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·4 min read

utm_medium=ai_search is a real channel

When an assistant bothers to tag the click, believe it. Vector 5 treats ai_search and ai-assistant as first-class media, not campaign junk.

UTMAttribution

An abstract close-up of a dark search field with a soft blue caret
A medium with a name should not land in “other.”

Some assistants strip the referrer and still append UTM. utm_medium=ai_search, utm_medium=ai-assistant, utm_source=chatgpt — these are not vanity parameters from a 2014 playbook. They are the only signal left when the Referer header is empty. Tools that dump unknown media into Other are repeating the Direct mistake with extra steps.

Vector 5 promotes those values into the assistant channel and the human_via_ai actor. Campaign and content stay available as dimensions. You can still ask “which prompt landing page,” without losing the fact that the medium was a model.

  • utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign are first-class.
  • ai_search / ai-assistant map to the assistant actor.
  • Empty UTM plus empty referrer stays unnamed. We do not backfill.
A tagged assistant click is a gift. Do not file it under miscellaneous.