# Campaigns and channels (https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/kampagnen-und-kanaele)

For example, someone from the purchasing team of a beverage maker clicks your Google ad for industrial steam boilers. In the profile, the visit then shows as **Google Ads** with the sublabel **Paid Search** and the campaign chip `dampfkessel-2026`. The visit row doesn't show the ad's cost or click numbers, only the route of the visit.

## Where a visit comes from [#where-a-visit-comes-from]

1. **A visit arrives**: Someone opens your website through a link with UTM parameters, an ad, or another website.
2. **Find the origin**: Webmetic reads source, medium, and campaign from the address and the referring website.
3. **The first page counts**: The values of the first page view apply to the whole visit.
4. **Show the channel**: The visit row shows the channel label and the campaign chip.

For each visit, Webmetic stores these values:

- **Source**: Where the visit comes from, for example `google`, `linkedin`, or a website's host name. Webmetic stores the source in lower case.
- **Medium**: The type of route, for example `cpc` for ads, `organic` for search results, or `referral` for links from other websites.
- **Campaign**: The value of `utm_campaign`. Without it, a visit has no campaign.
- **Term**: The value of `utm_term` or the search word that a search engine passes on.
- **Content**: The value of `utm_content`, for example for two variants of an ad.

Campaign, term, and content keep their upper and lower case. If someone arrives through a new campaign link during a visit, a new visit starts. For details, see [Visits and page views](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/besuche-und-seitenaufrufe).

## Order of evaluation [#order-of-evaluation]

For each page view, Webmetic checks the clues in this order, and the first match wins:

1. **UTM parameters** in the address, meaning `utm_source` and `utm_medium`. If the medium is missing, Webmetic takes it from an ad's click ID, and without a click ID it sets `(none)`.
2. **An ad's click ID**, for example `gclid` from Google Ads, `msclkid` from Microsoft Ads, `fbclid` from Facebook, or `li_fat_id` from LinkedIn. Webmetic then sets the ad platform as the source and `cpc` as the medium.
3. **Referring website**: A search engine gives the medium `organic`, a social network or an email service the matching medium. Any other website gives `referral` with its host name as the source.
4. **No clue**: The visit counts as direct, for example for a typed-in address or a bookmark.

## Channels in the visit row [#channels-in-the-visit-row]

From source, medium, and click ID, the dashboard builds a channel label with a sublabel below it. The channel names appear in English in both languages.

| Channel | Sublabel | When it appears |
|---|---|---|
| **Google Ads** | **Paid Search** | Click ID from Google Ads, or source Google with medium `cpc` or `paid` |
| **Microsoft Ads** | **Paid Search** | Click ID from Microsoft Ads, or source Microsoft or Bing with `cpc` or `paid` |
| **Facebook Ads** | **Paid Social** | Click ID from Facebook, or source Facebook with `cpc` or `paid` |
| **LinkedIn Ads** | **Paid Social** | Click ID from LinkedIn |
| **LinkedIn** | **Paid Social** or **Social** | Source LinkedIn, paid with `cpc` or `paid` |
| **ChatGPT Ads** or **ChatGPT** | **Paid AI** or **AI Referral** | Source ChatGPT or OpenAI, paid with `cpc` or a medium that starts with `paid` |
| **Taboola** | **Native Ads** | Click ID from Taboola |
| **Google Organic** | The search word or **Organic** | Source Google with medium `organic` or no medium |
| **Bing Organic** | **Organic** | Search result from Bing. Other search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or Ecosia appear with their name and "Organic" |
| **Facebook**, **Instagram**, **Twitter**, **YouTube**, **TikTok**, **Reddit** | **Social** | Links from these networks |
| **Newsletter** | **Email campaign** | Medium `email`, or the source contains "newsletter" or "email" |
| **Referral Traffic** | The referring website's host name | Links from other websites |
| **Direct Traffic** | **Direct visit** | No clue about the origin |

The dashboard treats click IDs and the medium values `cpc` and `paid` as paid, and for ChatGPT also any medium that starts with `paid`. The channel label only appears in the visit rows. [ICP Analytics](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/icp-analytics), by contrast, assigns each company to the pair of source and medium that occurs most often in the period and shows it as "google CPC" or "linkedin". So the channel and its name can differ there.

## Campaign chip and UTM parameters [#campaign-chip-and-utm-parameters]

Next to a visit row's events sits the campaign chip with a tag icon. It shows the campaign, otherwise the term or the content, and is missing for visits without these values. For visits from a search engine, the search word can appear in the chip as the term.

1. Open a company's visits view.
2. Point at the campaign chip with your mouse. Webmetic opens the **UTM parameters** tooltip.

The tooltip lists every value the visit has: **Source**, **Medium**, **Campaign**, **Term**, and **Content**. It hides placeholders in brackets such as "(direct)" or "(none)". Webmetic shows the chip only on a large screen.

![The visits view with several channels and the UTM parameters tooltip on the dampfkessel-2026 campaign chip](https://webmetic.de/docs/media/en/light/kampagnen-sitzungen.webp)

## UTM search [#utm-search]

With the UTM search, you find all companies in the list that visited your website through a specific campaign:

1. Under **Search companies**, click the mode at the right of the search field, which reads **Name** at first.
2. Select **UTM**.
3. Enter a value, for example `dampfkessel-2026`. The list shows the companies with at least one matching visit in the selected date range.
4. Open a company and its visits view. Under **In selected date range**, you see only the matching visits.

![The search in UTM mode with the value dampfkessel-2026](https://webmetic.de/docs/media/en/light/filter-suche-utm.webp)

These rules apply to the search:

- You enter one value per search, for example a source, a medium, or a campaign. Webmetic searches source, medium, campaign, term, and content.
- If the value contains `-` or `_` and no space, it must match a stored value exactly. So `dampfkessel-2026` finds only that campaign.
- Otherwise, every word must appear in the same field, in any order.
- Upper and lower case don't matter for the search.
- If a segment is active, the field searches names only.

You can't search for the channel label itself, for example **Paid Search**. [Filters and search](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/filter-und-suche) explains all search modes.

## UTM parameters for paid campaigns [#utm-parameters-for-paid-campaigns]

For the dashboard to recognize a paid campaign as paid, set `utm_medium=cpc` or `utm_medium=paid`. Other values such as `paid_social`, `ppc`, or `display` don't count as paid for most channels.

A link like `your-website.com/products?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=waermerueckgewinnung` appears as **LinkedIn** with **Paid Social** and the chip `waermerueckgewinnung`. Webmetic recognizes ads with a click ID even without UTM parameters, but the chip shows a campaign only if the link contains `utm_campaign`.

Don't put UTM parameters on links within your website. Otherwise, every click on such a link starts a new visit.

## Limits [#limits]

- You can't define your own channel rules or channel names.
- Webmetic doesn't offer a generator for UTM links.
- The visit row doesn't show a campaign's cost or success.
- If someone moves between two of your domains, Webmetic doesn't connect the visits.

## Next steps [#next-steps]

- [Visits and page views](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/besuche-und-seitenaufrufe): Read a company's visits with channel, timeline, and Lead Insights.
- [Filters and search](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/filter-und-suche): Search the list by name, path, or UTM value.
- [Recorded events](https://webmetic.de/docs/en/visitor-intelligence/erfasste-ereignisse): Look up which actions the tracking code records.