Hi Mixpanel Community! I’m trying to track UTM parameters for non-logged-in (anonymous) users. However, it seems that UTM parameters are not being recorded as user properties for anonymous users. Is there any way to store UTM values as user properties for anonymous users as well? Or, alternatively, is there a recommended way to view UTM data for anonymous users in Mixpanel (for example, as part of events or in another accessible form)? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
🎫 thank you!
Hey, If you're using auto track, you can use the Pageview event, and that should contain the utm parameters. Until unless a user is identified, the user property does not get stored a lot of times.
Thank you for the clarification. I understand that UTM parameters are tracked on events, but they do not get stored as user properties unless the user is identified. I exported Pageview events as a CSV and shared them with our marketing team, but what they are looking for is to have UTM-related data stored as user properties even for anonymous users. (Their goal is to make it easier to aggregate and visualize UTM performance in charts.) However, if I identify anonymous users just to store UTM data as user properties, I’m concerned that this will create a large number of new user profiles, which might distort our overall user metrics. Could you let me know if my understanding is correct? Also, is there any recommended or effective way to store UTM information as user properties for anonymous users without inflating the number of user profiles? Thank you again for your help.
Hey, I don't think there's a way for you to store UTMs for anonymous eusers. But, you can take the 1st instance of a pageview event for every user, and then build charts using properties. It should be the same as what you would've done with user properties. Does that make sense?
Ansh A. Hi, I’m on the same team as 태수 and I’m following up on this question while he’s unavailable. Thanks again for the suggestion! I understand your point about using the first Pageview event to build charts based on event properties instead of relying on user properties. However, I’m concerned that this approach may not fully work for our use case. For our marketing team, UTM data needs to be handled similarly to user properties because that’s how their current reporting and aggregation workflows are structured. If we rely only on Pageview events, it would require them to significantly change their existing processes, and some of the aggregated views they need can’t be easily replicated using event-level data alone. In that sense, relying solely on Pageview events might not provide the flexibility they need. Given these constraints, it seems difficult for us to adopt the Pageview-only approach. One idea we considered was identifying anonymous users with a generated distinct ID (while not attaching any real user data), so that our marketing team could still filter based on whether a “user_id” exists or not, and then later merge the IDs once the user logs in. What do you think about this approach? (Although I know the documentation generally advises against this.) I only read the docs yesterday, so please keep in mind that my understanding of the MP service is still limited.
Hey 이승현, Its generally not advisable to identify the user as soon as they land on the website, but if that's the only thing that solves for your use case, go for it. Identify users as soon as they land on the website, and then identify again when they sign up with real user ID and merge these 2 profiles.
