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FAQ - Tracking Links, Sub IDs, Referrer Bonus, API
Why is the Original Referrer in my reports missing?
Why is the Original Referrer in my reports missing?

Conversions or clicks show no exact path (no referrer) or often just an origin (the main URL).

Updated over a week ago

The reason for this is privacy restrictions from browsers. However, this information can be of great use for Affiliates to optimize their traffic. In this article we recommend a few actions on how to make your reports more accurate and get back more detailed referral information.

Use case 1 - For website owners only

The Referer HTTP header from your website allows us (Clickfire/Thomann) to identify, from which of your page (path), users are visiting from. The referer header can contain origin, path and query string. With the Referrer-Policy you control what information is sent through the header and it delivers the information about the original referrer in your click and conversion reports. However, it can happen only portions or none of your url can be seen in reports. The structure of your website and/or new browser versions (Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc.) can lead to such results. As privacy restrictions and protection are getting stricter every year, website owners still have the option to send their referrer along clicks leading to the advertiser site (Thomann). Here are two suggestions for wordpress.

Action 1: To see the whole path and referrer information use in <a> elements:

referrerpolicy=”unsafe-url”

Send the origin, path, and query string when performing any request, regardless of security.

Example:

<a href="https://www.thomann.de/intl/orange_micro_dark.htm” referrerpolicy="unsafe-url">Any link text</a>

Action 2: If the whole path is not what you are looking for, no further action is required. However, if the origin is still missing in your reports make sure to have no “no-referrer” link attributes set in your anchor tags, <meta> or http header.

You also might set a meta tag, for example:

<meta name=”referrer” content=”origin”>

or in an <a> element:

<a href="https://www.thomann.de/intl/orange_micro_dark.htm” referrerpolicy="origin">Any link text</a>

For more information on Referrer Policy please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy

Also note that this relies on a browser specific implementation, not every browser is supporting it - for more information visit https://caniuse.com/referrer-policy

Use Case 2 - YouTube / Social Media Channels

For this use case we recommend using our sub ids along with your tracking parameters. However, YouTube or Social Media Platforms decided not to forward any referrer information despite the origin. This means you will not see the exact path from these URLs in our reports and there is no way on how to change that.

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