09Reports
Sources and channels
How Gauss works out where a visit came from: referrer, UTM tags and the fact of an ad click, channel rules, search engines, social networks and direct traffic.
Every visit in Gauss gets one source and one channel: “Search”, “Social”, “Paid” and others. This page explains which data they come from and which rules apply.
The dashboard is in closed beta. You can apply on beta application.
What the source is based on
With the first pageview the tracker sends three things:
| What | Example | What is stored |
|---|---|---|
| Referrer — the site the visitor came from | https://t.me/ | Only the origin (protocol and domain): the tracker cuts the path and parameters of the external page before sending |
| UTM tags from the page URL | ?utm_source=telegram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=oct_promo | All five tags: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content |
| Ad click parameter | ?gclid=…, ?yclid=…, ?fbclid=… | Only the fact of the click. The value is replaced with 1 in the browser, the server turns it into an ad click flag, and the parameter itself is removed |
The tracker removes all other URL parameters before sending. How to tag links — UTM tags and click IDs.
The source of a visit is the source of its first event. If someone arrives via a UTM link and then opens five more pages, all of them belong to the same campaign. Moves within your own site are not counted as a source.
Channel rules
Rules are checked from top to bottom, and the first match wins.
| Channel | Rule |
|---|---|
| Paid | utm_medium is one of cpc, ppc, paid, paidsearch, paid_social, display, cpm; or the URL had an ad click parameter (gclid, yclid, fbclid, msclkid and others) |
utm_medium=email, or the referrer is a known webmail client | |
| Search | the referrer is a search engine |
| Social | the referrer or utm_source is a social network or messenger |
| Referral | any other external referrer |
| Direct | no referrer and no UTM |
Because the utm_medium rules come before the referrer rules, link tagging matters more than what the browser reports as the referrer. A visit from Google search through an ad link with utm_medium=cpc goes to “Paid”, not “Search”.
Ad click parameters the tracker recognizes: gclid, gbraid, wbraid, dclid, yclid, ysclid, fbclid, msclkid, ttclid, li_fat_id.
Examples
| How the visitor arrived | Channel |
|---|---|
| From Google results, no tags | Search |
From an ad: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc | Paid |
From a link with ?gclid=… and no UTM | Paid |
From a Telegram channel (referrer https://t.me/) | Social |
From a newsletter: ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email | |
| From an article on another site | Referral |
| Typed the address or opened a bookmark | Direct |
Search engines and social networks
Search engines include Google, Yandex, Bing, DuckDuckGo and others. Social networks and messengers include Telegram, VK, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and others.
Coming soon. A separate “AI assistants” channel for visits from AI assistants and AI search. The domain list will be updated without a new tracker release.
Direct traffic
“Direct” covers visits with no referrer and no UTM. It is not only bookmarks and typed addresses. Browsers often don't pass a referrer when a link is opened from a messenger, an email app or a document. To keep these visits out of “Direct”, add UTM tags to every link you publish yourself.
Another reason is the attribution model. Gauss does not connect visits from different days: the visitor identifier lasts one day. If someone clicked an ad and left a lead three days later after returning via a bookmark, the conversion goes to the channel of the visit where it happened — “Direct”. More on this — Methodology. To link a CRM deal to the original lead, use offline events.
What the reports show
- channels;
- referrer domains;
- UTM: source, medium, campaign, term, content.
Each breakdown can be used as a filter in other reports — see Metrics. Conversion value and cost per lead by channel and campaign — in Conversions and e-commerce.
What Gauss does not store
- the full URL of the external page the visitor came from — only the domain;
- click ID values — only the fact of an ad click;
- URL parameters other than UTM.