One of the most common issues that we come across happens when an e-commerce website has a payment portal that temporarily redirects the user to a third-party site to process their payment, then brings them back to the website again to confirm their order.
The issue?
The original source of the traffic is lost, because the user’s session is ended when they leave the main site to go to the payment portal, and a new session is started when they return and see the order confirmation screen. This means that when looking at Conversions in Google Analytics, the traffic source of the conversion is listed as the payment portal website.
This means that if you’re spending lots of money on marketing campaigns (e.g. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc), you can’t attribute those sales back to your ad spend because the original referrer information has been lost and the payment portal is incorrectly credited with the conversion.
The fix is (usually) a relatively simple one – updating the Referral Exclusion List in Google Analytics. This means that any domains added here will be ignored by Google Analytics – so a minor detour to a payment portal will not end the user session and create a new one, meaning that the original referrer information is retained.
Note: there’s no need to add subdomains here, any domain added here will automatically include subdomains.
It’s important to ensure this is updated often as new payment methods and platforms are increasingly becoming available to customers so if you haven’t checked your Referral Exclusion List recently, it might be a good idea to do so.
How do I know if I need to update my Referral Exclusion List?
Look at your conversion reports, add a secondary dimension for the source/medium and if anything looks like a payment portal or banking website, you should almost certainly add it.
Once this is done, you’ll be able to accurately see the true source of traffic generating your sales and conversions on your site.
Having problems updating your Referral Exclusion List? Not sure what to add? Get in touch, we’re always happy to help.
Posted by
Michael Wilson
Michael is the Digital Analytics Director at GlowMetrics, implementing complex tracking for our largest clients via Google Tag Manager while leading our wider analytics work across Google Analytics, Data Studio and Optimize
Read more from Michael WilsonBrowse by Category
- Social Media
- SEM
- SEO
- Google Ads
Digital Marketing
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Opimize
Digital Analytics
Optimise your website and marketing campaign performance with Ireland’s leading digital analytics agency
Sign up to our newsletterEnjoyed reading this article? Find more like it below…
Posted by
Conor Ross
Jan 14th 2020
Google Data Studio
3 min read
Using Hyperlinks in Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio is absolutely packed with features, and it can take a while to get accustomed to the number of tools at your disposal. There are many features that...
Posted by
Conor Ross
May 11th 2021
Google Data Studio
6 min read
Page Navigation Options in Google Data Studio
The structure and layout of your Google Data Studio dashboards are massively important aspects of data visualisation, as these provide the framework for users to navigate your reports. There’s no...
Posted by
Joanne Kearney
Nov 11th 2022
Digital Analytics Insights
6 min read
Migrating to GA4 and GA4 Reports for eCommerce
This week I was speaking at e-Commerce Unpacked conference in Dublin - just in time for Black Friday! During the session I discussed the key differences in GA4 vs Universal...
Leave a Reply