IB QUIMBY MELTON <GO>utm_termWhen Confection creates a new UUID, it logs all available UTM parameters associated with the pageview event.
For example, if a user visits sample.com/?utm_source=Source&utm_id=Campaign, Confection will log Source and Campaign as utm_source and utm_id, respectively. If a user visits sample.com, utm_source and utm_id will be blank.
If additional UTM parameters become available in the future, Confection will associate them with the same UUID in descending chronological order using the utms object. More recent timesteamps appear at the top of the JSON output. Less recent ones appear at the bottom.
Some special scenarios follow:
utms is empty, but one or more utm_* keys have values.sample.com/?utm_source=Source&utm_id=Campaign in the example above). However, after this point, subsequent pageviews had no associated UTM parameters.utm_* keys are empty, but the utms object has keys and values.sample.com in the example above). This could be a direct site visit or a referral without UTM parameters in the link/pageview event. However, after this first visit, one or more of the user's subsequent pageviews had UTM parameters available (sample.com/?utm_source=Source&utm_id=Campaign in the example above).utms and utm_* have values.sample.com/?utm_source=Source&utm_id=Campaign in the example above). After this first visit, one or more of the user's subsequent pageviews had UTM parameters available (sample.com/?utm_source=Source&utm_id=Campaign in the example above).utms and utm_* are empty.sample.com in the example above). After this point, subsequent pageviews also had no associated UTM parameters. "Why do I see direct referrer values and campaign information?"
referrer information and UTM-style campaign data run in parallel lines. referrer is a server-side value, and UTM-style campaign values are URL-parameter-based, front-end values.
Browsers that use privacy settings or extensions generally hide referrer information. Links with rel="noreferrer" attributes will also omit referrer information. As such, when you see a direct referrer value and campaign information, treat the campaign information as authoritative.
We considered overwriting referrer data when campaign source information is available. However, there are ethical and practical arguments to be made for preserving the actual referrer information. Confection's mission involves presenting information as accurately as possible. A customer may want to calculate the number of privacy-focused users visiting his/her site. A customer might also want to audit a particular campaign.
For these and other mission-focused, usage-based reasons, we present referrer values exactly as we detect them.
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IB QUIMBY MELTON