How to set up Nudge Traffic Sources

Nudge Traffic Sources are an excellent way to split and compare different sources against each other. Nudge uses various methods for defining the Source that each view on your content has come from and then breaks those down to show which sources are performing the best based on People, Attention Mins and Bounce Rate. 

Out of the Box

By default, Nudge will classify all traffic by using the most common identifiers.

• Website domain from where the user came from i.e. publisherwebsite.com
• Social referrers i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc
  
  
  

If you are already using Google UTM tags, specifically the utm_source tag, Nudge will show this if no other Nudge tags are found present. These will always be shown in the dashboard with ‘- UTM’ appended to make it easy to distinguish.

Nudge Traffic Source tags

Nudge has two main URL tags that can be used to define your traffic sources. 

Source
The source tag is the most commonly used tag and provides a simple ‘one tag solution’ allowing you to specify where your traffic has come from.

To use the source tag, add ndg_source URL parameter to your traffic drivers.

Label
The label tag is designed to give you an extra layer of flexibility  in defining your traffic and is best used in conjunction with the ndg_source tag.

To use the label tag, add ndg_label URL parameter to your traffic drivers.

If you are unsure how to implement URL tags / parameters, the simplest method is to use the Traffic Source Builder tool found in the Nudge Dashboard.

1. From anywhere in the dashboard, click the Profile Icon in the top right and select Traffic Source Builder 
   
   
   
   
2. Select Nudge Tags 
   
   
   
   
3. Input a the URL for the content you are sending traffic to in the URL field.
4. Input a Source and / or Label i.e ad network and ad size.
5. This will give a URL including the appropriate URL tags all added correctly. You can copy this directly to your ad set up by using the copy button.
   As you use the builder tool, you will see a preview of how it will show in the dashboard live.
   Nudge will always try to use the ‘Source - Label’ layout, however if either is missing, then only the one used will show. E.g. if you only use ndg_source, this would show by itself without the ‘- Label’. And vice versa.

Example

http://giveitanudge.com/this-week-in-native-ads-2018?ndg_source=Google%20Infeed&ndg_label=300x200
This would show in the Traffic Source table as Google Infeed - 300x200 as seen in the image above. 

Existing Tags - No Longer Supported

Although we always recommend using the Nudge Traffic Souce tags, if you already have existing ads running or cannot update your URLs to include extra Nudge tags, then we recommend you use our Existing Tags feature.

This is part of the Traffic Sources Builder and allows you to tell Nudge about any existing tags you are already using on your content.

For example, let’s say you already have your own custom URL tags that you’ve set up to work with another analytics platform. Changing these could be hard in some cases, instead you can add let Nudge know what tags these are Nudge will look out for them and use those instead.

Here’s how they work…
A URL parameter can have one or two parts, a Key and / or a Value.

I.e ndg_source=Google, where ndg_source is the Key and Google is the Value.

By using the Existing Tags builder, you get the greatest flexibility in defining your traffic sources, including the ability to read and understand your existing tags.

Some examples of how this can be used:

https://www.yourwebsite.com/your/content/?nudge=blog
https://www.yourwebsite.com/your/content/?fb=video
https://www.yourwebsite.com/your/content/?fb

Troubleshooting

My direct traffic seems too high

• High direct traffic to content is unlikely to occur. So if it does, it can be a red flag.
• The likely cause is an ad platform, redirect or click tracker is removing the traffic parameters and referrer.
• Use the Nudge Traffic Source Builder, to create your sources and add the parameters to all inbound traffic sources.

Note: This can also be an indicator of advertising fraud. If in doubt you can request a Nudge engineer to evaluate the sources. Please lodge a ticket within the dashboard.

If a large amount of the direct traffic is mobile (simply use the dashboard filters to verify this) it could be in-app traffic. The fix is the same, to append traffic parameters to the inbound sources.

My traffic sources aren't showing up

This typically means either the parameters aren't showing up OR the Nudge code isn't on the page.

The best way to debug this, is to find an ad unit/traffic source and click on it.

• Once you arrive on the content and it has finished loading.
• Copy the URL in your browser toolbar.
• Paste it in to a text editor.
• Can you see your Nudge parameters in the URL?
• If not, neither can Nudge. You need to investigate your traffic driver setup and/or any click trackers aren't removing the parameter.
• If you can:
• Is this a custom parameter? Please check your Traffic Source Builder is configured correctly.
• If this is a regular Nudge parameter, please check your dashboard in 30 minutes