How to group traffic sources into custom channels?
Usermaven provides you with the flexibility to create custom channel groupings, allowing you to define your own channels or merge existing ones to suit your analytical needs. This guide will walk you through the process of creating a custom channel grouping step by step.
Understanding channel mappings
By default, Usermaven categorizes traffic sources into predefined channels like Organic Search, Paid Search, Referrals, Direct, etc. While these are helpful, custom channel groups let you map your utm parameters, first url and referrer information into a custom channel.
For instance, you might want to separate traffic from your certain campaigns from regular email marketing. Or, perhaps you want to group all social media traffic together, regardless of the specific platform (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Creating a custom channel mapping
Here's a step-by-step guide on creating a custom channel group in Usermaven:
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Navigate to Channel Mapping dashboard by visiting Workspace Settings and Channel Mapping and click on the "Add a Custom Channel" button.
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Give your Channel a name. Remember, only alphanumeric characters and spaces are allowed. For example, let's say we want to combine organic search and paid search into one channel called "search."
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Next, specify the conditions for your custom channel. For instance, you can define conditions based on UTM sources, UTM mediums, campaign URLs, or referrals. Here’s what each of them mean:
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UTM source: This parameter tells us where traffic originates from. Commonly tracked sources are Google, Facebook, Bing, Linkedin, and Email list. E.g., utm_source=Google, utm_source=OctNewsletter.
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UTM medium: This enlightens us on the type of traffic we receive since now we know the origin of traffic in the source. Commonly used ones are PPC, paid_social, social, organic, email, referral, and so on. E.g., utm_medium=ppc, utm_medium=email.
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UTM campaign: If you want to track an individual campaign’s performance, then this is the parameter that will help you. It’s commonly used to measure the performance of Facebook, Emails, and any other such campaigns on a platform. E.g. utm_campaign=blackfriday22, utm_campaign=halloween22.
Additional parameters from here onwards are all optional but can be very helpful with attribution and drawing rich insights from your data.
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Page URL: This is the original URL of the webpage you want users to visit.
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Referral: Filter traffic based on the referring domain (e.g., traffic referred from "log.io").
You can also add conditions not listed in the dropdown menu. Moreover, For each custom channel, define the conditions that will determine if a traffic source belongs to that channel. You can use multiple conditions to create more specific groupings. For example, a condition might be "UTM Source contains 'facebook.com' and Medium equals 'referral'" to capture all referral traffic from Facebook.
- Once you've defined your custom channels and their conditions, save the channel group. This new group will now be available for use in your Usermaven reports.
CChannel priority, editing and deleting a channel mapping
The priority of channels determines how they are calculated. Channels with higher priority will be considered first. For example, if a source matches conditions for multiple channels, it will be attributed to the channel with the highest priority. You can easily change the order if you press and hold a specific channel and then move it to the desired position.
Moreover, you can edit existing channels or remove them from the group if needed.
Viewing custom channel mappings
After creating your custom channel mappings, you can view them in the web analytics section. Here, you'll see a list of your custom channels along with their sources. You can also filter data by custom channels across various sections of the workspace, such as funnels and attribution.
Conclusion
Creating custom channel groupings in Usermaven provides you with the flexibility to tailor your analytics to suit your specific needs. By defining your own channels and setting conditions, you can gain deeper insights into your traffic sources and make more informed decisions.
