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What are unclassified campaigns?

In Piano Analytics, we favor a tag-first approach, and marketing campaigns require a minimum of two properties to be correctly processed: src_medium and src_campaign.

If we collect src_campaign with an empty or missing src_medium property associated with it, the source will still be considered a marketing traffic source but classified as Unclassified Campaign. The source type is only defined by the property src_medium.

Why Unclassified Campaigns Happen

Unclassified campaigns typically occur when one of the required marketing source properties is not populated at collection time, most commonly:

  • src_campaign is present but src_medium is empty or missing.

  • The underlying URL parameters do not provide a medium value (for example, utm_medium is missing), so src_medium cannot be derived or mapped.

Because src_medium determines the traffic source type, a missing src_medium prevents the campaign from being categorized into a specific medium-based classification.

How to Reduce Unclassified Campaigns

Ensure your tagging includes a medium

If you rely on UTM parameters, make sure campaign links consistently include a medium value (for example, utm_medium) so that src_medium can be populated.

Use a processing rule to populate src_medium when it is missing

If you have situations where utm_medium is not reliably present, you can use a processing rule to set src_medium based on another available parameter (such as utm_source) when src_medium is empty.

A common approach is:

  • Condition: if src_medium is empty and utm_medium is empty and utm_source is not empty

  • Action: set src_medium = utm_source

  • Optional: apply a mapping table to replace src_medium with a standardized value when a match is found (for example, converting partner-specific values into your internal medium taxonomy).

Important Notes

  • Processing rules are not retroactive. They only apply to events collected after the rule is created or updated. Existing data already collected as Unclassified Campaign will not be reprocessed automatically.

  • If you standardize or map values into src_medium, ensure your mapping logic aligns with your reporting needs, since src_medium drives the source classification.