Configuration
Smart Fields Explained
SourceTag’s smart fields are the four contextual fields that give you the most useful breakdown of each channel. They’re the fields most people use day to day for reporting and CRM segmentation.
Each channel has four smart fields: detail_1, detail_2, detail_3, and detail_4. These exist for both first click (st_fc_detail_1 through st_fc_detail_4) and last click (st_lc_detail_1 through st_lc_detail_4).
Why smart fields are context-dependent
The data in each smart field changes depending on the channel. This is by design. Different channels have different types of useful data:
- For Paid Search, the most useful breakdown is the ad platform, the campaign name, the keyword, and the ad variation.
- For Organic Search, the most useful data is the search engine domain and the referrer URL.
- For Referral, all you have is the referring domain and URL.
- For Direct, there’s no attribution data at all.
Rather than leaving fields blank when there’s no UTM data, SourceTag maps the most relevant available data into the smart fields for each channel.
Default smart field mapping
The table below shows what each smart field contains for every default channel. These are the out-of-the-box settings.
| Channel | Smart Field 1 | Smart Field 2 | Smart Field 3 | Smart Field 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid Search | utm_source (e.g. google) | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Paid Social | utm_source (e.g. facebook) | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Display | utm_source | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Paid Video | utm_source | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| utm_source (e.g. mailchimp) | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content | |
| Affiliates | utm_source | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Other Campaigns | utm_source | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Organic Social | Referrer domain (e.g. Facebook) | utm_campaign | utm_term | utm_content |
| Organic Search | Referrer domain (e.g. Google) | Referrer URL | utm_term | utm_content |
| Referral | Referrer domain | Referrer URL | (not set) | (not set) |
| Direct | (not set) | (not set) | (not set) | (not set) |
Reading the table
Take Paid Search as an example. If a visitor arrives via:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer-sale&utm_term=running+shoes&utm_content=ad-v2The smart fields would be:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
st_fc_detail_1 | |
st_fc_detail_2 | summer-sale |
st_fc_detail_3 | running shoes |
st_fc_detail_4 | ad-v2 |
And st_fc_channel would be “Paid Search”.
Now take Organic Search. A visitor arrives from a Google search with no UTM parameters:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
st_fc_detail_1 | |
st_fc_detail_2 | https://www.google.com/ |
st_fc_detail_3 | (not set) |
st_fc_detail_4 | (not set) |
And st_fc_channel would be “Organic Search”.
Why Organic Social uses referrer domain in Smart Field 1
When someone clicks through from a social media post without UTM parameters, there’s no utm_source to populate. Instead, SourceTag puts the referrer domain brand name (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, X) in Smart Field 1. This gives you meaningful data to segment by, even without UTMs.
If the social post does include UTM parameters, the visitor will match a paid channel instead (like Paid Social), and Smart Field 1 will contain the utm_source value.
Why Referral only uses two smart fields
Referral traffic has no UTM parameters by definition (if it had UTMs, it would match a campaign-based channel). The only data available is the referrer domain and URL, so Smart Field 3 and Smart Field 4 are empty.
Why Direct has no detail data
Direct traffic has no referrer and no UTM parameters. There’s nothing to put in the smart fields. The channel value (“Direct”) is the only attribution data available.
Customising smart field mappings
You can change what data goes into each smart field for any channel. This is done in the channel editor in your SourceTag dashboard.
- Go to your site’s Channels page
- Click on the channel you want to customise
- Each smart field has a dropdown showing all available data sources
- Select the data source you want for each field
- Save your changes.
Available data sources
The dropdown for each smart field includes these options:
utm_sourceutm_mediumutm_campaignutm_termutm_content- Referrer domain
- Referrer URL
- None (empty)
The default option for each channel is marked with “(Default)” in the dropdown.
When to customise
Most users keep the defaults. They’re designed to give you the most useful data for each channel. But you might customise if:
- You use
utm_contentmore heavily thanutm_termand want it in a more prominent field - You want landing page data in a smart field for a specific channel
- You’ve created a custom channel and need to map its smart fields to match your UTM structure
Detail fields vs raw UTM fields
Detail fields and raw UTM fields serve different purposes:
- Detail fields are contextual. They contain the most relevant data for each channel, regardless of whether that data comes from a UTM parameter or a referrer.
- Raw UTM fields (like
st_fc_source,st_fc_campaign) always contain the literal UTM parameter values. If there are no UTMs, they’re empty.
You can enable both. The raw UTM fields are available as an extended field group in the Fields page. See Captured Fields for details.
Naming in your CRM
When creating CRM fields for the smart fields, use descriptive labels like:
- “ST FC Smart Field 1 (Source/Platform)” for
st_fc_detail_1 - “ST FC Smart Field 2 (Campaign)” for
st_fc_detail_2 - “ST FC Smart Field 3 (Term/Keyword)” for
st_fc_detail_3 - “ST FC Smart Field 4 (Content/Ad)” for
st_fc_detail_4
This helps your team understand what the fields contain without needing to check the channel mapping every time.
Doesn't answer your question or need more help? Get in touch.