Traffic sources
Traffic sources in the Marketing area (Acquisition) — route /marketing/traffic-sources.
Traffic sources lives in the Marketing area of the dashboard, under Acquisition.
At a glance#
| Dashboard route | /marketing/traffic-sources |
| Area | Marketing (marketing) |
| Group | Acquisition |
| Platforms | Web apps only. Hidden for mobile apps. |
What it does#
Traffic sources is the web-native acquisition view — the replacement for Install sources on web, because a website has sessions rather than installs.
Web sessions are grouped two ways: by classified channel, following your own channel grouping rules, and by source/medium. The data comes from the attribution touchpoints the web SDK records — referrer, UTM parameters and landing page — classified server-side at ingest.
When to use it#
As the first acquisition page for a web product. It answers where traffic comes from with your own taxonomy rather than a generic one, which is what makes the channel numbers usable in a conversation.
Classification happening at ingest matters practically: it means the channel is stored with the session, so filtering other reports by channel is fast and consistent.
Workflow#
Read channel first, source/medium second
Channel is your own taxonomy and is the level decisions are made at. Source/medium is the raw signal underneath it.
Check that classification matches your intent
A large "other" or "direct" share usually means rules are missing rather than that traffic is genuinely direct.
Investigate direct traffic sceptically
Direct is where every lost referrer ends up — app-to-web clicks, some email clients, anything stripping the referrer. It is almost never as large as it appears.
Follow a channel into landing pages
Landing pages carries the acquisition dimension, so you can read one channel's entry pages and conversions.
Permissions and prerequisites#
Web apps only. Requires the web SDK, which captures referrer, UTM and landing data automatically.
Limits and edge cases#
Classification is your rules' output. Changing them changes this report, including retroactively.
Referrers are lost more often than people expect. Privacy policies, apps, and some email clients strip them; those sessions become direct.
UTM tagging is your responsibility. Untagged paid traffic is indistinguishable from organic referral traffic.
Sessions, not people. One person visiting three times is three sessions, potentially attributed differently each time.
Troubleshooting#
Direct is enormous. Missing referrers and untagged campaigns. Tag your links; the referrer loss is not fixable.
A channel is missing. No rule matches its traffic — add one in channel grouping.
Numbers differ from an ad platform. Different definitions and different attribution windows. Compare trends.
Where the data comes from#
Reads the attribution touchpoints the web SDK records (referrer, UTM, landing), classified server-side at ingest through this org’s channel rules.
From the SDK
Served by
Dashboard
SDK ingestion