Skip to content
HubSpot Facts

How traffic is categorized into each source

HubSpot follows a set of rules to categorise traffic into a specific source, and checks the full page URL and the referring domain, if available, against these rules. They are applied in this order:

Order
Rule
Source
1

The "utm_medium" parameter is “social” and the "utm_source" is exactly the name of a recognized social network.

OR

The "utm_medium" parameter is "social" and the referring domain is a social media site.

Organic social
2 The "source" parameter contains the word “adword”, “ppc”, or “cpc”. Paid search
3 The "source" parameter contains the word “adword”, “ppc”, or “cpc”. Paid search
4

The "utm_medium" parameter contains "paid," "ppc," or "cpc", and the "utm_source" parameter is exactly the name of a recognized social network.

OR

The "utm_medium" parameter contains "paid," "ppc," or "cpc", and the referring domain is a social media site.

OR

The "utm_source" or "utm_medium" contains "paidsocial".

Paid social
5 The "utm_source", "utm_medium", or "utm_campaign" parameter is present and the referring domain is google.com. Paid search
6 The "utm_source", "utm_medium", or "utm_campaign" parameter is present and contains the word "adword," "ppc," or "cpc". Paid search
7 The "utm_source", "utm_medium", "utm_campaign", or "source" parameter contains the word “email”. Email marketing
8 The "utm_source", "utm_medium", "utm_campaign", or "source" parameter is present and does not contain the word “email”, “adword”, “ppc”, or “cpc”. Other campaigns
9 Referring domain is a social media site. Organic social
10 Referring domain is a mail domain or RSS reader. Direct traffic
11 Referring domain is a search engine. Organic search
12 The referring domain is considered internal traffic based on the listed site domains in reports settings. None
13 Referring domain is not a social media site or search engine. Referral
14 No referring domain or tracking URL. Direct traffic