Universal Analytics<\/a> utilizes two components (by default) to attribute a browser session to a specific campaign: query parameters in the URL<\/strong> and the referrer string<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The page URL is sent with every hit to Google Analytics using the Document location<\/a> field, which also translates to the The referrer string is sent with a hit to Google Analytics using the Document referrer<\/a> field, as long as the referrer hostname does not exactly match that of the current page and the referrer string is not empty.<\/p>\n When attributing a hit to a campaign session, Google Analytics first checks the location<\/strong> value for the following parameters:<\/p>\n If these parameters are not found, Google Analytics looks at the referrer<\/strong> string.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes, there are additional steps to campaign attribution (see the flowchart<\/a>), but these two are relevant in the context of this article.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n There are two contexts where attributing campaigns based on URLs and referrer strings becomes complicated.<\/p>\n For this purpose, I have created a new custom template<\/a>: Persist Campaign Data<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This template tackles both of the problems listed above. However, you will need to make additional changes to your Google Analytics settings before the solution is complete.<\/p>\n You can download the template from the template gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n \n Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter<\/a> to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox!\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The first problem is particularly bothersome on sites that utilize consent management systems<\/strong> to block Google Analytics if consent has not been granted.<\/p>\n If consent is granted on the landing page, then there should be no issues. The page is reloaded with the campaign parameters in the URL and the referral string intact, and Google Analytics tags can make use of these when attributing the session to a specific campaign.<\/p>\n However, if the user grants consent only after navigating deeper into the site<\/strong>, the tags that fire on these pages will no longer have access to the initial campaign that brought the user to the site, which leads to inflation of direct traffic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n To solve this problem, the template tag (assuming Google Tag Manager is not blocked, too) writes the URL of the current page in a cookie if<\/em> it has campaign-setting parameters. Similarly, the referrer string is also written in a cookie if<\/em> its hostname does not contain the current page hostname.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Then, when the Google Analytics tags finally fire, they can take the original location and referrer from these cookies to attribute the session to its correct source.<\/p>\n Create a new tag with the Persist Campaign Data<\/strong> template. Check the box next to Store campaign data in a browser cookie<\/strong> and check that the settings are OK.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n By default, the following URL parameters will cause the tag to set the campaign URL cookie:<\/p>\n Naturally, you can add additional parameters to the list if you wish.<\/p>\n Not all of these parameters have the ability to start a new session (only Next, you can change the default name of the URL cookie and the referrer cookie, if you wish.<\/p>\n NOTE!<\/strong> If you do change the name of either cookie, you must<\/strong> edit the template permissions<\/a> and allow the template to set the new cookie name(s).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The tag will only write the cookies in specific conditions:<\/p>\n Thus it\u2019s safe to set it on the All Pages<\/strong> trigger, as it doesn\u2019t matter if it fires on every single page.<\/p>\n Note!<\/strong> You might want to actually set it on a trigger that fires once user consent has been established – if the user gives consent or has already given consent, the tag does not need to (and should not) fire, because then your Google Analytics tags would fire normally and your wouldn\u2019t need to save the URL and referrer data in cookies.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need two new, user-defined 1st Party Cookie<\/strong> variables.<\/p>\n The first, {{Cookie – __gtm_campaign_url}}<\/strong>. The second, {{Cookie – __gtm_referrer}}<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Make sure you check the URI-decode cookie<\/strong> box.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n To update your Google Analytics tags, we\u2019ll be using a NOTE!<\/strong> You don\u2019t have<\/em> to use a If you need the cookies for something else as well, then you can set the Create a new Custom JavaScript variable<\/strong>, name it {{customTask – set location and referrer from cookie}}<\/strong>, and add the following code within:<\/p>\n There are some things you might need to edit.<\/p>\n Change the Change the Set the Set the This If the Finally, add the <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The field name is customTask<\/strong> and the value is {{customTask – set location and referrer from cookie}}<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If the user lands on your site with campaign parameters in the URL and\/or a referrer that is external to your website\u2019s domain, the following happens:<\/p>\n There are some caveats to note.<\/p>\n&dl<\/code><\/a> parameter in the Measurement Protocol<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n
gclid<\/code> – for attributing the session to Google Ads<\/a><\/li>\nutm_source<\/code> – for attributing the session to a custom campaign<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"location](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/referrer-location.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
![\"Persist](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/persist-campaign-data.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n
\n X<\/span><\/p>\n
\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n1. Store campaign data in a session cookie<\/h2>\n
![\"Campaign](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/campaign-cookies.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nSetup the Persist Campaign Data tag<\/h3>\n
![\"Store](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/store-campaign-cookie.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
utm_source<\/code><\/li>\nutm_medium<\/code><\/li>\nutm_campaign<\/code><\/li>\nutm_term<\/code><\/li>\nutm_content<\/code><\/li>\nutm_id<\/code><\/li>\ngclid<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nutm_source<\/code> and gclid<\/code> do, in fact), but the assumption is that if you\u2019ve set any UTM parameters, you want to include them with your hits.<\/p>\n\n
\n
Create the cookie variables<\/h3>\n
![\"Campaign](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/campaign-url-cookie.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"referrer-cookie.jpg\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/referrer-cookie.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nCreate the
customTask<\/code><\/h3>\ncustomTask<\/code><\/a>. This is an easy way to make sure the cookies are only used if they exist, and it\u2019s a great way to actually delete the cookies as soon as they\u2019ve been used, so that they don\u2019t persist needlessly.<\/p>\n\n
customTask<\/code>. You can set the location<\/code>, page<\/code>, and referrer<\/code> fields manually on the tag, if you wish. You just need to add proper fallback values if the cookies do not exist, otherwise you risk corrupting your data with invalid location<\/code> and referrer<\/code> fields.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\ncustomTask<\/code> to not<\/strong> delete cookies after the values have been \u201cused\u201d.<\/p>\nfunction<\/span>() {\n return<\/span> function<\/span>(customModel) {\n \/\/ Set to the cookie variables\n<\/span> var<\/span> storedLocation = {{Cookie - __gtm_campaign_url}};\n var<\/span> storedReferrer = {{Cookie - __gtm_referrer}};\n \/\/ Set to the cookie names\n<\/span> var<\/span> storedLocationCookieName = '__gtm_campaign_url'<\/span>;\n var<\/span> storedReferrerCookieName = '__gtm_referrer'<\/span>;\n \/\/ Set to the root domain of your site (e.g. domain name without any subdomain, \"mysite.com\")\n<\/span> var<\/span> domainName = 'simoahava.com'<\/span>;\n \/\/ Choose whether to delete a cookie after its value is used (true\/false)\n<\/span> var<\/span> deleteCookieToggle = true<\/span>;\n\n var<\/span> deleteCookie = function<\/span>(name) {\n document<\/span>.cookie = name + '=; path=\/; domain='<\/span> + domainName + '; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT'<\/span>;\n };\n \n if<\/span> (typeof<\/span> storedLocation !== 'undefined'<\/span>) {\n customModel.set('location'<\/span>, storedLocation);\n customModel.set('page'<\/span>, document<\/span>.location.pathname + document<\/span>.location.search);\n if<\/span> (deleteCookieToggle === true<\/span>) { deleteCookie(storedLocationCookieName); }\n }\n if<\/span> (typeof<\/span> storedReferrer !== 'undefined'<\/span>) {\n customModel.set('referrer'<\/span>, storedReferrer);\n if<\/span> (deleteCookieToggle === true<\/span>) { deleteCookie(storedReferrerCookieName); }\n }\n };\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\nstoredLocation<\/code> and storedReferrer<\/code> variables to point to the correct Google Tag Manager 1st Party Cookie variables you\u2019ve created, if you\u2019ve diverted from the default values used in this guide.<\/p>\nstoredLocationCookieName<\/code> and storedReferrerCookieName<\/code> to the correct cookie names, if you\u2019ve diverted from the default values used in this guide.<\/p>\ndomainName<\/code> to the correct root domain (domain name without any subdomains included).<\/p>\ndeleteCookieToggle<\/code> to false<\/code> if you don\u2019t want the task to remove cookies once their values have been \u201cused\u201d.<\/p>\ncustomTask<\/code> sets the location<\/code> andreferrer<\/code> fields if the respective cookies exist, and then (optionally) deletes the cookies for those fields that were set. If a cookie doesn\u2019t exist, its field is not set.<\/p>\nlocation<\/code> is set, the customTask<\/code> also sets the page<\/code> field to the current page path and query string. If it didn\u2019t do this, then the tag would take the page path from the location<\/code> as well, which would inflate the pageviews of the landing page rather than increment them for the page the user is actually on.<\/p>\nAdd the
customTask<\/code> to your Google Analytics tags<\/h3>\ncustomTask<\/code> variable you just created to your Google Analytics tags. You only need to have it fire on the first tag that fires on the page, but just to be safe it might make sense to add it to your Google Analytics Settings variable<\/a>, and then attach that to all your tags.<\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/gas-variable.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nStore campaign data – summary<\/h3>\n
\n
customTask<\/code> which sets the location<\/code> and referrer<\/code> fields<\/strong> from the cookies, and subsequently deletes the cookies.<\/li>\n\n
customTask<\/code> set, you need to modify<\/strong> it to include the customTask<\/code> code from this guide. See this<\/a> for inspiration.<\/li>\n2. Push original location in dataLayer<\/h2>\n
![\"Rogue](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/rogue-referral.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Push](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2019\/12\/push-original-location.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n