Bringing back utm_nooverride functionality to Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics removed the utm_nooverride=1 functionality, still we can define a list domain referrals to be treated as direct visits within our properties configuration section, but what about when we can’t control the source domains?, for example for emailings, or some display campaign that we don’t want to override our users original attribution?.

We’re going to use Google Tag Manager, so bring back this functionality to our implementations.

First we need a Variable to read if is there a querystring parameter named utm_nooverride and that it’s value.

Ok, this variable will hold the value “1” when the utm_nooverride parameter is present. Now we’re going to use it to force the “dr” (document referrer) parameter just under that situation.

For that we’re going to need an extra Custom JavaScript variable with the following code on it:

Let’s be lazy!, you can copy this little piece of code below:

function(){
  if({{QS - utm_nooverride}}=="1"){
      return document.location.origin;
  }else{
      return document.referrer;
  }
}

We’re almost set, now we want to force our pageview tag to use this last created variable for the “referrer” field.

We’re done!, now if the utm_nooverride parameter is present on the landing page, Google Tag Manager will send the current domain name as a referrer, forcing that new visit to be threated as direct traffic.

UPDATE: I don’t recall if the override had preference over campaign parameters, if you know about it, please drop a comment :). Else I’ll be checking it on the next days.