Overview
As of January 17th 2023, we'll be making changes to the way visitor acquisition channels are determined and displayed in Uberflip Analytics (UFA).
These changes will primarily impact the Visitor Acquisition dashboard (Analytics > Traffic > Visitor Acquisition) in UFA, but may also affect any custom dashboards and reports you've created.
Here's a quick overview of the changes:
- In Uberflip Analytics, acquisition channels will no longer be displayed as part of UTM source and UTM medium data. Instead, acquisition channels will now be displayed separately, in their own data field.
- We're upgrading the algorithm we use to infer acquisition channels to increase the accuracy of this data.
- We're redesigning the Visitor Acquisition dashboard in Uberflip Analytics to emphasize visitor acquisition channels over UTM Source/Medium data. This will make it easier to understand where your traffic is coming from at a glance.
- In the summary table of the Visitor Acquisition dashboard, we're splitting the current combined UTM Source & Medium column into two separate columns (UTM Source and UTM Medium) to make it easier to distinguish between them.
See the "What's changing" section for an in-depth look at these changes.
What is an acquisition channel, and why is it "inferred"?
Acquisition channels are groupings of related sources of traffic. E.g. Traffic coming from search engines like Google or Bing can be grouped together as "organic traffic".
When grouping traffic like this, it's not always obvious which channel is the correct one. Sometimes the appropriate channel can be determined based on the UTM source or UTM medium parameters, but often this data is missing or ambiguous. In order to group traffic into channels, UFA makes an "educated guess" by using an algorithm that looks at a variety of data points. The process of making this educated guess is called "inferring" the acquisition channel.
What's changing?
There are four main ways the Visitor Acquisition dashboard will change:
- The way UFA determines acquisition channels will change
- Acquisition channel data will be displayed in a different place
- Historical data will change to match the new standard
- The Visitor Acquisition dashboard will now highlight acquisition channel data
Here's an in-depth look at each change:
The way UFA determines acquisition channels
When needed, Uberflip has always made educated guesses about which acquisition channels your traffic is coming from. As industry tech advances, so do we. We’ve come up with a more accurate way to infer acquisition channels, and we’re bringing that to you now.
Acquisition channel data will be displayed in a different place
Until now, the inferred acquisition channel has been shown within the UTM Source and UTM Medium data fields. Whenever a UTM source or UTM medium were not available, the inferred acquisition channel would be shown (in parentheses). E.g. google.com/(organic), (organic) = inferred acquisition channel.
To make it easier to distinguish UTM sources/mediums from acquisition channels, we’re splitting them up. Acquisition channels will now be displayed separately, in their own data field (called Acquisition Channel). The UTM Source and UTM Medium data fields will be reserved exclusively for actual UTM source/medium values.
Any traffic which displayed an inferred acquisition channel in the UTM Source or UTM Medium fields previously will now show that the UTM source or medium is missing. E.g. google.com/(organic) will now be shown as google.com/(none).
Historical data will change to match the new standard
This change will be retroactive, and will affect all historical data. This means that if you look at traffic from a year ago and currently see google.com/(organic), that same historical traffic will show google.com/(none) after the change.
Acquisition Channel data will also be retroactive to when you started to collect Hubs data in UFA. You'll still be able to see acquisition channels for historical data, and in some cases the accuracy of this data will be improved.
The Visitor Acquisition dashboard will now highlight acquisition channel data
We want users to be able to easily identify acquisition channels from UTM parameters, because this is how most marketers think about their traffic. This change will align the Visitor Acquisition dashboard in UFA more closely to Google Analytics, which most marketers are already familiar with.
The visualizations and tables on the dashboard will be updated to emphasize acquisition channels. The dashboard will still display some visualizations of UTM source and medium data, but these will no longer be the focus.
Finally, we're also tweaking the design of the dashboard to make the data easier to understand and interpret. Our users have shown an interest in quick-to-digest data, and this change brings that to this dashboard.
How do these changes affect me?
If you use the Visitor Acquisition dashboard in Uberflip Analytics:
- No action is required. Be aware that the visualizations on this dashboard will change in both appearance, and the data they display.
If you rely on the UTM Source & Medium data field to understand your acquisition channels:
- Action is required. Acquisition channel data will no longer be shown in the UTM Source & Medium data field. Instead, be sure to look at the new Acquisition Channel data field to understand your acquisition channels. This also applies to all historical data.
If you've created custom dashboards or reports that are intended to display acquisition channel data:
- Action is required. You should update affected custom dashboards and reports to incorporate the new Acquisition Channel data field, as data about acquisition channels will no longer be shown in the UTM Source & Medium data field.
When will these changes take effect?
The changes outlined above will go into effect on January 17th, 2023.