Using the ref Parameter to Track Traffic Sources

Deploy one game across multiple channels and pinpoint exactly where every participant came from — social, paid ads, email, in-store, and more.

What is the ref parameter?

The ref query string parameter is a simple tag you append to any Drimify game URL. When a participant clicks your link, Drimify records the ref value alongside their session data. That value then appears in your statistics dashboard and in every data export, letting you filter and compare performance by source.
Instead of publishing a single, anonymous link everywhere and guessing where your traffic came from, you publish labelled links — one per channel — and your data tells the full story.

Why this matters

By default, Drimify's referral statistics show broad origin categories: Direct, Website, and Social Media. That tells you roughly where people arrived from, but it can't distinguish between:

• Your Instagram post vs. your Facebook ad
• A newsletter vs. a paid email campaign
• Your London store vs. your Manchester store
• QR code A on a shelf vs. QR code B on a poster

The ref parameter closes that gap completely. You can run the exact same game from multiple locations or campaigns and know, entry by entry, which source drove each participant.

Real-world power: Imagine you launch an instant-win game to promote a new product. You share it via Instagram Stories, a paid Google Ad, your email newsletter, and QR codes in five stores. With ref, you can measure the conversion rate per channel, identify which store had the highest engagement, and cut spend on the channels that aren't performing — all from a single experience.

Common use cases

• Social media channels Compare Instagram vs. Facebook vs. TikTok in one view. See which platform drives more completions, not just clicks.
• Paid vs. organic Measure whether your paid ads are actually outperforming your organic posts for the same game experience.
• Physical locations Assign a unique ref to each store's QR code. Understand which locations generate the most in-store engagement.
• Email campaigns Track which email sequence or segment drives the most game participation and tailor future sends accordingly.
• Partners & influencers Give each partner or influencer their own ref value. Attribute traffic and results to each collaboration clearly.
• A/B campaign testing Test two different creatives or call-to-action messages pointing to the same game. Let the data decide the winner.

How to use the ref parameter

Simply append ?ref=your_label to the end of your game's URL. The value can be any text string that is meaningful to you — keep it lowercase with no spaces (use hyphens or underscores instead).

Base URL:

https://apps.drimify.com/XBs15jKF/

With a ref parameter:

https://apps.drimify.com/XBs15jKF/?ref=instagram-organic

Example set of labelled links:

Combining with other query strings: If you are already passing other parameters (e.g. ?name=John), add ref with an ampersand: ?name=John&ref=instagram-organic

Where to find your ref data

1. Statistics dashboard Open your game in the Drimify editor and navigate to the Statistics tab. The Referrals section will show a breakdown that includes your ref values as distinct traffic sources.
2. Data export Go to Export User Data. Each participant's row will include the ref value from the link they used. This lets you filter, sort, and cross-reference engagement with form data, scores, and promo codes at an individual level.
3. CRM & marketing tools Because the ref value appears as a dedicated column in your export, you can import it directly into your CRM, email platform, or reporting tool to connect campaign attribution to your wider marketing data.

Example scenario: one game, five sources

A fashion retailer creates a single spin-the-wheel game on Drimify for their summer promotion. Rather than sharing one generic link, they create five labelled versions:

• Instagram bio link → ref=instagram-bio
• Facebook paid campaign → ref=facebook-paid
• Email to loyalty members → ref=email-loyalty
• QR code at checkout (all stores) → ref=store-qr
• Influencer partnership → ref=influencer-sophie

After two weeks, their export shows that email-loyalty had the highest completion rate by far, facebook-paid drove the most raw volume, and store-qr produced the highest prize redemption rate. They reallocate their paid budget accordingly and brief their influencer partner on what worked.

Best practices

• Be consistent with naming. Decide on a convention before you launch — e.g. channel-type-variant — and stick to it. Mixed capitalisation or typos create separate entries in your data.
• Keep values short and meaningful. Values like ig-paid-aug25 are easy to read in a spreadsheet. Avoid spaces; use hyphens or underscores instead.
• Create one link per placement, not one per channel. If you run three different Instagram Stories, give each a distinct ref — e.g. ig-story-01, ig-story-02 — so you can compare creative performance.
• Use it with QR codes. QR codes with embedded ref values are one of the most powerful uses: each printed material, each store, or each event gets its own code and its own trackable entry in your data.

Updated on: 17/06/2026