Channel Mapping in Channel99 allows you to accurately attribute visits to the correct channels and vendors. By using query parameters, UTM parameters, and referral domains, Channel Mapping helps ensure your traffic is classified correctly for reporting and optimization.

This guide walks you through how Channel Mapping works, how to edit rules, and how priority affects your data.

Where to Find Channel Mapping

Channel Mapping is located in the Settings menu under the Channel Mapping tab.

This tool is primarily used to map visits to the correct channels and vendors based on:

• UTM parameters

• Query parameters

• Referral domains

Note: If you have integrated a vendor directly with Channel99, you may not need to create Channel Mapping rules. Most integrated vendors use tracking templates that allow Channel99 to automatically track ads without additional setup. Channel Mapping is especially useful for non-integrated vendors, so let’s continue.

Default Rules and Editing Mode

Channel99 includes over 80 default rules that act as seed vendor definitions. If your tracking is already working as expected, you can leave these rules as-is.

If you need to update existing rules or add new vendor mappings:

1. Use the search field to check whether a vendor already exists.

2. If updates are needed, click the Edit button to the left of the search field.

3. Once editing begins, the page will lock for all other users and you will enter editing mode.

This prevents conflicts while rules are being updated.

Understanding Tracking Fields

Channel Mapping rules can be built using several tracking fields:

• Medium – Looks specifically at the utm_medium parameter

• Source – Looks specifically at the utm_source parameter

• Custom Parameter – Searches any part of the query string

• Referral Domain – Tracks traffic coming from specific referring websites

If you are not using UTM parameters, the Custom Parameter field is recommended, as it provides a flexible way to classify visits as long as a query parameter exists.

Rule Logic: ANDs and ORs

When building Channel Mapping rules, it’s important to understand how logic is applied:

• Within a single cell: Channel99 uses OR logic

• Between different cells: Channel99 uses AND logic

Example

• In the Medium cell, entering Display, Banner means:

  • UTM Medium contains Display OR Banner

• In the Source cell, entering Google, Adwords, Google-Ads, Paid means:

  • UTM Source contains Google OR Adwords OR Google-Ads OR Paid

When combined, this rule will classify visits where:

• UTM Medium contains Display OR Banner
  AND

• UTM Source contains Google OR Adwords OR Google-Ads OR Paid

Once you understand how OR logic works within cells and AND logic works between cells, building rules becomes much more intuitive.

Setting Rule Priority

Before saving your changes, there is one final and critical step: Priority.

Because rules can overlap, conflicts are sometimes unavoidable. Channel99 uses the Priority field to determine which rule takes precedence when multiple rules match the same visit.

1. Assign a priority value to each rule.

2. Higher-priority rules will override lower-priority ones.

3. Once priorities are set, click Save and Run at the top of the page.

Important: Saving and running rules retroactively reprocesses your data. This process typically takes 4–6 hours before changes appear in platform reporting.