2026-08-05
Someone scans your poster, lands on your site, and Google Analytics files the visit under Direct with no further detail. As far as GA4 can tell, they typed the URL by hand. That makes print campaigns look like they did nothing, which is usually wrong and always annoying.
A QR scan opens the URL with no referrer. No referrer means Direct. The fix is old and reliable: UTM parameters on the destination URL, so the visit carries its own label.
Append these to the destination your code points at:
A full example: https://example.com/menu?utm_source=qr&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=window-poster
Reports, then Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Add a secondary dimension of Session campaign and filter Session source to qr. Give it a day of scans and the campaign names will separate your window poster from your table stickers, which is the whole point: now you know which placement earns its ink.
If you use a dynamic QR service, turn tagging on at the code level instead of hand-editing URLs. In EverQR, each code has a toggle that appends the UTM set automatically with a campaign name you choose, and it never overwrites parameters that are already on the URL. Change the destination later and the tagging follows along.
One caution: keep campaign names lowercase and consistent. GA4 treats Window-Poster and window-poster as different campaigns, and six months from now that report is a mess you will not enjoy cleaning.
Free, no account, editable after printing, and it will never expire on you.
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