Google Analytics 'Appears' to be ignoring campaign attribution

Question

I'm using universal analytics with the userId feature.

I create a new clean browser session and hit my site with the following parameters set:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=mysource&utm_medium=mymedium&utm_campaign=mycampaign&utm_term=myterm&utm_content=mycontent

In short, a userId is generated, stored in a cookie, and analytics is loaded and a pageview hit sent with the userId attached.

I see correct attribution for source/medium/campaign in the real time view.

However, later, when I use the "User Explorer" inside Analytics to inspect the session with above userId, I see the Campaign value set to "mycampaign", which is correct, but Source/Medium is set to "(not set)"

Should Source/Medium not be set to something like "mysource/mymedium" ?

Any advice would be appreciated

Answer 1

Check your http/https redirection and make sure nothing is lost, sometimes it drove me crazy in the past with Analytics.

I'll do a little experiment:

1. Create a unique medium/source for the test.
2. Go to Analytics > real time and select the medium you just created.
3. Now, go to content tab. You should see the page you are in (and you alone cause the medium previosly selected).
4. Browse trhough the site. You should always see in real time the page you are in. If not, there is a problem on that specific page that is forcing the source/medium to none.

Maybe that can help you to identify the real problem in your site.

Answer 2

I had the exact same problem than you and spent days analysing some of my clients User Explorer reports, segmenting by sessions with campaigns correctly attributed via utms.

The net result was: the "Source / Medium" dimension on "User Explorer" reports are never correct, so I think it's a bug. What I do is previous segmenting my sessions by the campaign (utms) I'm interested, then I analyse the "User Explorer" report, completely ignoring those "(not set)" values.