# Custom Channel Settings ## Overview Custom channel settings is a feature that allows you to freely define the sources of traffic to your website. Based on custom URL parameters used in advertising campaigns and other sources, you can classify specific traffic as any channel you want and analyze it. ## Benefits of This Feature **Accurate Measurement of Results**: You can accurately measure traffic from advertising media that cannot use utm parameters and other sources with custom parameters. **Streamlined Data Analysis**: By distributing traffic that would otherwise be classified as 'No Referrer' and similar categories to your intended channels, your reports become easier to understand. **Flexible Grouping**: You can group multiple campaigns and traffic sources according to your objectives and manage and analyze them centrally. ## Common Use Cases This is useful when you want to measure access from URLs with custom identification parameters (e.g., `gcid`) issued by a specific advertising platform as a single traffic channel. **(Example) When measuring traffic from advertising platform B** **Situation**: All URLs from traffic via advertising platform B have a custom parameter `gcid=xxxx` appended. **Challenge**: As is, the traffic source is not properly classified, and you cannot accurately understand the effectiveness of advertising platform B. **Solution**: By setting a rule in the custom channel feature that 'access containing `gcid` in the URL is traffic from advertising platform B', you can confirm the results together in your reports. ## Custom Channel Identification Rules Campaign: Identified by utm parameters. Search Engine: Identified through search engine dictionary. Referrer: Domain identified through referrer. No Referrer: Cases that do not match any of the above. Also, in one visit, traffic can only be classified into one channel group according to the matching group priority, and if matching succeeds, it will be classified. If traffic is not covered by the default channel groups, Ptengine classifies it as 'No Referrer'. You can use 'Custom Channel Settings' to customize and supplement channel group rules. ## Custom Channel Settings There are five types of traffic sources in Ptengine: **No Referrer:** Its name is 'direct' and cannot be changed. **Search Engine:** When traffic is set as a search engine, access that matches the condition is identified as a search engine. Search keywords will be 'not set'. **Referrer:** You can set tags for a unified external channel. **Social:** You can configure it according to access parameters. This allows traffic sources to be viewed in social reports. **Campaign:** You need to configure campaign name, campaign source, campaign media, and other details. Please configure at least one of these. ## How to Configure This Feature Click Settings, go to Custom Channels, and click 'New Channel Group' to create a new custom channel. Enter the channel group name (it can be the same as existing tool names). Select the type of traffic. Enter the source name and matching rule. Click 'Save'. ## Configuration Method with Example The landing pages for all ads placed by customer A through advertising platform B during a shopping sale are as follows: `http://datatest11.ptmind.com/ydtest/online_com/about.html?gcid=1234` `http://datatest11.ptmind.com/ydtest/online_com/about.html?gcid=12345678` `http://datatest11.ptmind.com/ydtest/online_com/about.html?gcid=adgc123567` `http://datatest11.ptmind.com/ydtest/online_com/about.html?gcid=90opqw` `http://datatest11.ptmind.com/ydtest/online_com/about.html?gcid=1234qwerty` All destination pages have parameters starting with 'gcid'. The characters following 'gcid=' are unique. Using this, you can group all destination pages and aggregate and display access sent by advertising platform B. **Configure as follows:** Click '+ New Channel Group'. By setting the channel group name to 'Advertising Platform B', that name will be displayed in the traffic channel, making it easier to recognize. Select the type of traffic. In this case, 'Campaign' is appropriate. Set the source name to 'Advertising Platform B' to display numeric reports. Set the matching rule to match the parameters of the landing page. In this case, enter 'gcid' in the matching rule. Click 'Save'. After that, you can display the access results from traffic brought in by advertising platform B in the numeric reports. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://helps.ptengine.com/en/faq/insight-setting/custom-channel.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. 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