Glossary

Definitions for every attribution and app-specific term used in these docs and in the console.

Attribution noun

The process of identifying which marketing channel or source brought a visitor to your site. "First-touch attribution" means the source of their very first visit gets the credit — there is no weighted distribution across multiple touchpoints.

Attribution Coverage Insights metric

The percentage of sessions assigned to a classifiable channel. High Direct share with no UTM parameters is the most common cause of low attribution quality.

Beacon technical

The JavaScript file added to your site's footer. It fires on every page load and sends the visitor's referrer, landing URL, page path, page title, and viewport category to your installation.

c_ parameter aliases tracking

Shorter, privacy-resilient URL parameters that serve as fallbacks when standard UTM parameters are stripped by browser privacy tools. The three aliases are c_src (fallback for utm_source), c_med (fallback for utm_medium), and c_cam (fallback for utm_campaign). Standard UTM parameters always take precedence. See also: UTM parameters, Short link.

Channel classification

The category the classifier assigns to a session based on its referrer and UTM parameters. The nine channels are: AI Referrer, Paid Search, Paid Social, Email, Organic Social, Organic Search, Internal, Referral, and Direct. The classifier works through these in priority order — the first match wins.

Classifier technical

The server-side logic that reads a session's referrer domain and UTM parameters and assigns it to a channel. Runs on your server at the moment a beacon hit arrives.

Click count Links metric

The number of times a short link has been followed. Incremented atomically on each redirect. Displayed in the Links tab alongside each short link.

Conversion noun

An outcome linked to a session — a sale, a signed contract, a lead, or any event you consider valuable. Recorded either automatically via a conversion rule or manually in the Conversions tab. See also: Conversion rule, Real revenue, Estimated revenue.

Conversion rule Pro feature

A URL pattern rule that automatically records a conversion against a session when a visitor reaches a matching page. Rules match on the page path using "contains", "starts with", or "equals" logic. One auto-conversion per rule per session is enforced.

Direct channel

Traffic with no referrer — visits from typed URLs, bookmarks, or links in apps and messages that strip the referrer header. High Direct traffic usually means links are not tagged with UTM parameters, or traffic is arriving from messaging apps. Using UTM parameters or short links on campaign links is the fix.

Engagement signal session attribute

A flag indicating whether the visitor clicked through to at least one more page after their first touch. Set to "engaged" the moment a second beacon hit arrives for the same session token. Visible in the Engaged column in Reports and in the Engagement Rate card on the Dashboard.

Engagement rate Dashboard metric

The percentage of sessions where the visitor clicked through to at least one additional page. A measure of traffic quality. See also: Engagement signal.

Estimated revenue conversion type

A conversion value recorded when the actual amount is not yet confirmed. Always shown separately from real revenue and never added to it.

First-touch attribution model

The attribution approach used by Refer App. The channel and source that sent the visitor on their very first page view receives full credit for any conversion recorded against that session.

Health Score Insights metric

A score from 0 to 100 summarising the overall quality of your attribution setup. Calculated from Attribution Coverage, UTM Completeness, AI Taxonomy Activity, and Conversion Tracking (25 points each).

Ingestion endpoint technical

The server-side URL that receives every beacon hit. If you rename the refer-app folder, this URL changes and the beacon script must be updated to match.

Internal traffic channel

Sessions where the referrer is the same domain as the tracked site. With the self-referral exclusion enabled in Settings, Internal sessions are not recorded.

Organic Search channel

Traffic from a search engine with no paid-search UTM signal. Recognises Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, and other major search engines.

Page depth Insights metric

The number of pages a converting visitor viewed between their first touch and their first recorded conversion. Used in the "How People Convert" panel in Insights.

Paid Search channel

Clicks from search engine ads, identified by utm_medium=cpc, utm_medium=ppc, or utm_medium=paid.

Real revenue conversion type

A conversion value recorded against a confirmed transaction. Always shown separately from estimated revenue.

Referral channel

Traffic from any website that is not a known search engine, social network, email provider, or AI tool, and has no UTM signal overriding the classification.

Referrer technical

The URL of the page a visitor was on before arriving at your site. Some browsers, privacy tools, and link sources strip the referrer — traffic that arrives with no referrer is classified as Direct.

Session noun

A single visit by one browser to your site, defined by the session cookie window. All page views within the session window are grouped together. Attribution is determined by the first page view (first-touch).

Session Journey Reports feature

An expandable inline view of every page a visitor touched during their session, in chronological order with the time between each step. Available for sessions with more than one page view. Click the Touches count in Reports to expand.

Session token technical

A random identifier stored in the visitor's session cookie that groups page views from the same visit together. Contains no personal information.

Short link Pro feature

A branded redirect URL in the format yoursite.com/go/{slug} that redirects to a destination URL with campaign parameters appended server-side. Browser privacy filters cannot strip the parameters because the redirect happens before the destination page loads. See also: Slug, c_ parameter aliases.

Slug Links

The identifier in a short link after /go/. In yoursite.com/go/summer-launch, the slug is summer-launch. Slugs must be unique and can contain letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores.

Taxonomy match classification field

The human-readable label assigned when a referrer domain matches an entry in the AI Taxonomy. For example, a visit from chat.openai.com produces a taxonomy match of ChatGPT.

Touches Reports column

The total number of page views recorded within a session. Sessions with more than one touch show a clickable count that expands the Session Journey view.

UTM parameters tracking

Query string parameters added to URLs to provide attribution context. The five standard parameters are utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, and utm_content. Refer App also supports c_ aliases as fallbacks when UTM parameters are stripped by privacy browsers.

UTM Completeness Insights metric

The percentage of sessions that have at least one UTM parameter. Low UTM Completeness means marketing links are not tagged, causing traffic to fall back to Direct even when it came from a specific campaign.

Viewport category session attribute

A coarse device classification recorded at first page view: mobile (under 768px), tablet (768-1023px), or desktop (1024px and above). Visible in the Device column in Reports and the Visitors by device section on the Dashboard.

White Label Pro feature

A Pro feature that replaces the default Refer App branding on the Branded Report with your own agency name, logo, and footer text. Applies only to the client-facing PDF report, not the console.