How Oribi Identifies Channels
In order to identify which channel a visitor to your site came from, Oribi will first look for a referrer—the URL of the page that sent the visitor to your website. So, if a visitor came to your site after clicking on a YouTube ad, you’ll see “YouTube” listed as the channel.
Sometimes a visitor may type your website URL directly into the browser. Or, perhaps they’ve favorited your website and arrive by clicking a bookmark. In both of these scenarios, there is no referring site, and Oribi will display the channel as Direct.
However, there are also cases when there is a referring site, but the referrer URL is not available. For example, many email sites (such as Gmail, among others) remove the referrer URL. In cases where no referrer is found, Oribi will look at several other parameters:
- Specific phrases for UTM sources, mediums, and campaigns
When Oribi is unable to identify a visitor’s referrer, it will search for specific phrases in the source, medium, and campaign fields of the referring UTM to identify which channel the visitor came from.
Keeping these phrases in mind when creating your UTMs will help to ensure that your channels are credited appropriately—especially in your email marketing. Please note that, while using the following phrases can aid Oribi in identifying a referring channel, Oribi will still display all your UTMs, which you can see in the UTMs view, below referrers, in your Oribi account.CHANNEL UTM SOURCE UTM MEDIUM UTM CAMPAIGN YouTube contains: youtube Yahoo contains: yahoo / gemini contains: yahoo / gemini Twitter contains: twitter contains: twitter Tiktok contains: tiktok / musically contains: tiktok / musically contains: tiktok / musically Snapchat contains: snapchat contains: snapchat Pinterest contains: pinterest contains: pinterest Instagram contains: instagram Google Paid contains: google / dfa / dbm / adwords contains: cpc / ppc / paidsearch / search / cpm / display / banner / video / listing Facebook contains: facebook contains: facebook Email Marketing contains: email / newsletter contains: email / mail / e-mail / newsletter Bing contains: bing contains: bing CHANNEL
YouTubeUTM SOURCE
contains: youtubeCHANNEL
YahooUTM SOURCE
contains: yahoo / geminiUTM MEDIUM
contains: yahoo / geminiCHANNEL
TwitterUTM SOURCE
contains: twitterUTM MEDIUM
contains: twitterCHANNEL
TiktokUTM SOURCE
contains: tiktok / musicallyUTM MEDIUM
contains: tiktok / musicallyUTM CAMPAIGN
contains: tiktok / musicallyCHANNEL
SnapchatUTM SOURCE
contains: snapchatUTM MEDIUM
contains: snapchatCHANNEL
PinterestUTM SOURCE
contains: pinterestUTM MEDIUM
contains: pinterestCHANNEL
InstagramUTM SOURCE
contains: instagramCHANNEL
Google PaidUTM SOURCE
contains: google / dfa / dbm / adwordsUTM MEDIUM
contains: cpc / ppc / paidsearch / search / cpm / display / banner / video / listingCHANNEL
FacebookUTM SOURCE
contains: facebookUTM MEDIUM
contains: facebookCHANNEL
Email MarketingUTM SOURCE
contains: email / newsletterUTM MEDIUM
contains: email / mail / e-mail / newsletterCHANNEL
BingUTM SOURCE
contains: bingUTM MEDIUM
contains: bing
- Specific in-app browsers
Sometimes, when a user clicks your ad while scrolling through an app (such as Instagram or Facebook), your website may open on a browser within the app. In this case, Oribi will use the in-app browser to identify the referring channel.
- Specific ad IDs
This is the last parameter Oribi looks at when determining a referring channel. Some ad networks define their own ad identifiers, which Oribi can detect. For example, as the “gclid” ID signifies that the visitor came via Google Paid, Oribi will display “Google Paid” as the referring channel.