I have a site that is sending me visitors with a referrer in the query string (example.com/refer=bob for example). I do not have control over the string sent, but it's always the same.
If the referred visitor purchases on that visit, I can see in my dashboard that they came from that source.
Is there a way in Google Analytics (it's the only tool I have access to) to somehow tag that user so that if they come back later as a direct visitor, the original referral can still be credited?
So my ideal flow (assuming the user didn't just buy on first visit) would be:
- User visits my site at example.com/refer=bob
- User tagged as referred by bob
- User leaves site
- Next day user visits site direct with no refer in the query string
- User buys something
- I can see in Analytics that the purchase was associated with the refer
I don't care about the actual "tagging" method, all I want to get to is step 6
I've tried Googling, but as I'm not sure what this would be called, I'm coming up with nothing.