Acquisition
The Web Analytics Acquisition page shows which campaigns, linking sites and Google Search pages bring readers who stay, and which lose them.
The Web Analytics Acquisition page shows which sources bring readers who stay and which sources lose them quickly. Use it to spend your effort on the campaigns and sites that keep people.
Before you start
- Install the Web Analytics script. See Analytics script. Without the script, the page shows Install Web Analytics to see which sources bring readers who stay.
- Verify the domain. See Verify ownership.
- In the sidebar, select Web Analytics > Acquisition.
- Select the dates in the filter dock. The default is Last 28 days. This page has no comparison, and it counts whole days in UTC.
- For the card From Google Search to reading, connect Google Search Console. See Search Console.
VitalSentinel calculates the Acquisition reports in advance, so the page has no refresh button. If you select other dates or add filters, the reports calculate when you open the page.
Sources verdict
The Web Analytics Acquisition page starts with one sentence about your sources:
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Your campaigns and referring sites keep their readers | No campaign is far above your site's bounce rate |
| A campaign loses most of its visitors after one page | One or more campaigns lose most visitors |
| A linking site sends readers who leave without reading | One or more sites send readers who do not engage |
| Some Google clicks never show up as a visit | Google clicks do not match tracked visits |
| Some pages Google sends readers to are not read | Readers from Google leave without reading |
| No campaign or linking site to judge yet | Only Google data arrived so far |
| Not enough traffic data yet to judge your sources | No campaigns, sites or Google clicks yet |
If a problem has a cost, a second line says The biggest problem costs and the amount. The ? shows the rule: a campaign or site is flagged when its bounce rate is 25 points more than your site and it has 100 or more visits.
If Web Analytics found problems, a banner such as Acquisition: 2 open issues shows. Click it to see them in Site Health.
Tiles
Two Web Analytics Acquisition tiles follow the verdict:
- Your site's bounce rate: the share of visits that ended after one page. Every campaign and linking site is compared with this figure. If the period has no visits, it shows No visits in this period.
- Visits from tagged campaigns: how many visits had a campaign tag, and their share of all visits.
A tagged visit is a visit whose link carried utm_campaign, utm_source or utm_medium.
Campaigns by visits and bounce rate
The Web Analytics card Campaigns by visits and bounce rate lists each tagged campaign. If you have no tagged campaigns, the card does not show.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Campaign | The campaign tag in the link (utm_campaign) |
| Source / medium | Where the visits came from and the kind of link, such as newsletter / email |
| Visits | How many visits came through this campaign |
| Left after one page | The share of visits that ended after one page. Hover the bar to compare with the whole site |
| Purchases | Orders in visits from this campaign (only if your site has purchases) |
| Conv. rate | The share of campaign visits that ended in a purchase |
| Revenue | The money from those orders. Hover for the average order |
Purchases counts only visits that VitalSentinel can follow to a source. For this reason, Ecommerce can show more orders.
If your site has no purchases, the card shows See what each campaign earns. Click Set up shop tracking to open Ecommerce.
Sites that send readers
The Web Analytics card Sites that send readers lists the websites that send readers to yours. It has the tabs All sites and Rising. Rising lists sites that send more readers than in the previous period of the same length. The Rising tab shows only if at least one site is rising.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Referrer | The website that sent the readers |
| Visits | How many visits came from this site |
| Left without engaging | The share of visits where the reader did not scroll and stayed only a moment |
| Change | How visits changed since the previous period. New means the site sent none before |
| Active time | The average time per visit that the reader was active |
| Conv. rate | The share of visits that ended in a purchase (only with purchases) |
| Revenue / visit | The average revenue per visit (only with purchases) |
Left without engaging uses only the visits that sent an engagement reading. Hover the figure to see the share of one-page visits that VitalSentinel measured.
If the comparison period has no data, the Change column and the Rising tab do not show.
From Google Search to reading
The Web Analytics card From Google Search to reading shows which pages Google sends readers to, and if they read them. It needs Google Search Console. Without it, the card shows See which Google searches bring readers who stay and the button Connect Google Search Console.
The card sorts the pages into tabs: Clicks not read, No visits matched, Barely shown, Readers stay and Little reading. A tab shows only if it has pages. The tab All pages lists every page with Google clicks.
The ? of the card gives the rules for the tabs. A page gets clicks with 50 or more Google clicks. A page is read when readers spend 15 seconds active or scroll 40% on average. Pages with under 20 tracked visits are not judged. No visits matched lists pages with 50 or more Google clicks but no tracked visit.
Columns
The columns are:
- Page.
- Google clicks: clicks from Google Search to this page in the period.
- Tracked visits: visits on your site that started on this page.
- Active time, Scroll depth and Bounce.
- Group: the group of the page. The group uses the same fixed rules as the tabs.
| Group | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Readers stay | 50 or more Google clicks, and visitors read the page |
| Clicks not read | 50 or more Google clicks, but visitors do not read the page |
| Barely shown | Under 50 Google clicks, but visitors read the page. Google shows it little |
| Little reading | Under 50 Google clicks, and visitors do not read the page |
| No visits matched | 50 or more Google clicks, but no tracked visit started on this page |
| Not judged | Under 20 tracked visits, no reading measured, or under 50 Google clicks with no tracked visit |
The ? also shows Google clicks matched to a visit: the share of Google clicks that VitalSentinel found as a tracked visit. Pages with clicks but no tracked visit show No tracked visit started on this page.
If more than 200 pages have Google clicks, the tiles count only the 200 pages with the most clicks. The tab All pages has the full list.
Below the card, the tiles Pages by clicks and reading count the pages in each group of the Group column.
Troubleshooting
Why is the campaigns card missing?
The card shows only campaigns with a tag in the link. If your links have no utm_campaign, utm_source or utm_medium, the card does not show. Add campaign tags to the links in your emails and ads.
Why does Acquisition show fewer purchases than Ecommerce?
Acquisition counts only orders from visits that VitalSentinel can follow to a source. Ecommerce counts all orders. If the gap is large, the ? of the campaigns card shows Incl. unattributed: the revenue of all orders, also the orders without a known source.
Why does "Some Google clicks never show up as a visit" appear?
Google counted clicks that did not arrive as tracked visits. If the script is missing on some pages, add it. Ad blockers and visitors who leave before the page loads also cause a gap.
Why is the From Google Search to reading card empty?
If Google Search Console is not connected, connect it. If it is connected, your pages may have too few clicks or visits in the period. Select a longer date range.
Related
- Overview - channels, sources, referrers and campaigns for any date range
- Conversions - which sources bring conversions
- Trends & Anomalies - when your traffic changed
- Google Search Console - clicks and positions in Google
- Search Console - connect Google Search Console
