-
Google Analytics: Dashboard to show popular content per directory
Hello, I work for a furniture business and I would like to set up a dashboard in Google Analytics to show a table for each of the 10 sections to show the most popular content, ie. /Sofas
Reporting & Analytics | | Bee159
/Sofas/black-leather-sofa | 987 PVs
/Sofas/brown-leather-sofa | 782 PVs
/Sofas/classic-material-sofa | 636 PVs
etc. /Beds
/Beds/king-size-bed | 900 PVs
etc How would I go about doing this? Thank you0 -
Google Analytics, new property or views?
Hi All We have an existing Google analytics account which was customised relatively heavily a few years back, with custom variables, e-commerce tracking and the a large number of filters. We have determined that the custom variables and e-commerce tracking, at least for now, are no longer required and actually complicating our lives. We want to simplify the account and add a fresh set of goals and events. Our initial train of thought was to create an entire new property with the usual views, raw, test, main etc. We are proposing to retain both properties (6 months) so we can still do some comparative stuff. We're now wondering if we should retain the existing property and just create new views, the downside being that whilst we can compare data with previous periods it's meaningless to some degree as the filters etc are different. The plus of more views is that we're not firing the tag twice retaining two properties. Views and opinions welcome. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | mde9110 -
Tracking Google places (7 pack listing) traffic in google analytics
Is there a way to see Google Places traffic (traffic from users clicking through the 7 pack listings) segmented in Google analytics ? Normally is it just lumped together with the organic traffic ? Can you see the search phrases used to find your site, or do they also show up under 'not provided' when from Google Places. Im aware i can see some limited data in the Google Places analytics, but these seem to be 2 days behind when ever i view them.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sam-P0 -
Organic traffic vs. GWT data
Hi, how are you? I'm having a question becasue of an inconsistency between the data GWT gives and the one GA gives me. When I see the ammount of clics GWT tells me in february, it says 32850. When I go to Channels --> Organic Search, it says 51014. The difference is really big! Do you happen to know why this huge gap between data?
Reporting & Analytics | | arielbortz0 -
Registration tracking with Google Analytics
Hi everyone, I want to track user registrations with Google Analytics for a customer's website. The thing is after registration visitors are not directed to a specific page, so I can't set it as a goal. I thought of tracking submit button with event tracking, but that data would not be true as a visitor may click it more than once, and there's the login with facebook and twitter thing. Before convincig customer to create a registration confirmation page, I want to make sure there's no other way as they don't want to make any changes to the current website. Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | ugurcanuzer0 -
Google Analytics Organic Keyword (Not Provided) Alternative Hacks?
I'm sure everyone is sick of the (Not Provided) keywords because I know I am, and Google reckons that you should only see 10% or less (I'm currently around 13% and growing). I am seeking alternatives or hacks that will help display the keywords? If you have a hack to actually display the keywords, please share it your ideas and thoughts? I recently implemented a hack that will show the landing page of the keywords which is better than nothing. But as an eCommerce site, I have about 10% of my transactions which not provided, knowing the keywords would really help. Would love to hear your thoughts?
Reporting & Analytics | | upick-1623911 -
Google Analytics Report throws up Google as a referrer
Good morning from Wet & Windy 12 degrees C wetherby UK... Using Google analytics I've noticed in the traffic sources refferer subsection some traffic is categorized as originating from Google. Whats puzzling me is.... I know a huge amount of traddic stems from Google but as the below screenshot illustrates only 21 visitors come from Google: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-refferal-sources-top-levelcopy.jpg And when i drill down some are coming from Google mobile 😞 http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Is traffic categorised as Google referrer down to Google hiding searches via ssl as explained here: http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/google-referral-sourcescopy.jpg Any insights welcome 🙂
Reporting & Analytics | | Nightwing0 -
Using Google Analytics for tracking statistics of the HOMEpage
Hello, Lets say I have a website with the HOMEpage being http://www.page.com. There are various subpages e.g. http://www.page.com/page1, http://www.page.com/page2, http://www.page.com/page3 . Now when I use Google Analytics it gives me all kind of statistics for the subpages shown as /page1 /page2 /page3 ... (relative path). According to this pattern the HOMEpage should be just "/". Unfortunately I can't find "/" in any statistics. Is this normal? Thanks in advance
Reporting & Analytics | | guitarslinger0