What is utm_medium=affiliate?
Click from an affiliate partner
Who adds it
Merchants and affiliate networks set it on links they give to affiliate partners.
What it means
The visit came through an affiliate's link, usually a site that earns a commission on sales. GA4 files it under the Affiliates channel.
What to do with it
The source tag usually names the partner. Affiliate links often go through a network's redirect, so the referrer may show the partner's site or nothing.
How Vireo shows it
Vireo Pro's UTM campaigns card lists tagged visits by Source, Medium and Campaign, with visitors and pageviews. The tags are read from the first page of each visit, and the same tags feed revenue by source.
In the free plugin, Vireo drops the query string from page addresses, keeping only a few WordPress ones such as p and page_id, so a tagged URL counts as the same page as the untagged one. The visit is counted under the referrer it arrived with.
UTM campaigns are part of Vireo Pro. See UTM campaigns in the docs.
Sources
Affiliates Medium = affiliate
Default channel group - Analytics Help
Affiliates is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via links on affiliate sites.
Default channel group - Analytics Help
Related tags
utm_medium=referralClick from a link on another siteutm_sourceThe UTM tag that names who sent the visitutm_medium=emailVisit from a link in an emailutm_medium=cpcPaid click from an ad (cost per click)utm_medium=paid_socialPaid click from a social media adutm_medium=paidPaid click, often added by Meta adsutm_medium=socialUnpaid click from a social media postutm_medium=organicMarked as unpaid search traffic
All UTM values and click IDs · Referrer lookup · UTM parameters in the glossary · UTM links in WordPress
See which campaigns bring readers
Vireo Analytics shows where your visitors come from without cookies, and Vireo Pro adds UTM campaigns and revenue by source.
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