Auto-Populate Source/Medium Documentation

Overview

The Auto-Populate Source/Medium feature automatically sets utm_source and utm_medium parameters based on the detected traffic source and organic source string. This is particularly useful for tracking organic and referral traffic without manually setting UTM parameters.

How It Works

Server-Side Tracking

When enabled, the plugin will:

Set utm_source to the value of organic_source_str cookie

Set utm_medium to the value of traffic_source cookie

Client-Side Tracking

The traffic source is determined as follows:

Paid: When fbclid, gclid, or msclkid parameters are present

Organic: Traffic from search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo)

Social: Traffic from social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

Direct: When no referrer is present or internal traffic

Referral: All other external traffic sources

Configuration

Admin Settings

The feature can be enabled/disabled through the HandL UTM Grabber settings page under the "Options" tab.

Value Mapping

Traffic sources are mapped as follows:

utm_medium will be set to one of:

Paid

Organic

Social

Direct

Referral

Other

utm_source will be set to the specific source:

Google

Bing

Yahoo

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Direct

Internal

etc.

Usage Examples

Tracking Organic Search Traffic

When a visitor comes from Google search:

utm_medium = "Organic"

utm_source = "Google"

Tracking Social Media Traffic

When a visitor comes from Facebook:

utm_medium = "Social"

utm_source = "Facebook"

Tracking Referral Traffic

When a visitor comes from a blog that linked to your site:

utm_medium = "Referral"

utm_source = [referring domain]

Important Notes

The feature only sets UTM parameters if they're not already present

Values are stored in cookies for consistent tracking across sessions

Respects GDPR settings and cookie consent

Works with both server-side and client-side tracking

Compatible with the plugin's custom parameter feature

Troubleshooting

If UTM parameters are not being set:

Verify the feature is enabled in settings

Check if cookie consent is required and granted

Verify no conflicting UTM parameters are present in URLs