“Tags” report

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

In Yandex.Metrica, reports are available for the from, Openstat, and UTM tags. More information about how Yandex.Metrica works with tags.

Note. Tag content is recognized correctly if the site uses UTF-8 encoding.
To track traffic from Yandex.Direct ads, use the following reports:

In these reports, statistics reflect only registered clicks that were not filtered out by the anti-fraud system.

Yandex.Metrica uses tags to detect traffic from ads in other systems. In addition to the reports described below, you can use the Ad systems report.

  1. Generating reports on tags
  2. Displaying tags in a report

Generating reports on tags

from

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

Example:

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

To view the report, in Yandex.Metrica, go to Reports → Standard reports → From tags.

Openstat

Reports are generated using the following parameters:

  • Openstat Service – Advertising service. For more information about possible values, see the Ad systems report.
  • Openstat Campaign: name of the ad campaign.
  • Openstat Ad: ad.
  • Openstat Source: ad display location.

Example:

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

To view the report, in Yandex.Metrica, go to Reports → Standard reports → Openstat tags.

UTM

Reports are generated using the following parameters:

  • utm_source: campaign source. For more information about possible values, see the Ad systems report.
  • 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=yandex&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=phone&utm_content=discount&utm_term=buy_phone

To view the report, in Yandex.Metrica, go to Reports → Standard reports → UTM tags.

utm_referrer

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:

https://example.com/?utm_referrer=example-source.com

where

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

If you specify the full address as the value with HTTP or HTTPS, then you need to encode this URL. For example, you want to specify the address https://example.com. The encoded address will look like this: https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com.

To view statistics for a tag, use URL parameters and the Sites report.

Displaying tags in a report

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



Select a question to find a solution.

No data or not enough data about advertising
Data differs from statistics in another system
Internal traffic increased
No traffic from a particular site
Problem with getting data on UTM tags

Yandex.Metrica receives information about different advertising systems from tags, which are parameters in the ad's link. If an ad system does not add a special tag to your link, you can manually form the link using the UTM or Openstat tag. For the complete list of values, see the "Advertising systems" report section.

There could be several reasons for this.

Imagine the path from the user clicking the link to the Yandex.Metrica report:
  1. Creating the tag for the link.
  2. Clicking the link and going to the site.
  3. Loading the code snippet for the tag on the site.
  4. Collecting data for the tag and analyzing reports.
As a result, there are many steps between the first and last stage where data could be lost.
Imagine the path from the user clicking the link to the Yandex.Metrica report:
  1. Creating the tag for the link.
  2. Clicking the link and going to the site.
  3. Loading the code snippet for the tag on the site.
  4. Collecting data for the tag and analyzing reports.
As a result, there are many steps between the first and last stage where data could be lost.
Reasons at the tag creation stage
  • Tags are not formed correctly: required values are missing, parameter names are incorrect, there are superfluous question mark symbols or spaces, and so on.
  • When copying ads from one ad system to another, the tags were not changed, so the traffic is linked to another ad system.
Reasons at the click stage
  • The user stopped the page from loading and closed the page before it opened. For example, this could be an accidental click on a mobile phone or tablet.
  • The page didn't load due to problems with site accessibility, it loaded incorrectly in a certain browser.
  • The ad specifies a URL that redirects to a page that doesn't have the Yandex.Metrica tag installed.
  • The ad specifies a URL that redirects to another page, and the UTM tags are lost.
  • When the user goes to the site, other scripts that are loading block the tag from working.
  • The ad specifies an invalid URL that doesn't open a page.
Reasons at the code snippet loading stage
  • The Yandex.Metrica tag isn't installed on landing pages, or it is installed incorrectly.
  • The tag did not load on the site, because the user's browser (or the corporate proxy server) has a plugin that prohibits downloading tracking tags.
  • The user's antivirus system blocks the tag from loading.
Reasons at the report analysis stage

If you are comparing reports for Yandex.Metrica and another system or ad management account, data might differ. This is due to the fact that services have different ways of registering a user's interaction with a site.

For example, in the ad manager, a click might be registered not only for going to the site, but also for opening details on an ad or going to a social media page. Yandex.Metrica only counts the users who go to the site.

You might also have different attribution models chosen in ad managers.

For more information and a video tutorial, see the Tags report section.



Yandex.Metrica and other web analytics systems and ad managers have different ways of registering a user's interaction with a site and calculating statistics. For example, in the ad manager, a click might be registered not only for going to the site, but also for opening details on an ad or going to a social media page. Yandex.Metrica only counts the users who go to the site.

Also check that:
  • You are comparing correct data for the same time period in Yandex.Metrica and the other system.
  • Last click attribution is used by default in Yandex.Metrica reports. If necessary, change the attribution settings in Yandex.Metrica to make them match the attribution settings in your system.
This might happen for the following reasons:
  • Excessively narrow filters are set in Yandex.Metrica in Settings → Filters. As a result, not all of the data is collected.
  • Yandex.Metrica filters robots out of statistics. It's possible that the other system included robot traffic in their statistics. You can check for robot traffic on the site in Standard reports → Monitoring → Robots.
  • The tag didn't load on the site because the user's browser (or a corporate proxy server) has a plugin that prohibits downloading tracking tags. Antivirus systems with high security might also prevent tags from loading.

Also make sure that the Yandex.Metrica tag is installed on all the domains and subdomains that the other system is collecting statistics for. To see data for domains that have the Yandex.Metrica tag installed, go to Standard reports → Content → Popular.


This might happen for the following reasons:
  • Robot filtering is turned off in Yandex.Metrica in Settings → Filters. As a result, the reports show data for all the robot traffic on the site.
  • The other system has overly strict filters defined.
  • The other system's tag isn't installed on all the domains, including mobile versions of the site.


This might happen for the following reasons:

  • One of the site's landing pages doesn't have the code snippet embedded on it.
  • The site might have JavaScript that runs before the code snippet and performs an internal redirect on the site. For example, this could be code for A/B testing. You can detect this code by a redirect on the site (this is usually a redirect to the same page on the site with extra parameters added to the URL). To solve this issue, contact your webmaster.
  • Your hosting provider might have enabled protection from DDOS attacks that could add redirects before going to the site. Contact your hosting provider and ask them to disable this protection.

Choose the protocol your site uses:

In this case, you won't see the traffic source if this source uses a secured HTTPS connection.

  • You can switch your site to a secured HTTPS connection. You can get an encryption certificate for free through the Let's Encrypt project, which is a non-profit certification center supported by many prominent representatives of the internet industry.
  • If you are able to edit links on the source website, add the utm_referrer tag to them and specify the source site as the tag's value. For more information, see the Tags report section.

The source site might be encrypting the referrer. In this case, you won't be able to solve the problem within your site or Yandex.Metrica.

Add the utm_referrer tag to the website's links and specify the source site as the tag's value.


Imagine the path from the user clicking the link to the Yandex.Metrica report:
  1. Creating the tag for the link.
  2. Clicking the link and going to the site.
  3. Loading the code snippet for the tag on the site.
  4. Collecting data for the tag and analyzing reports.
As a result, there are many steps between the first and last stage where data could be lost.
Reasons at the tag creation stage
  • Tags are not formed correctly: required values are missing, parameter names are incorrect, there are superfluous question mark symbols or spaces, and so on.
  • When copying ads from one ad system to another, the tags were not changed, so the traffic is linked to another ad system.
Reasons at the click stage
  • The user stopped the page from loading and closed the page before it opened. For example, this could be an accidental click on a mobile phone or tablet.
  • The page didn't load due to problems with site accessibility, it loaded incorrectly in a certain browser.
  • The ad specifies a URL that redirects to a page that doesn't have the Yandex.Metrica tag installed.
  • The ad specifies a URL that redirects to another page, and the UTM tags are lost.
  • When the user goes to the site, other scripts that are loading block the tag from working.
  • The ad specifies an invalid URL that doesn't open a page.
Reasons at the code snippet loading stage
  • The Yandex.Metrica tag isn't installed on landing pages, or it is installed incorrectly.
  • The tag did not load on the site, because the user's browser (or the corporate proxy server) has a plugin that prohibits downloading tracking tags.
  • The user's antivirus system blocks the tag from loading.
Reasons at the report analysis stage

If you are comparing reports for Yandex.Metrica and another system or ad management account, data might differ. This is due to the fact that services have different ways of registering a user's interaction with a site.

For example, in the ad manager, a click might be registered not only for going to the site, but also for opening details on an ad or going to a social media page. Yandex.Metrica only counts the users who go to the site.

You might also have different attribution models chosen in ad managers.

For more information and a video tutorial, see the Tags report section.