Traffic Sources Mappings
Traffic Sources | Definition | Traffic Mediums |
Direct | Direct is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via a saved link or by entering your URL. | — |
Display | Display is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via display ads, including ads on the Google Display Network. | — |
Email is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links in email.
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Search | Search is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links in organic-search results or ads on search-engine sites like Bing, Baidu, or Google. |
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Social | Social is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links or ads on social sites like Facebook or Twitter. |
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Referral | Referral is the channel by which users arrive at your site via non-ad links on other sites/apps (e.g., blogs, news sites). |
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Internal | Internal is the channel by which users arrive at your site via other articles from the same or other Conde Sites. | — |
Google Discover | Google Discover is the channel by which users arrive at your site via Google Discover which is one of Google's services, available only to smartphone users via the Google mobile app and in the Chrome browser (on Android phones). | — |
ChatGPT | ChatGPT is the channel by which users arrive at your site via referrals or interactions originating from the ChatGPT platform (e.g., links shared or clicked within ChatGPT conversations). | — |
Note: There is a known issue where traffic from Google Discover leaks into the Search bucket due to the absence of a clear referrer. Since Discover traffic often originates from google.com without a referrer, most analytics platforms—including Beacon—identify Discover visits primarily by the presence of the Android app referrer. All remaining google.com traffic is typically attributed to Search. However, this approach results in leakage because not all Discover traffic comes through the Android app; it also includes traffic from iPhones and increasingly from desktop, which may not be properly recognized. More documentation available here.
If you have any further questions or queries about Beacon please feel free to go through the Beacon help section .
For further assistance please write to Beacon team at - beacon-help@condenast.com .