Special tags

Special tags help you track traffic sources more accurately. For example, this information lets you analyze how effective a certain type of advertising is (media, context, and so on).

Yandex.Metrica gets tag information from the first pageview in a user's session. If there isn't a tag in the first pageview, the tag isn't detected for the entire session.

For example, a user clicked through to the site from a browser bookmark (the first pageview). Then the user left the site, but came back within 30 minutes by clicking a link with a tag in an email (the second pageview during the session). This session is considered direct traffic to the site.

The tag can consist of a single parameter or multiple parameters appended to the URL. This lets you monitor traffic generated from specific links.

Note. Tag content is recognized correctly if the site uses UTF-8 encoding.

Reports are generated for the following tags:

  1. From tags
  2. Openstat tags
  3. UTM tags
    1. Using the utm_referrer tag

From tags

This report shows all clicks to website pages with the parameter from={traffic_source in URL}.

Example:

http://example.com/?from=direct

Openstat tags

Reports are generated using the following parameters:

  • Openstat Service — advertising service (direct.yandex.ru, begun.ru, and so on). For information about acceptable values, see the "Advertising systems" report section.
  • Openstat Campaign: name of the ad campaign.
  • Openstat Ad: ad.
  • Openstat Source: ad display location.

Example:

http://example.com?_openstat=direct;phone;discount;top

UTM tags

Reports are generated using the following parameters:

  • utm_source: campaign source. For example, direct.yandex.ru, begun.ru, and so on. For information about acceptable values, see the "Advertising systems" report section.
  • utm_medium: marketing medium. For example, cpc (or ppc), banner, email, and so on.
  • utm_campaign: name of the ad campaign.
  • utm_content: additional information that helps identify the ad.
  • utm_term: keyword.

If you don't specify all the parameters when generating links, pay attention to their order: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term.

Example:

http://example.com/?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=phone&utm_content=discount&utm_term=buy_phone

Using the utm_referrer tag

Use the utm_referrer parameter to allow Yandex.Metrica to correctly detect the source of a click when there is a JavaScript redirect, or when users navigate to your site over the HTTP protocol from a site that is only available over HTTPS (more information about switching to HTTPS).

For example:

http://example.com/?utm_referrer=example1.com

where

  • example.com is your site.
  • example1.com is the referral source.

Tag data is sorted according to how the groups are positioned on the report page, and shown in two ways: