What is referral? In web analytics, referral is traffic that lands on your site after a user clicks a link on another (non-search, non-ad) domain. In most tools, the source is the referring hostname and the medium is “referral”. This classification exists across GA4 as well as privacy-first tools like Plausible, Matomo, and Simple Analytics. […]
What is UTM? UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are short tags you append to a URL to make campaign traffic measurable and comparable across analytics tools. They answer “Where did this visit come from?” and “Which Campaign drove it?” UTMs work in GA4, but also in privacy-friendly platforms like Plausible, Matomo, and Simple Analytics. Proper
What is Measurement Protocol? Measurement Protocol is a server-to-server way to send analytics data directly from your backend, jobs, or devices to an analytics platform—without a browser hit. In web analytics, it’s best known from Google Analytics 4 (GA4), but the idea exists across tools (e.g., Matomo’s HTTP Tracking API, Plausible’s Events API, Simple Analytics’
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What is User Flow? User Flow is the sequence of steps a person takes across your product—from entry to exit—during a single session. It visualizes screens or pages visited (e.g., pageview or screen view) and the events between them, highlighting where users continue, loop, or drop off. Tools like GA4, Matomo, Plausible, and Simple Analytics
What is Tag Management? Tag management is the practice of deploying, governing, and versioning marketing and analytics tags (small JavaScript snippets and pixels) from a central system—usually called a tag manager. Instead of hard-coding multiple vendor scripts into your site or app, you load one container and use configuration to fire tags that measure Pageview,
What is BigQuery? BigQuery is Google Cloud’s fully managed, serverless data warehouse for analytical SQL at scale. It’s built to crunch petabytes quickly without you provisioning clusters, patching, or worrying about storage engines. For web analytics teams, BigQuery becomes the “single source of truth” where raw event streams (site/app events, ad platform exports, CRM, product
What is Attribution? Attribution is the method used to assign credit for a Conversion to the marketing touchpoints that influenced it. In plain terms: when a user converts, attribution answers “which ad, email, or pageview helped, and by how much?” It underpins decisions about budget, creative, and channel strategy, and impacts metrics like ROI, LTV,
What is Macro-Conversion? A macro-conversion is the primary outcome your site is built to drive—think a completed purchase, paid subscription, or qualified lead submission. It’s the moment a visitor becomes a customer or high-value lead, distinguishing it from a Micro-Conversion (smaller steps like newsletter sign-ups or add-to-cart). In reporting, a macro-conversion is a specific type
What is CPM? CPM (Cost per Mille) is the price you pay for 1,000 ad impressions. It’s the go-to pricing model for display, video, and programmatic inventory when your goal is reach rather than clicks or conversions. In analytics reports, CPM helps you benchmark media efficiency across networks and formats, and it pairs well with
What is Event? In web analytics, an event is any tracked user interaction recorded by your analytics platform—e.g., a button click, form submit, file download, or video play. Events are the atomic units behind KPIs like Engagement Rate, Conversion, and Real-Time Data. Modern tools (GA4, Matomo, Plausible, Simple Analytics, and others) model nearly everything as
