Hi Juli,
We set up additional UTM parameters using the "fm_utm_medium", etc. We then built code that then holds the cookied value within these fields for a longer period of time, these fields then write to our original utm fields (utm_medium, etc.). This helps solve the issue of utm values dropping off as they move from page to page.
There are still situations where the person could drop of the utm values off the URL.
Here's the code we implemented:
<script>
/*
* BEGIN CAPTURE UTM PARAMETERS FROM FIRST TOUCH AND LAST TOUCH
* Copyright (c) 2017, Yanir Calisar, Tel Aviv, Israel (ycalisar at gmail.com)
*
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this code and associated documentation files, to deal in the code without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the code.
* The user assumes responsibility for determining appropriate use of the code, for consequences of its use, and for checking functionality against other reliable sources.
* We suggest citation in publications as with any code developement work. No warrantee is given.
* Please help improve the code by sending suggestions or new code back.
*/
(function() {
var STORE_COOKIES = true;
var STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE = true;
function topDomain() {
var i, h, top_level_cookie = 'top_level_domain=cookie', hostname = document.location.hostname
.split('.');
for (i = hostname.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
h = hostname.slice(i).join('.');
document.cookie = top_level_cookie + ';domain=.' + h + ';';
if (document.cookie.indexOf(top_level_cookie) > -1) {
document.cookie = top_level_cookie.split('=')[0] + '=;domain=.'
+ h + ';expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:01 GMT;';
return h;
}
}
}
var utmCookie = {
cookieNamePrefix : "__lt_",
cookieCumulativePrefix: "__cu_",
cookieNameFirstTouchPrefix : "__ft_",
utmParams : [ "utm_source", "utm_medium", "utm_campaign", "utm_term",
"utm_content" ],
cookieExpiryDays : 365,
// From http://www.quirksmode.org/js/cookies.html
createCookie : function(name, value, days) {
if(STORE_COOKIES) {
if (days) {
var date = new Date();
date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
var expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
} else
var expires = "";
document.cookie = this.cookieNamePrefix + name + "=" + value
+ expires + ";domain=." + topDomain() + "; path=/";
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) this.createLS(name, value);
},
createLS: function(name, value){
localStorage[this.cookieNamePrefix+ name] = value;
},
readCookie : function(name) {
if(STORE_COOKIES) {
var nameEQ = this.cookieNamePrefix + name + "=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' ')
c = c.substring(1, c.length);
if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0)
return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length);
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) this.readLS(name);
else return null;
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) this.readLS(name);
},
readLS: function(name){
var val = localStorage[this.cookieNamePrefix + name];
if(val == undefined) return null;
else return val;
},
checkIfFirstTouch : function() {
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) {
var nameEQ = this.cookieNameFirstTouchPrefix + "utm_source=";
var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
for (var i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
var c = ca[i];
while (c.charAt(0) == ' ')
c = c.substring(1, c.length);
if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0)
return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length);
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) this.readLS(this.cookieNameFirstTouchPrefix + "utm_source");
else return null;
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) this.readLS(this.cookieNameFirstTouchPrefix + "utm_source");
},
eraseCookie : function(name) {
if(STORE_COOKIES) this.createCookie(name, "", -1);
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) delete localStorage[name];
},
getParameterByName : function(name) {
name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\\]");
var regexS = "[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)";
var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
var results = regex.exec(window.location.search);
if (results == null) {
return "";
} else {
return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
}
},
utmPresentInUrl : function() {
var present = false;
for (var i = 0; i < this.utmParams.length; i++) {
var param = this.utmParams[i];
var value = this.getParameterByName(param);
if (value != "" && value != undefined) {
present = true;
}
}
return present;
},
writeUtmCookieFromParams : function() {
for (var i = 0; i < this.utmParams.length; i++) {
var param = this.utmParams[i];
var value = this.getParameterByName(param);
if(STORE_COOKIES) this.createCookie(param, value, this.cookieExpiryDays);
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE) localStorage[param] = value;
}
},
writeCookieOnce : function(name, value) {
if (STORE_COOKIES && !this.readCookie(name)) {
this.createCookie(name, value, this.cookieExpiryDays);
}
if(STORE_LOCAL_STORAGE && this.readLS(name) == null){
this.createLS(name,value);
}
},
writeReferrerOnce : function() {
var value = document.referrer;
if (value === "" || value === undefined) {
this.writeCookieOnce("referrer", "direct");
} else {
this.writeCookieOnce("referrer", value);
}
},
referrer : function() {
return this.readCookie("referrer");
}
};
if (!utmCookie.checkIfFirstTouch()) {
utmCookie.cookieNamePrefix = utmCookie.cookieNameFirstTouchPrefix;
utmCookie.writeReferrerOnce();
if (utmCookie.utmPresentInUrl()) {
utmCookie.writeUtmCookieFromParams();
}
utmCookie.cookieNamePrefix = "__lt_";
}
utmCookie.writeReferrerOnce();
if (utmCookie.utmPresentInUrl()) {
utmCookie.writeUtmCookieFromParams();
}
})();
/* END CAPTURE UTM PARAMETERS FROM FIRST TOUCH AND LAST TOUCH */
</script>
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