How to track my actual traffic source using Google Analytics which are now showing as referral traffic?

[DebashishB]

Hi Mozzers, I went through many Q&As in the community this morning. I found a solution where I could just remove the referral site in analytics>admin>property>tracking info>referral exclusion list. So I removed paypal.com which was the main referral traffic. I thought the problem is solved.

Later today I got another order, now the referral traffic is from eway.com, now what? Yes I know I will add this to the exclusion list but there will be many more referral sites.

My main concern is I am not able to track the actual traffic source. How do I do that?

1. Do I need to use google url tracking for all my pages?
2. Do I need to add tracking code in each page of the site?
3. Is there a way to track the actual source of this traffic, now that the transaction is already made but reflects as referral traffic in Google Analytics?

jZjTN

[TrentonGreener]

1. Adding this doesn't change the way a transaction is tracked, but instead makes it so that you can view the 'event' that fired under the event tracking in GA. If you look under here (Behavior > Events) can you see the successful event and the source/medium that drove it?

2. Have you also tried the previously mentioned segmentation under User Explorer? None of these fixes are going to change the way the data appears in the acquisition report (switching to PayPal Payments Pro usually does the trick, but is more expensive). All we're really looking to do here is find another way to attribute the conversions to their source.
I'd recommend revisiting my most recent reply on how to segment the users under User Explorer as this will likely give you the best insights.

Let me know if you run into any issues there and I'll help you out.

[DebashishB]

Hi Trenton,

I will try the suggestions and fixes, will let you how it goes.

I did some research and tried these other fixes.
1. I have added a Event Tracking Code (EDT) to the buy buttons of Paypal and Eway. The EDT is added where the user clicks on the buy button and leaves our website from there. This is done to record the button click and send the report to Google analytics.
2. Enabled 'Auto Return' and Paypal PDT (Payment Data Transfer) which transfers the users GA reports.

So, after applying this I got two transactions recently, but both are recorded under direct traffic in GA Aquisition report. Attaching a snapshot. 
I am not clear where is the traffic coming from. Any thoughts.

[TrentonGreener]

3 - In User Explorer, sort by transactions and you should be able to see users w/transactions. More specifically, if you create a segment (next to All Users) and create a new custom segment with:

• Conditions > Filter User > Include
• Transactions > per user > ≥ > 1

Then by looking through just this segment (select it on the top of the page) you will be able to see only users that have a transaction. You can then dive into these user's sessions by clicking their 'Client Id' and you can see the full path they took to conversion. This is assuming they didn't view any pages that did not have the GA code on them.

This combined with your other fixes should solve your issue and allow you to determine what drove the conversions!

Campaign timeouts - The issue here is that any new channel that drives traffic may not get the credit it deserves.
I would recommend to keep this at 6-12 months. You don't want credit going to a single channel because it drove the original session 24 months ago, because that was not the session that carried purchase intent.

Good luck! Let us know if we can help any further on this!

Trenton

[DebashishB]

Hey Trenton,

Thanks for helping me out. I will try to give me as much coordination possible. Here's the information you asked for:

-My site is built on Magento platform.
-We use two payment gateways 1. paypal.com and 2. eway.com - I guess these are the 3rd party payment gateways you are refering to.

2- So I am in the process of including the GA tracking code on every page of the site.

3- Yes I understand the previous customers cannot be tracked. I tried looking at the user explorer but doesn't show any revenue earned. Attaching a snapshot.

Also, for now, I have including both paypal.com and eway.com in the referral exclusion list. Plus as mentioned earlier in session settings I have made the campaign timeout zero -> Should I be cautious?

Let me know how should I proceed now.

[DebashishB]

Hi,

Thank you for the tip. Campaign timeout was set at 6 months, I have changed it to zero months now. So no cookies will be saved now, will this have any problems regarding tracking the user's original source page? For example, did he come from a social media platform, guest blog or a returning customer who already knows my brand?

[TrentonGreener]

Hey DebashishB,

I'd love to help you get this sorted out. I've dealt with PayPal & other 3rd party payment authorization platforms causing issues with correct attribution in GA before and I know that it can be a huge hassle.

Before I specifically give you a solution, could you provide a little more information about your site? What platform is it built on? Do you use a 3rd party drop-in for shopping cart and payment? Any additional information you can provide would be wonderful! Linking to the site specifically would be great, but I understand if you would rather not.

2 - Yes, you will want to ensure that the GA tracking code is included on every page of your site to ensure proper attribution.

3 - As Alick300 mentioned, unfortunately you cannot retroactively manipulate the data. So transactions already completed will appear as referral; however, under Audience>User Explorer you may be able to segment your data in a way that you can isolate the user that these transactions are tied to and learn more about their progression throughout your site & their path to conversion.

I''ll follow up when you have had a chance to provide further information on this.

• Trenton

[Alick300]

Hi Debashish,

It worth mentioning that the referral exclusion list does not work for traffic that is already cookied. So if a returning visitor had a referral source set before you added it to the list and then visits as direct, they will still have that referral source. Please check your session settings under Property -> Tracking Info -> Session Settings -> Campaign Timeout. If it's set to six months for example, it will take six months for all the self referrals to disappear.

Hope this helps.

Thanks