Application Source Tracking

Hi ​@Ivy, Excuse me for the extreme wait here. I hope below is helpful. 

What you’re seeing is expected behavior with URL/referrer-based source tracking: if an applicant doesn’t enter via a tracked link (and instead navigates directly to your careers page), Eightfold will not have an external referrer/UTM to attribute, so the session (and often the resulting application) will show as your career site / “Eightfold” / direct traffic depending on how your reporting is set up. 

Why this happens (in Eightfold terms)

Eightfold captures a visitor session “source” in this priority order: utm_source → src/source URL param → HTTP Referer → otherwise it defaults to Eightfold (which is what you’ll effectively see when someone goes straight to your careers page).

So when someone says “I heard about you at Zebra” but they typed your careers URL directly, the “careers page” source is basically accurate from a tracking standpoint—there was no attributable inbound link in that session. 

What typically works better (practical options)

1) Use event-specific tracking links (best fit for conferences/events)

If your recruiters are sharing a URL/QR code at an event, make that URL include a unique utm_source (and optionally utm_campaign) so that everyone who enters through that link is attributed correctly.

Eightfold supports creating and using unique trackable URLs for distribution, including for use in QR codes for events, and it can show applicant counts per specific UTM source you create.

2) If you publish jobs via XML feeds to job boards/partners, embed UTMs at the feed level

If a source is an “organization” that posts your jobs (or a job board / aggregator), the most reliable approach is to ensure the links they use to drive traffic to your PCS include utm_source (and optionally utm_campaign). Eightfold’s job feed URLs explicitly support this, and the utm_source value is threaded through into the apply URLs and then captured for source attribution.

3) Map/normalize sources so reporting is cleaner (even when sources vary)

On the application side, Eightfold supports mapping raw source strings to the codes/names you want written back to the ATS via referrer_src_map (case-insensitive, supports partial matches, ordering matters, has a default). This doesn’t solve “direct traffic” attribution, but it does reduce noise like m.google.com vs www.google.com, etc.

4) Be aware of cookie-based attribution behavior across sessions

If someone first visits from a tracked link and later comes back directly, attribution may not behave the way your team expects because source can persist in cookies and attribution models (first-touch vs last-touch) matter. (Eightfold documents these attribution caveats explicitly.) 

What won’t be fully solvable (and how most teams handle it)

If a candidate learns about you at an event and later searches you on Google / types the URL / uses a bookmark, there’s no perfect technical way to “recover” that offline influence unless they re-enter through a tracked link (QR code, short link, etc.) or you collect self-reported data again. Eightfold will default to direct/careers when it has no UTM/src/referrer to use. 

If you want the “best available” hybrid approach

Many teams do both:

• Use event/partner-specific tracking links (UTM + QR codes) so you capture attribution when possible.
• Optionally re-add a lightweight self-report question specifically for cases where candidates did not come in via a tracked link (because purely technical tracking will never be 100% for offline/word-of-mouth). (Eightfold analytics documentation notes that self-reported source can be written back to the ATS depending on implementation, but behavior depends on your setup.)