# Channels and campaigns

Every visit is sorted into one channel by fixed rules, applied in order. The first rule that fits wins. A session that brought its own source is never relabelled by an ad click the browser remembers from earlier.

Channel names below are the exact values used in the dashboard, the CSV export and the `channel` field of webhook touches, so you can match on them.

## 1. Ad clicks

A paid click ID that landed with this visit proves an ad click, the way each platform's own tag attributes it.

| The visit had | Channel |
| --- | --- |
| `gclid`, `wbraid` or `gbraid` in the URL, or Google session attributes built in this session | Google Ads |
| `fbclid` in the URL | Meta Ads |
| A `ttclid` that landed in this session | TikTok Ads |
| A `twclid` that landed in this session | X Ads |

Browser cookies such as `_fbp` and `_ttp` alone do not make a visit paid.

## 2. Campaign medium

| `utm_medium` | Channel |
| --- | --- |
| `cpc`, `ppc`, `paid`, `paidsearch`, `paid_search`, `sem` | Paid social when `utm_source` is a social network (for example `facebook`, `ig`, `linkedin`, `reddit`, `x`), otherwise Paid search |
| `paid_social`, `paidsocial`, `social_paid`, `socialpaid`, `paid-social`, `cpm` | Paid social |
| `display`, `banner`, `programmatic` | Display |
| `email`, `e-mail`, `e_mail`, `newsletter` | Email & newsletters |
| anything containing `sponsor`, in the medium or the source | Sponsorships |
| `affiliate`, `partner`, `partners` | Affiliates & partners |
| `podcast`, `audio`, `video` | Podcasts & video |
| `social`, `social-network`, `social_media`, `sm` | Social |
| `referral` | Referral |
| `organic` | Organic search |

Matching ignores case. Any other medium falls through to the referrer rules.

## 3. Referrer

The referrer where the session began, or else the page's own referrer:

| Referrer | Channel |
| --- | --- |
| Search engines and AI assistants: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, Ecosia, Brave, Kagi, Perplexity, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Claude, Phind | Organic search |
| X and Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, Hacker News, Mastodon, Bluesky, Discord, TikTok | Social |
| GitHub, GitLab, npm, PyPI, crates.io, pkg.go.dev, Stack Overflow, DEV, Hashnode, Product Hunt, Lobsters | Developer communities |
| Any other site | Referral |
| None, or your own site | Campaigns when `utm_source` is set. Otherwise a direct return is labelled by the most recent ad click the browser remembers from the last 90 days (Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads or X Ads), each dated by its own evidence; with none, Direct |

## Campaigns

Channels, campaigns, pages and referrers are part of attribution, on the Standard and Enterprise plans. A visit's campaign is its `utm_campaign` value. The Overview lists your top ten campaigns, channels, install pages and referrers by attributed installs, with probable installs counted separately. **Conv.** is the share of visits in the range followed by an attributed install in the same range, so it never exceeds 100%. Referrers are where the browsing session began: navigation within your own domains is not a referrer. Days follow your browser's time zone, daylight saving included.