Fixing wrong traffic attribution and source issues
Common traffic attribution problems in Marfeel fall into four categories: unexpectedly high dark social numbers, duplicate traffic sources, self-referral domains, and internal traffic classification. Below is a round-up of each issue and how to fix it.
Unusually high dark social traffic
Section titled “Unusually high dark social traffic”Increases in dark social traffic can be due to a couple of different causes:
Unattributed push notifications traffic
Section titled “Unattributed push notifications traffic”Push notification traffic without UTM tags is attributed as Dark Social because it lands directly on an article details page. If you are sending push notifications to users without UTM tagging, this is the most likely explanation.
You can easily identify if this is your problem if you see traffic bursts on your site.
Hybrid native applications
Section titled “Hybrid native applications”It’s common for iOS and Android applications to follow a hybrid development approach where the main content feed or home page is native and the article details load inside a Webview.
In this scenario, when a user clicks on an article on the native homepage, it will generate a pageview on the Webview identified as Dark Social.
You can solve this issue by identifying your Webview version.
Duplicated traffic source
Section titled “Duplicated traffic source”Marfeel is case sensitive with all UTM parameters. If one URL has utm_source=Facebook and the second one has utm_source=facebook, you will end up with traffic divided across two different traffic sources that are in fact one single source.
There might be cases where you see duplicated Traffic Sources. For example, in the screenshot below, Facebook appears twice.
On Compass the source will appear in camelcase regardless of how the UTM tag is written. If you notice duplicate traffic sources, check your attributions with case sensitivity in mind.
Self-referral domains
Section titled “Self-referral domains”If you see your own domains as self-referrals, consider reviewing the following scenarios:
© If you are using any form of 30X redirections you’ll see your own domain as a referral source. Make sure these redirections are really necessary and not an error, one that could impact your SEO.
Marfeel SDK loading too late
Section titled “Marfeel SDK loading too late”Sessions where a user clicks on a link and recirculates to another of your pages before the Marfeel SDK can load on the first page are tracked as self-referrals. This happens because the Marfeel SDK is late at tracking the original referral of the session.
The Marfeel SDK is a lightweight performant Javascript, so if this happens it’s often because it’s being loaded with very low priority on the page or at the end of the waterfall on Google Tag Manager.
Try adding the Marfeel SDK inline in your HTML or moving up its priority.
Pages not tracked by Marfeel
Section titled “Pages not tracked by Marfeel”Users arriving from a page *.example.com that isn’t tracked by Marfeel (such as landings, logins, etc.) won’t have their referral data accurately recorded.
To ensure all user activity is captured, consider integrating Marfeel tracking on these pages.
Internal traffic
Section titled “Internal traffic”To understand the difference between Traffic Source and Traffic Medium, see Understanding Traffic Source and Traffic Medium.
Traffic Medium with Internal
Section titled “Traffic Medium with Internal”When analyzing traffic by Traffic Medium with Internal, any pageview originating from a Marfeel tracked URL within the same account as the previous page will be categorized as Internal, regardless of the UTM parameters.
Traffic Source with Internal
Section titled “Traffic Source with Internal”When analyzing traffic by Traffic Source with Internal, any pageview originating from a Marfeel tracked URL within the same account as the previous page and without a RecirculationSource will be categorized as Internal, regardless of UTM parameters.
Why is my dark social traffic unusually high?
High dark social traffic is typically caused by unattributed push notifications (missing UTM tags) or hybrid native applications where article pages load in a Webview. Push notification traffic without UTM parameters lands directly on article pages and gets classified as dark social. Adding UTM tags to your push notifications resolves the most common case.
Why do I see duplicate traffic sources in my reports?
Marfeel is case sensitive with all UTM parameters. If one URL uses utm_source=Facebook and another uses utm_source=facebook, traffic will be split across two separate sources. Ensure consistent casing in your UTM tags to avoid duplicates.
Why is my own domain appearing as a referral source?
Self-referral domains appear when 30X redirections are in use, when the Marfeel SDK loads too late to capture the original referral, or when users arrive from pages on your domain that are not tracked by Marfeel (such as login or landing pages).