Why is source/medium data from some ads is collected as “facebook.com/referral”?

When an ad URL does not contain UTM tags or there are errors that prevent you from tracking the traffic source correctly, OWOX BI automatically sets the default values for the required source/medium parameters.

For Facebook ads, these default values are "facebook.com/referral."

If the collected ad data contains errors, you'll see this alert in the data import history on the pipeline page and in Data Monitoring:image_96.png

How to fix these errors

1. Check if the tags are correct

Check the ad's URL: does it contain the "utm_source" and "utm_medium" tags? A their values correct?

About UTM parameters in Facebook Help

2. Check if Facebook ad account has access to the pages where the ads are published

UTM tag errors can appear when an ad is published on a page on which the Facebook ad account you use as a data source doesn't have access to content editing. For example, a private Facebook community.

Access to such ads is also denied via Facebook API, so OWOX BI can't get data from the ad's URL — instead we get a "PRIVACY_CHECK_FAIL" error.

To fix this error, your account needs to get access to the Facebook page on which the ad is published.

After that, the source/medium information for this ad will be updated the next time OWOX BI updates the imported data.

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