APIs & Integrations

Fraggle
Member

[Bug ?] Source tracking issue if no referer is set

Hi,

After a lots of hours investigating, I figured that if no referer is sent to the hubspot servers when tracking with JS code, then the source is always OFFLINE no matter what. If I use the form api to create the contact laster and pass the hs_context correctly, I can see the previous traffic beeing added to the contact but the source is also wrong (in that case Direct Traffic if I pass a pageUrl).

It's not indicated in the doc and it seems like a bug to me if I look at this:

How does HubSpot categorize sessions, contacts, and customers in the sources...

HubSpot analyzes each visit to your website and applies a series of rules to determine the marketing source of the visit.

We had the issue because we are enforcing a same-origin referer policy.

Can you investigate and let me know ?

Thanks,

Sebastien

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3 Replies 3
IsaacTakushi
HubSpot Employee
HubSpot Employee

[Bug ?] Source tracking issue if no referer is set

Hi @Fraggle,

Per my last message:

Isaac Takushi

Associate Certification Manager
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IsaacTakushi
HubSpot Employee
HubSpot Employee

[Bug ?] Source tracking issue if no referer is set

Hi @Fraggle,

The Original Source value Offline Sources only applies to contacts created manually, through an import, via the Contacts API, or on a form while browsing on a filtered IP.

On the other hand, if a visitor is created through a form, lead flow, collected form, or the Forms API without a referrer and/or page view information in the hs_context parameter, then they will be categorized under Direct Traffic, per rule 13 in this article's table.

If you're seeing contacts bucketed with unexpected Original Source values, please send me links to a few of these contacts and clarify which Original Source values you would expect them to have.

Isaac Takushi

Associate Certification Manager
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Fraggle
Member

[Bug ?] Source tracking issue if no referer is set

Hi Isaac,

Thanks, I know and I read the article before :slight_smile:
I still think there is a bug.

From the linked article:

HubSpot uses two methods to identify the source of a session on your website.

  1. The first is by looking for a tracking URL, which is a parameter that can be added to the end of a link to your website. A tracking URL might look something like this:
    http://www.hubspot.com?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=xyz .
  2. The second is by the referrer, which is the information passed along when someone clicks on a link from another website to your website. The referrer is the original site that contained the link to your website. If someone clicks on a link on cnn.com to start a session on http://www.hubspot.com , then the referrer is cnn.com .

When determining the source of a session, HubSpot will honor the tracking URL first. If there is no tracking URL, HubSpot will honor the referrer. If there is no tracking URL or referrer, HubSpot will categorize the session under direct traffic.

In my case, the session start with utm tracking parameters (sorry it wasn't stated in my original post). According to the doc, the fact that there is or not a referer shouldn't matter.
What is certain is that If I don't send a referer, my contact lose his (utm) source informations when createed. If I DO send a referer, then the contact has the correct source information from the utm params.

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