What is sag_organic?

[Best4Bulldogs]

Most of my store visitors are coming from "sag_organic". Can someone let me know what this is please?

Thanks in advance.

Alex

[PetSpy]

This discussion has the answer to your question. 

https://support.google.com/google-ads/thread/53688879?hl=en

[Czarto]

To repeat what is in the posted link above:

This is an issue with Shopify's Google Shopping Channel: When the Shopify App uploads the product feed to Google Merchant Center, it appends the following UTM tags to the product url:

&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

You can confirm this by going to your Merchant Center > Products > All Products > and click on one of your products that was uploaded via the API. Look at the product url / link and you will see the utm tags in there.

To remove the UTM tags using Feed Rules:

1. Go to Merchant Center > Products > Feeds
2. Click on "Content API" feed
3. Click on Feed Rules tab
4. Click + button and type "link" and select "link" to create a new rule for the link attribute
5. Click cancel under Data Sources and then Modifications > Add Modifications
6. Optimize URL > Remove Parameter
7. Type utm_medium and click add
8. Repeat for utm_source, utm_content, and utm_campaign
9. Click OK and look in the right side column preview to see if the link has been properly updated.
10. Click Save as Draft
11. Click Apply
12. Wait a while for your feed rules to take effect.

Hope that helps!

Alex

[bracknelson]

The paid & organic report (available for Google Ads engine accounts only) shows the search terms that either triggered your ads to appear on Google, triggered Google to display unpaid (organic) search results for your site, or both. This information helps you understand how paid and organic search work together to reach people searching online.

[Czarto]

To add a big more to this topic:

After digging into it some more, I've come to these additional conclusions:

1. sag_organic stands for Surfaces Across Google organic traffic
2. I think a better way to track this traffic would be to set
   utm_source=google
   utm_medium=organic
   utm_campaign=shopping
   This way your standard GA reports look the same (everything bundled into google/organic) but you can segment by Campaign to figure out how much of the traffic is from Organic Shopping Listings. Optionally, you can include the product.title in utm_content which would allow you to further segment on what specific products are sending you the organic traffic.
3. missing canonical_link: A bigger issue with Shopify's implementation is that the canonical_link is not being set. Without this, Google could start including your UTM'd product urls in it's main search index, which will cause havoc on your Analytics data.

If you use tracking parameters in your link attributes, it is recommend that you use the canonical_link attribute to provide a canonical URL. Use the canonical_link attribute to ensure that products are associated with the correct URL in the Google Search index.
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188492?hl=en

I've added a walkthrough on how to change both the UTMs and to set the canonical_link tag using Merchant Center rules here:

https://business.czarto.com/2020/09/21/sag_organic-product_sync-google-analytics/

[mikejohnp]

Awesome blog and very clear and easy to follow. Thank you!

[buysmartfitness]

The "List" in sag_organic represents Surfaces Across Google. These boundaries are Shopify's method of encouraging you track the natural free traffic coming from Google Shopping. ... The default conduct in Google Analytics for Organic Google Shopping traffic is to remember it for the google/natural pail.

[TorbenM]

Does this has any effect on the conversion reporting in google ads or is this just an analytics related thing?

[Czarto]

It should have no effect on Google Ads tracking.

It's mostly for Google Analytics traffic attribution.

[bsockloff]

Does this cause the mixing of paid/free google shopping?

If I strip out those paramaters (sag_organic, product_sync. . .) - will auto-tagging then start acting as I would expect? (Paid ads would show as google/cpc)

[Endlesslearning]

@bsockloff I think you're right - it would yes, I've just done the below which I think should be more optimal (given that the bulk of the traffic will be paid clicks)

[Czarto]

@endlessslearning

I think you would be better to just strip those parameters and leave them blank, and let Google Ads auto-tag your paid traffic, and let Google Analytics attribute the unpaid traffic.

Alex

[Puda]

Thanks guys!

@Czarto unless I am wrong, stripping out all the parameters would actually prevent Google from seeing them, no? I tested the changes on Merchant Center and nothing would be seen aside from the remaining parameters (including currency). I have tested @Endlesslearning solution and it seems to work for what I need to do. (Mostly see which ad is generating a sale via Shopify + Google Analytics) I am personally using "Content API.title" 

[Czarto]

@Puda Google Analytics can usually properly categorize stuff without the need of explicit UTM tags, in particular for "search" traffic. Any Shopping traffic coming from Google Ads (paid) will be properly categorized due to GCID being passed (UNLESS your GA account is set to allow UTM tags to override GCID parameters). Any untagged organic Shopping traffic will be categorized in whatever way GA decides (I **assume** as organic search, but I'm not sure).

I don't think there's a single "right" way to do this, so if you're implementation works for you, then that's probably good enough!

Alex

[karife]

Hi

The same happens to me.

I mean I got a purchase from Sag_organic, and I wonder if it is the result of any of my google campaigns or not? 

I am only running google campaigns at the moment

Thanks

[Puda]

Nope, it would be from the free listings. However, they can only happen if you have a feed set up already. I count the free listings as overall paid efforts. Same with Buy on Google sales.