Web analytics

Web analytics helps you measure traffic, sessions, and conversions across your web apps. It shows who’s visiting your site, how often they return, how long they stay, and whether they convert (for example, by signing up). It also tracks UTM parameters and source data to help you evaluate campaign performance and understand where visitors come from.

Unlike traditional tools, Pendo’s web analytics connects pre-signup traffic with in-product behavior. This means no separate tools, no tagging required, and low or no engineering setup.

Use cases

Web analytics is most useful for growth product managers, product-led growth (PLG) teams, and marketers who want to understand the full user journey, from anonymous web visitor to retained customer.

Use web analytics to:

• Monitor new versus returning visitor trends.
• Track overall site engagement and behavior.
• Understand how conversion actions are trending over time.
• Identify changes in traffic patterns after campaigns, launches, or announcements.
• Compare traffic and conversions by UTM parameters.
• Identify which campaigns or channels drive the most valuable traffic.

Some example questions this data can help answer include:

• How much traffic did we receive during our last campaign?
• Are new users staying longer after onboarding changes?
• What percentage of new visitors convert into identified users?

Recommended setup

To get the most value from web analytics, we recommend the following setup:

• Track your marketing or other public-facing site as a separate application. This helps track visitor behavior more accurately, attribute sign-ups, and report on the right metrics.
• Enable anonymous data tracking and identity mapping. This connects anonymous and identified visitor activity across applications and shows more of the full customer journey.

Note: Contact your Pendo account representative to confirm whether this setup is supported in your subscription. It might affect your monthly active user (MAU) usage.

Understand session properties

Session properties are values captured at the start of each session that help identify how a visitor arrived at your site or application. These include automatic groups and UTM parameters, which are grouped together under the term session properties.

Session properties appear across filters, comparisons, and key metrics in web analytics. They help you analyze how different sources, campaigns, and channels impact user engagement and conversions.

For example, you can filter your report to focus on visitors from a specific campaign or compare conversion rates by UTM source or referrer channel. For filtering and grouping options, see Filter and compare data.

You can also use session properties as event property filters when building segments. This allows for consistent cohort definitions across web analytics and other reports.

Note: Session property data is available starting May 1, 2025 and only in subscriptions using web SDK version 2.282.0 or later. If you self-host the web SDK or use an older version, session property data won't be collected until it's updated.

Automatic groups

Automatic groups are automatically derived from referrer information and used to identify how a visitor arrived on your site or app.

• Channel. A high-level traffic category based on UTM values and referrer logic, such as organic, paid, social, or direct. A value of (none) means Pendo couldn't parse channel data from the event URL; for example, server-side Track Events don't include this data. A value of Other means a UTM source or medium was present on the URL but didn't match a recognized channel in Pendo.
• Referrer. The URL of the domain a visitor came from.

Note: Channel and referrer attribution were updated in June 2025. Depending on your setup, channel and referrer data collected before June 2025 might appear incomplete or inconsistent.

UTM parameters

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) values are manually added to URLs by your marketing team to track campaign performance. Pendo automatically captures these values on page load:

• Source (utm_source). The domain or platform where the visit originated, such as Google or LinkedIn. A value of (none) means utm_source wasn't included in the URL for those visits.
• Medium (utm_medium). The type of channel, such as email, paid search, or organic social.
• Campaign (utm_campaign). The campaign name associated with the visit, such as spring_sale_2025.
• Term (utm_term). A paid search keyword, if applicable.
• Content (utm_content). A label for ad variants or creatives that generated the visit to your application.

Pendo uses last-touch attribution to determine conversions. This means that the UTM values from the visitor's session where the conversion occurred are used in reporting. Within each session, Pendo records the first set of UTM values and applies those to all events in that session, including the conversion. These values persist unless a visitor clears their cookies or their session expires.

Access web analytics

In the left-side menu, go to Analytics > Web analytics. This page shows aggregated web engagement metrics filtered by segment, date range, and application.

Understand key metrics

The right side of the page shows key metrics based on your selected filters and comparison options.

All metrics reflect the selected app filters, except for conversions. Conversions are based on the app where the selected conversion action belongs, which might differ from your app filter.

Note: Session and average session time metrics are available starting March 16, 2025 and only in subscriptions using web SDK version 2.282.0 or later. If you self-host the SDK or use an older version, session data won't be collected until it's updated. These metrics were further enhanced in June 2025. Depending on your setup, session data collected before June 2025 might appear incomplete or inconsistent.

Metrics are based on the filters at the top-level filters. Each value compares to the previous period of the same length. For example, if you select the last 30 days, the metrics compare to the 30 days prior. Differences from the previous period are shown next to each metric, with positive changes in green and negative changes in orange.

Set your conversion action

The conversion action defines when a visitor successfully converts, such as submitting a form or signing up. You must select a conversion action to view conversion data.

To set or change your conversion action:

1. In the left panel, under Activity source, select the edit (pencil) icon next to Select event (or the event name if already selected).
   
   
    
2. Use the filters to find the Page, Feature, or Track Event you want to use as your conversion action.
3. Select the event. The panel will close and the Conversions metric will update accordingly.

After setting a conversion action, you can select Analyze in the Conversions tile to open a path or funnel report in a new tab:

• Path. Automatically shows actions visitors took before or after the conversion event.
• Funnel. Adds the conversion event as the first step. You'll need to add at least one more step before saving and running the report.

Filter and compare data

Use filters and comparisons to refine what’s included in your report and how the results are grouped. You can narrow the dataset, focus on specific visitor behaviors, and explore patterns across sources, campaigns, or metadata values.

Top-level filters

The filters at the top of the right side panel affect all metrics and visualizations:

• Segment filters the dataset by a saved segment.
• Date range sets the reporting period for the data shown.
• App filters data to a specific application.

Note: The Conversions metric always reflects the app where the selected conversion action occurs, even if a different app is selected in your top-level filters. All other metrics reflect the selected app filter.

Filter by

Use Filter by in the left panel to narrow which visitors or accounts are included in your report. These filters help you isolate specific behaviors, cohorts, or conditions. You can apply multiple filters and combine them with AND/OR logic.

• Session properties. Automatically captured data about how visitors arrived at your application, including channel, referrer, source, medium, campaign, term, and content. For definitions of these terms, see Understand session properties earlier in this article.
• Device data. Global event properties captured on the visit, such as browser name, operating system, and device type.
• Account metadata. Fields associated with each account, such as industry, tier, or region. These reflect the most recent value unless enabled as historical.
• Visitor metadata. Fields associated with individual visitors, such as role or email address. These reflect the most recent value unless enabled as historical.
• Historical metadata. Metadata fields configured to show values at the time an event occurred, rather than the latest. For more information, see Historical metadata.

Compare by

Use the Compare by section to group your results by session properties, metadata, and event properties. This affects both the line chart and the breakdown table. Unlike filters, which limit the dataset, comparisons change how results are grouped and displayed.

Comparison options include:

• Automatic groups. Automatic labels that show where a visitor came from before visiting your application.
• UTM parameters. Manually added URL parameters used to track marketing performance.
• More comparisons. Select + Add group to group metrics by metadata or event properties. This section allows you to select up to five values. Available grouping types include visitor metadata, account metadata, historical metadata, and event properties.

When you apply a comparison, the line chart updates to reflect only one selected metric (shown in the dropdown). The breakdown table shifts from a date-based layout to a grouped view based on your selected comparison fields.

Analyze the line chart

Below the key metrics, the line chart below shows the metrics visualized over time. Use this trending chart to identify spikes, dips, and overall engagement patterns at a glance.

Use the two dropdowns in the top-left corner of the chart to customize the view:

• The first dropdown controls how data is grouped on the X-axis (hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly), depending on your selected date range.
• The second dropdown lets you switch between each key metric, including conversions, conversion rate, traffic, new traffic, sessions, average session time, average sessions per user, and average time on app. Traffic is shown by default.

When you apply a comparison, the chart legend updates to show each group as a separate line with its own label and color. Each label combines the selected metric (such as traffic) with the comparison value (such as a campaign name or referrer).

Hover over a data point to see the exact value and how it compares to the same period in the previous range.

Select a data point to open a side panel that lists all visitors or accounts for that data point. From the panel, you can:

• Select a Visitor ID or Account ID to open the corresponding details page.
• Select Download CSV to export a full list of visitors or accounts, along with their metadata. You can then reuse the IDs from this file to create a segment.

To export the chart data, select the download icon in the top-right corner of the chart.

Analyze the breakdown table

Below the line chart, the breakdown table displays each metric by day or week, depending on your date range selection. This table helps you view exact values for each metric over time, based on your selected date range.

Like the line chart, select a data point to open a side panel and view all visitors or accounts for that data point. From the panel, you can:

• Select a Visitor ID or Account ID to open the corresponding details page.
• Select Download CSV to export a full list of visitors or accounts, along with their metadata. You can then reuse the IDs from this file to create a segment.

When you select a comparison in the left side panel, the breakdown table switches from a date-based view to a grouped format. The first column shows the selected comparison values (for example, campaign names), and each metric becomes its own column. If the same value appears more than once (for example, the same referrer listed in two rows) it's because another active grouping dimension differs between those rows. Each unique combination of comparison values appears as a separate row.

To export the table data, select the download icon in the top-right corner of the table.

Use session properties in other reports

You can use session properties to filter and group data in other parts of Pendo, including:

• Funnels. Filter each step or group the first step by session property to analyze how conversion rates vary by source or campaign. For more information, see Funnels.
• Paths. Filter anchor events or the entire path by session property to focus your analysis on specific traffic sources. For more information, see Paths.
• Data Explorer. Group any supported event by session property to compare usage by channel, referrer, or campaign. For more information, see Build a Data Explorer report.