Firebase-ios-sdk: UTM parameters lost after relaunch

[b-onc]

[REQUIRED] Step 2: Describe your environment

• Xcode version: 10.2.1
• Firebase SDK version: 5.19.0
• Firebase Component: Analytics
• Component version: 5.8.0

[REQUIRED] Step 3: Describe the problem

We’re having a problem with utm parameters. We track those with AnalyticsEventCampaignDetails event whenever a link with with utm params are clicked (we're using branch.io for links) but we’ve seen that conversion events are not attributed to utm params. More specific, _utm params are lost after a relaunch and future events are not attributed_.

Facebook persists utm events and attributes future events with utm params. Firebase should also do the same, per spec (https://support.google.com/firebase/answer/6317518?hl=en) In the meantime, we've implemented our custom interim solution: save utm params to user defaults and report them on relaunch.

We’re searching for a way to test this functionality. Specifically, we want to make sure our utm parameters, once reported, gets attributed to future conversion events, so we don't need our custon solution. DebugView does not show utm params on events. How should we proceed?

Also asked the question under issue https://github.com/firebase/firebase-ios-sdk/issues/2462 and told to create a ticket for it. Asked the question on firebase slack but could not get a response.

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[b-onc]

Hello? Any updates?

[morganchen12]

@dmandar, is this intended behavior?

[b-onc]

Pinging for updates

[b-onc]

Hello @dmandar , did you have time to check?

[b-onc]

Monthly ping for updates

[dmandar]

To confirm, are you using dynamic links at all or is this a Firebase analytics question?

[b-onc]

@dmandar we are not using firebase dynamic links, we are using branch utm links and do the utm tracking with firebase. I guess this is an Analytics question.

[paulb777]

Internally tracked at b/137757236

[b-onc]

Hello @paulb777 , is there any progress?

[ggpuglia]

Thank you for the feedback @b-onc. We are following up internally to discuss which is the best implementation for Analytics. I will reply back once I have an update.

In parallel, I would like to hear from you, your thoughts in the following points:

1. What are the UTM parameters you are interested the most? Is "source", "medium", "campaign" (name) enough? Are "term" and "content" critical for your use case?
2. You haven't mentioned gclid. Is this also relevant for your use case?

[b-onc]

Hello @ggpuglia

Thank you for looking into this.

1. source, medium and campaign is enough for us, term and content is not important
2. gclid is irrelevant for us

We're using https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/ and only care for mandatory parameters

[ggpuglia]

Thank you for your input! We are tracking this as an internal project. Unfortunately, it might take us a little time to get this prioritized.

[b-onc]

Hello @ggpuglia , is there any progress on this?

[b-onc]

Hello @ggpuglia , is there any progress on this?

[ggpuglia]

Sorry, the development team hasn't had a change to prioritize this. We are working on getting release soon.

[mrfelton]

Have there been any updates on this in the last year?