As you build out your canvases, you'll often need to track groups of similar pages or traffic sources. Instead of creating dozens of specific rules, you can use a simple but powerful feature called a wildcard to create flexible rules that save you time and simplify your setup.
This guide will explain what wildcards are and show you how to use them in common scenarios.
What is a Wildcard?
A wildcard is a special character that acts as a placeholder for any other character or group of characters. Think of it as a "fill in the blank" for your tracking rules.
In Funnelytics, the wildcard character is the asterisk (*).
By using the asterisk, you can create a single rule to track multiple pages, dynamic UTM parameters, or various traffic sources all at once.
Common Use Cases for Wildcards
Here are the most common and effective ways to use wildcards to level up your tracking.
1. Tracking a Group of Pages (e.g., All Blog Posts or Products)
This is the most popular use for wildcards. It allows you to group similar pages under a single icon on your canvas.
The Problem: You have hundreds of blog posts, and you want to track traffic to all of them with a single "Blog" icon.
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The Solution: Use a wildcard at the end of the URL path.
Set up a Page icon with the rule: URL
containsyourdomain.com/blog/*
How it works: This rule tells Funnelytics to track any user who visits a URL that starts with yourdomain.com/blog/. The * matches any text that follows, which in this case would be all your individual blog post slugs.
Other Examples:
All Product Pages:
yourdomain.com/products/*All Case Studies:
yourdomain.com/case-studies/*
2. Tracking All Pages on Your Entire Website
If you want an icon to represent every single page on your site, including subdomains, wildcards are the perfect tool.
The Problem: You want to create an entry icon that captures every single visitor, no matter what page they land on.
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The Solution:
For your main domain: Use the rule URL
containsyourdomain.com/**(This will track any page on your main site.)To include all subdomains: Use the rule URL
contains*.yourdomain.com/**(The*.at the beginning acts as a wildcard for any subdomain, such asblog.,app., orshop.)
3. Tracking Dynamic UTM Parameters and Campaigns
Wildcards are incredibly useful for grouping traffic from your marketing campaigns without needing a rule for every single ad.
The Problem: You're running a "Summer Sale" and have multiple campaign variations (
summer_sale_facebook,summer_sale_google,summer_sale_email). You want one icon to track all of them.-
The Solution: Place the wildcard at the end of your campaign name.
Set up a Traffic Source icon with the rule:
utm_campaigncontainssummer_sale_*
How it works: This rule will match any campaign that begins with "summer_sale_". This is a fantastic way to group and analyze related marketing efforts.
Another Example:
To track all UTM-tagged traffic, regardless of the source, you can simply use the rule:
utm_sourcecontains*
4. Grouping Similar Referring Domains
If you get traffic from various international versions of a website (like Google), you can use a wildcard to group them.
The Problem: You want to track all referral traffic from Google, including
google.com,google.co.uk,google.de, etc., with one icon.-
The Solution: Use wildcards around the core domain.
Set up a Traffic Source icon with the rule: Referring Domain
containsgoogle.*
Best Practices
Placement Matters: The position of the asterisk is important.
yourdomain.com/blog/*(matches anything after/blog/) is different fromyourdomain.com/*/blog(matches anything between the domain and/blog).Be Specific First: When in doubt, start with a more specific rule and broaden it with a wildcard if needed.
Test Your Rules: After setting up a wildcard rule, check your analytics to ensure it's capturing the traffic you expect without pulling in unwanted data.
By mastering wildcards, you can create cleaner, more manageable canvases and unlock deeper, more flexible insights into your customer journeys.