How do I extract Google Analytics campaign data from their cookie with Javascript?

Question

I'd like to be able to pull out the data stored in the Google Analytics tracking cookie with all the campaign tracking information using Javascript. It needs to work with the newer version of GA using ga.js, not urchin.js. I found a method that works with urchin.js but we don't use that for our tracking. Does anybody know how to extract the Campaign, Source, Medium, Content and Term from the cookie Google uses?

Solution 1

I ended up figuring this out on my own. I just dug into what the cookie had stored and extracted the information. Here's what I came up with:

var ga_source = '';
var ga_campaign = '';
var ga_medium = '';
var ga_term = '';
var ga_content = '';
var gc = '';
var c_name = "__utmz";
if (document.cookie.length>0){
    c_start=document.cookie.indexOf(c_name + "=");
    if (c_start!=-1){
        c_start=c_start + c_name.length+1;
        c_end=document.cookie.indexOf(";",c_start);
        if (c_end==-1) c_end=document.cookie.length;
        gc = unescape(document.cookie.substring(c_start,c_end));
    }
}
if(gc != ""){
    var z = gc.split('.'); 
    if(z.length >= 4){
    var y = z[4].split('|');
        for(i=0; i<y.length; i++){
            if(y[i].indexOf('utmcsr=') >= 0) ga_source = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
            if(y[i].indexOf('utmccn=') >= 0) ga_campaign = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
            if(y[i].indexOf('utmcmd=') >= 0) ga_medium = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
            if(y[i].indexOf('utmctr=') >= 0) ga_term = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
            if(y[i].indexOf('utmcct=') >= 0) ga_content = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
        }
    }
}

I'm sure it could be more streamlined but I was just happy to get this far with it. Once you have these variables you can do whatever you need with them.

Solution 2

I've rewritten this to parse the values onto an associative array and make use of quicksmode cookie functions:

function parseAnalyticsCookie() {
    // inspiration from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1688657/how-do-i-extract-google-analytics-campaign-data-from-their-cookie-with-javascript
    // readCookie is from // http://www.quirksmode.org/js/cookies.html
    // utmcsr = utm_source
    // utmccn = utm_campaign
    // utmcmd = utm_medium
    // utmctr = utm_term
    // utmcct = utm_content
    var values = {};
    var cookie = readCookie("__utmz");
    if (cookie) {
        var z = cookie.split('.'); 
        if (z.length >= 4) {
            var y = z[4].split('|');
            for (i=0; i<y.length; i++) {
                var pair = y[i].split("=");
                values[pair[0]] = pair[1];
            }
        }
    }
    return values;
}

Solution 3

Now works:

   function extractAnalyticsData(){
      var data = {};
      var ga_source = '';
      var ga_campaign = '';
      var ga_medium = '';
      var ga_term = '';
      var ga_content = '';
      var gc = '';
      var c_name = "__utmz";
      if (document.cookie.length>0){
          c_start=document.cookie.indexOf(c_name + "=");
          if (c_start!=-1){
            c_start=c_start + c_name.length+1;
            c_end=document.cookie.indexOf(";",c_start);
            if (c_end==-1) c_end=document.cookie.length;
            gc = unescape(document.cookie.substring(c_start,c_end));
          }
      }
      data.gc = gc;
      if(gc != ""){
          var y = gc.split('|'); 
        for(i=0; i<y.length; i++){
          if(y[i].indexOf('utmcsr=') >= 0) data.ga_source = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
          if(y[i].indexOf('utmccn=') >= 0) data.ga_campaign = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
          if(y[i].indexOf('utmcmd=') >= 0) data.ga_medium = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
              if(y[i].indexOf('utmcct=') >= 0) data.ga_content = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
          if(y[i].indexOf('utmctr=') >= 0) data.ga_term = y[i].substring(y[i].indexOf('=')+1);
        }
      }
      return data;
    };
    extractAnalyticsData();

Comments

[Eduardo]

If the user visits your site via AdWords this won't work since the AdWords values for these variables are not present on the cookie.

[Raptor]

Does not work with facebook with utmz utmcsr=facebook.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct‌​=/ this become like this: ["facebook", "", "", "", ""] since it executes gc.split('.') it remove the .com from facebook

[Raptor]

Does not work with facebook with utmz utmcsr=facebook.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct‌​=/ this become like this: Object {utmcsr: "facebook"} where as it should be utmsource:facebook.com utmedium:referral utcampaign:(referral)

[Raptor]

Seems to handle facebook with utmz utmcsr=facebook.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct‌​=/ correctly! Result: Object {gc: "***.utmcsr=facebook.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|u‌​tmcct=/", ga_source: "facebook.com", ga_campaign: "(referral)", ga_medium: "referral", ga_content: "/"} which is perfect!