How does Mixpanel's Search Keyword work?

I'm curious on how Mixpanel tracks which Search Keywords an event is affiliated with. Is this from the organic search (vs. paid search ads)?

If yes, how did they do it? From a glance, I guess organic search works this way:

1. 
2. That link goes to a proxy link with some query parameters which contain info about the (encrypted) search term & the real destination link.
3. Redirect to the real destination link.

Google Analytics know the organic search keyword used on a session because they intercept it in the middle point. I'm not sure if there's any way for someone outside of Google to intercept that info (including Mixpanel). Right? (correct me if I'm wrong)

If there is a way for the destination website to know the organic search keyword, can I be enlightened on the method?

1 Answers

Answers 1

I don't think this is coming from organic search or paid ads due to a couple reasons:

1. Most of the organic traffic is now in HTTPS which makes it hard to get the search parameters. Google Analytics shows this data through the Webmaster Tools console which is able to grab keyword data in a different way (I assume through the Google backend and not the URL itself). Otherwise, you are stuck with the "Not Provided" issue in Google Analytics.

2. Mixpanel only captures the default UTM parameters: utm_campaign, utm_source, utm_keyword, utm_medium and utm_content. Mixpanel also calls this properties as expected: UTM Medium, UTM Source, etc.

I can't tell from your screenshot but it seems this might be a custom property that your Mixpanel setup is setting it, perhaps from an internal search engine? Or perhaps you're grabbing a custom URL query?

Can you provide more information as to how this event is being captured?

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