Marketing attribution
Order attribution reports for WooCommerce
WooCommerce records where each order came from, but core Analytics has no report for it. Ask Askshelf, and it adds up orders and net sales by channel, UTM source, campaign or device.
The report WooCommerce is missing
Since WooCommerce 8.5, every order records where the customer came from: a source type (direct, organic search, referral, a UTM-tagged link), the UTM source, medium and campaign, and the device. You can see it one order at a time, in the Orders list's Origin column and the Order attribution box. What you can't do in core Analytics is add it up: there's no report for "orders by channel". WooCommerce does offer a free WooCommerce Analytics extension with attribution reports, in early access; it syncs your order data to WordPress.com and supports single-currency stores only.
Askshelf fills that gap. Ask about channels, campaigns or devices, and it reads the attribution data alongside the order totals from Analytics.
Which channels brought the most orders in the last 14 days, compared with the 14 days before?
Ways to slice it
| Group by | Answers questions like |
|---|---|
| Source type | How much comes from direct visits, organic search, referrals and tagged campaigns? |
| UTM source | Email vs Instagram vs Facebook vs Google |
| UTM medium | Paid vs organic social, newsletters vs automated emails |
| UTM campaign | Which named campaign brought in the most revenue? |
| Device | Mobile vs desktop vs tablet |
Every grouping works for any date range and can be compared with the previous period or the same period last year. Refunds count against the channel of the original order, on the refund date, the way Analytics counts revenue.
Coupons too
Ask how a coupon did and Askshelf returns its orders, the total discounted and the net sales of those orders. Whether the discount paid for itself also depends on your margins and on how many orders would have happened anyway: the coupon ROI guide and the free coupon ROI calculator cover that part.
Good to know
Attribution is only as good as your links. Tag campaign links with UTM parameters (the UTM tracking guide shows how) so orders land in the right group. WooCommerce uses last-click attribution, and Askshelf reports it as recorded.
Questions you can ask
- “Which channels brought the most orders last month?”
- “How did our email campaign do compared with Instagram in October?”
- “What share of orders came from mobile this week?”
- “Which UTM campaigns brought in the most revenue this quarter?”
- “Did the HALLOWEEN15 coupon pay off?”
Common questions
Where does the channel data come from?
From WooCommerce's own order attribution, added in WooCommerce 8.5. It stores each order's source type, UTM source, medium and campaign, and device type. Askshelf adds those up with the order totals from Analytics.
What about orders with no source?
Orders placed before attribution was turned on, and orders where tracking was blocked, have no recorded source. Askshelf reports them as their own (none) group, so the totals still add up.
Can it show which website referred each order?
It groups by source type, UTM source, medium, campaign and device. It doesn't group by the full referring URL.
The free way, step by step: WooCommerce order attribution, explained