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How to Avoid Conversions Being Attributed to “Payment”

When a user makes a purchase and is redirected to a payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Redsys…), they temporarily leave your website.
When they return to your thank-you page, SealMetrics may treat it as a new session.

If the payment domain is not excluded, the conversion is attributed to source: payment.

What This Means​

✔ The conversion is tracked
❌ The original source (Google Ads, Facebook, Email…) is lost

For accurate marketing attribution, this must be corrected.

Why SealMetrics Attributes “Payment” as a Source​

Because SealMetrics is privacy-first and does not use cookies or fingerprinting.
We only detect:

  • Browser
  • OS
  • Screen size
  • Timestamp

So when the user returns from a third-party payment domain:

  • SealMetrics creates a new session
  • And assigns its domain as the referrer

Unless you register it as a passthrough referrer.

When This Happens​

Typical cases:

  • Payment provider uses redirect flow
  • Thank-you page loads after a new session
  • Payment provider becomes the last referrer

Example:

  1. User clicks a Google Ads ad
  2. Adds items → proceeds to checkout
  3. Pays via payments.xyz.com
  4. Returns to your thank-you page
  5. SealMetrics detects referrer = payment domain → Conversion is attributed incorrectly

How to Fix It​

Register the payment domain as a passthrough referrer through the Sealmetrics API — there is no dashboard screen for this:

curl -X POST "https://my.sealmetrics.com/api/v1/passthrough-referrers?account_id=YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID" \
  -H "X-API-Key: sm_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "domain": "payments.xyz.com",
    "utm_source": "payment-gateway",
    "service_name": "Payment Gateway"
  }'

See the Passthrough Referrers API reference for the complete schema, and Bypass POS or Referrer for the step-by-step guide.

Add only your payment provider domain, not internal domains.

With this configuration, conversions retain the real traffic source.

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