Every visit to your shop is assigned to a channel. Visits that did not come from one of your marketing channels end up as Organic or Direct. The difference lies in what the browser tells Tracify about where the visitor came from.
In this article
How Tracify assigns a channel
Tracify checks three things in this order:
Tracking parameters in the URL: Tracify parameters such as
trc_mcmp_idor UTM parameters identify the channel, for example Meta, Google or Email.Referrer: If there are no parameters, the browser usually tells us the website the visitor came from, for example a search engine or a blog. The visit is counted as Organic.
No information: If there are neither parameters nor a referrer, the visit is counted as Direct.
Organic traffic
Organic visits come from another website without a paid push from your side. Typical sources:
Search engine results (SEO)
Organic social media posts, for example Instagram stories or TikTok posts
Referring websites such as blogs, review sites, forums or press articles
Price comparison sites, deal sites and affiliate links without parameters
đĄ Tip: If one of these sources matters to you, for example an affiliate network or a price comparison site, give it its own channel with URL parameters: Set up URL parameters for custom channels
Direct traffic
Direct visits arrive without any information about the source. Typical cases:
The visitor types your URL or uses a bookmark
The browser suggests your shop while typing
A link was opened from an app, a messenger or an email client that does not pass a referrer, for example WhatsApp or a text message
A link in an email or a QR code without parameters
Word of mouth usually shows up as Direct for this reason: the friend sends a link, and the app passes no referrer.
Why Direct is high at the start
Tracify only knows touchpoints from the day the tracking script went live. A customer who clicked your ads before that and comes back later looks like a direct visitor. In the first weeks after the start, Direct is therefore higher than it will be once Tracify has seen complete customer journeys.
How you reduce Organic and Direct
Tag every link you control: newsletters and automations with the email parameters (How do I set up Emarsys and other email tools?), WhatsApp links with the WhatsApp parameters, influencer links through the Influencer module (How to create influencer tracking links).
Set up custom channels for affiliates, partners, print and QR codes.
Do not tag internal links: links between pages of your own shop must not carry parameters, otherwise every click would start a new touchpoint.
âšď¸ Note: In the preset AI - All Touchpoints, Organic and Direct receive credit like every other touchpoint. In AI - Paid Media their credit is redistributed to the paid touchpoints of the same journey: How do included touchpoints influence your attribution data?