Most store owners can tell you which channel brings the most orders. Far fewer can tell you which channel brings the customers who keep coming back. Those are rarely the same channel \u2014 and the difference decides where your marketing budget should go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since version 8.5, WooCommerce records where each order came from. Here’s how to make that data useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a visitor lands on your store, WooCommerce notes how they arrived \u2014 the referring site, search engine, or campaign \u2014 and saves it on the order if they buy. Each order gets a source type (such as organic search, referral, UTM campaign, direct or admin), plus the source, medium, campaign, landing page and device type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s last-touch attribution: the visit that led to the purchase gets the credit. That’s simple and useful, but it’s worth knowing the limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of these make the data useless \u2014 they mean you should compare channels against each other over time, rather than treating any single number as exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
facebook<\/code>, not Facebook<\/code> one week and fb<\/code> the next.<\/li>\n\n\n- Keep the roles consistent:
utm_source<\/code> is where (newsletter, instagram), utm_medium<\/code> is the type (email, social, cpc), utm_campaign<\/code> is the specific campaign.<\/li>\n\n\n- Never tag links between pages of your own site \u2014 it overwrites the original source.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Rank Channels by Customer Value, Not Order Count<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The real insight comes from looking past the first order. For each channel, ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- How much do customers from this channel spend over their lifetime?<\/strong> A channel with fewer orders but twice the lifetime value can be worth far more.<\/li>\n\n\n
- How many come back?<\/strong> Customers from organic search and email often return more than customers from a one-off promotion.<\/li>\n\n\n
- Which landing pages convert best?<\/strong> A blog post that consistently brings first orders is worth updating and promoting.<\/li>\n\n\n
- Which devices do they use?<\/strong> If most of your orders are on mobile, your checkout’s mobile experience deserves the most attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Attribution Reports Ready-Made in SaleTides<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
SaleTides uses WooCommerce’s attribution data to build an Order Sources report for revenue and orders by channel, campaign and landing page, a Customer Sources report that credits each customer to the source of their first order, and a Devices report. Every figure links through to the exact orders behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n