Dodolytics

Sources, referrers, and campaigns

Where your visitors come from, and how UTM tags work.

Three reports tell you where your visitors come from. Each visit is counted for the way it started.

Sources

Open Sources in the sidebar. Each source belongs to one of nine channels:

  • Direct: no referring site, for example a typed address or a bookmark. Links from your own domain and its subdomains count as Direct too.
  • Organic Search: search engines such as Google or Bing.
  • Social: social networks.
  • Referral: any other website that links to you.
  • AI: AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to its links; Dodolytics knows that tag too.
  • Email, Paid, Affiliate, and Other: set by the utm_medium of a tagged link (see below).

The Channels card shows the share of each channel. Click a channel to show only its sources. Click Clear filter to see all again. To filter every report by a channel, use the Channel filter.

Referrers

Open Referrers in the sidebar to see the exact sites and pages that sent visitors. The Top hosts card groups them by site. Click a host to show only its links.

Some sites and apps do not send referrer information. Their visitors show as Direct, unless the link has UTM tags, a ref tag, or an ad click ID. See Track ads and referral links.

Campaigns and UTM tags

Add UTM tags to the links that you share, so that Dodolytics knows where each visit came from. For example: 

https://example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale
  • utm_source: who sent the visit, for example newsletter or twitter.
  • utm_medium: the type of link. This sets the channel.
  • utm_campaign: the name of your campaign.
  • utm_term and utm_content are recorded too.

Which utm_medium gives which channel

  • Paid: cpc, ppc, paid, paidsearch, paid-search, paidsocial, paid-social, display, banner, ad, ads
  • Email: email, e-mail, newsletter
  • Social: social, social-media, social-network, sm
  • Affiliate: affiliate, affiliates, partner, partners
  • Organic Search: organic
  • Referral: referral, with a utm_source
  • Other: any other value

Capital letters do not matter in utm_medium.

The Campaigns report

Open Goals in the sidebar, then the Campaigns tab. Each row is one campaign, with its source, medium, visitors, sessions, pageviews, and conversions.

Related articles

Previous Pages Next Track ads and referral links

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