How to merge different referral tracking definitions.
In addition to setting attribution parameters via the URL, landing pages and redirects can be created with explicitly defined referral values. This can be useful for things like partner pages where you always want a certain set of attribution parameters attached to the visitor. Or with a vanity redirect for a TV ad where you want to track the referral source, but redirect to an existing landing page.
When setting referral parameters on a landing page or redirect, you can also define the methodology you would like to use to merge any supplied URL params into the default referral. There are four methodologies for merging URL params into a defined referral.
The default value is fallback.
| Methodology | Description |
|---|---|
| fallback | If any URL parameters are set, only the URL parameters will be considered. If all URL parameters are blank, the referral parameters defined on the object will be used. No parameters will be merged: either the referral attributes from the URL will be used or the referral attributes defined by the object. |
| strict | Will ignore any referral parameters supplied via the URL and will only use the referral parameters defined by the object itself. |
| merge-all | The referral parameters defined on the object will be used as the default values. Any referral parameters provided in the URL will overwrite any of these default values. |
| merge-unset | Only the referral parameters not explicitly set by the object can be set by the URL. This allows you to create a default set of values that cannot be overwritten, but with the flexibility to allow some customization (e.g., a landing page that will always track to an affiliate channel, but the exact affiliate will be identified via a URL parameter). |