> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.runconverge.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Session attribution

> How does session attribution work in Converge?

export const OutboundLink = ({linkText, linkTarget}) => {
  return <a target="_blank" href={linkTarget}> {linkText} 
    <div className="inline h-3 w-3 fill-gray-500 dark:fill-gray-100 text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-300 ml-1 mr-1">
      <svg className="inline w-2.5 h-2.5 bg-gray-500 dark:bg-gray-300" style={{
    maskImage: `url('https://mintlify.b-cdn.net/v6.5.1/solid/up-right-from-square.svg')`,
    maskRepeat: "no-repeat",
    maskPosition: "center center"
  }}></svg> 
    </div>
    </a>;
};

Session attribution is how Converge determines where a visit to your site came from. The end result is a session that has been attributed at the following levels:

* **Channel group**: the broad type of traffic source (e.g., Paid Social, Organic Search, Email, Direct)
* **Channel**: the specific platform or source within a channel group (e.g., Google, Facebook)
* **Campaign**: the campaign the user clicked before landing on your site
* **Adset**: the adset within the campaign
* **Ad**: the specific ad they clicked

<Note>For a more general introduction into attribution in Converge, read [this](/attribution/introduction).</Note>

## Channel group and channel

Channel group and channel are the broadest source categories. It helps you see which traffic source of your marketing is performing best.

In a broad sense, Converge will classify the session into a channel group and channel based on the landing page URL, referrer, and certain click IDs or tracking parameters.
For example, a session with a landing page URL that contains a `gclid` parameter will be classified with a channel group of Paid Search and a channel of Google.

<Note>
  For more details on how Converge classifies sessions into channel groups and channels, read [this](/attribution/channel-classification).
</Note>

### Events without sessions

Sometimes Converge receives a server-side event that can't be matched to a web session. For example, if a user completes a purchase and your store sends a `Placed Order` event from your server, but the user's web session was not tracked because an ad blocker was used.

In that case, Converge still tries to attribute the event to a channel:

1. If available, use metadata from the event itself. (e.g. `Recurring subscriptions`, `Shopify`)
2. If nothing else is available, fall back to `(no value)`.

## Campaign, Adset, Ad

Below the channel level, Converge will try to attribute a session to a specific campaign, ad set, or ad the user clicked on before visiting your website.

To attribute a session to a campaign, Converge follows this process:

1. Look for **cvg\_cid** or **cvg\_adid** in the landing page url. (containing the ID from the campaign and ad clicked on by the user)
2. Look for **utm\_campaign** in the landing page url.

If Converge can't find any of these values, the sessions won't be attributed to a campaign, ad set, or ad and will be shown as **(No campaign name)**, **(No ad set name)**, or **(No ad)** respectively.

<Note>Converge relies on <OutboundLink linkText="tracking parameters" linkTarget="/attribution/tracking-parameters" /> and <OutboundLink linkText="Marketing Sources" linkTarget="/ad-platforms/integrations/overview" /> to correctly attribute a session to a campaign, ad set, or ad.</Note>