Rebrandly — clicks source & the `campaign_utm_ct` issue

Rebrandly is the click-tracking source for creator campaigns. This page documents a parsing bug in rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct that silently dropped campaign attribution for most clicks created in 2024.
Last update: 2026-06-12

TL;DR. The campaign of a click is extracted from the link's destination URL by rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct, which only understands old-style query params (ct= / utm_campaign=). When creators moved to AppsFlyer OneLink and bare moises.app/<slashtag> deep links in 2024, the campaign moved into the path/slashtag — the parser returns NULL, and those clicks fall out of every campaign-keyed report.

Source pipeline

Layer	Object	File / owner
Ingestion (Airflow)	`moises_raw.rebrandly_raw`	DAG `rebrandly-to-bq` · dags/to_deprecate/rebrandly_to_bq.py (S3 click-stream → GCS → BQ)
Prep (dbt 🧱)	`rebrandly_prep`	dags/domains/marketing/models/rebrandly/rebrandly_prep.sql
Prep (dbt 🧱)	`rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct`	…/rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct.sql — parses query-param campaigns; `NULL` for OneLink is expected (recovered downstream by the slug→sheet join)
Prep (dbt 🧱)	`rebrandly_device_platform`	…/rebrandly_device_platform.sql
Prep (Dataform ⚙️)	`rebrandly_campaigns_creators`	derived/marketing/rebrandly/rebrandly_campaigns_creators.sqlx — not yet migrated (next port)
Master (dbt 🧱)	`rebrandly`	…/rebrandly.sql — dbt is the sole writer of `derived_marketing_master.rebrandly` (cutover complete 2026-06-12)

As of 2026-06-12 the rebrandly clicks chain is fully migrated to dbt (#647/#648), with the production cutover complete (#652, dataform #357) — dbt is the sole writer. The earlier "buggy model" framing was wrong: the campaign_utm_ct NULL is expected for OneLink links and is recovered downstream. See the funnel drop trace.

Lineage (red = model with the issue)

graph LR raw["moises_raw.rebrandly_raw
Airflow · S3 click-stream"] subgraph RB["dbt 🧱: rebrandly/ (migrated, sole writer)"] prep["rebrandly_prep"] utm["rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct
parses campaign from destination_raw; NULL for OneLink (expected)"] dev["rebrandly_device_platform"] master["rebrandly (master)"] end creators["rebrandly_campaigns_creators
⚙️ Dataform — not yet migrated"] sheet["connected_sheets.mkt_creators_campaigns
Connected Sheet"] funnel["campaigns_funnel_clicks → campaigns_funnel
⚙️ Dataform — slug→sheet fallback recovers OneLink"] raw --> prep prep --> utm prep --> dev prep --> master utm --> master dev --> master sheet --> creators master --> funnel sheet --> funnel classDef dbt fill:#ddf4e4,stroke:#2da44e,color:#000 classDef partial fill:#fff2cc,stroke:#c90,color:#000 class prep,utm,dev,master dbt class creators,funnel partial

How `campaign_utm_ct` is parsed

rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct.sqlx reads only destination_raw (the URL the link redirects to) and matches a fixed CASE of 4 query-param shapes. There is no ELSE, so anything else → NULL:

…ct=<campaign>…
…utm_campaign=<campaign>…
Android old format (utm_source%3D…, pre-2023-02-06)
Android new format (utm_campaign%3d…, regex)

Link patterns over time (milestones)

Era 1 — 2021 → 2023: campaign in a query param ✅ (~0.6% NULL)

Pattern	Example destination_raw	Parsed
`ct=`	moises.ai/made-for/bassists/?ct=mar23_doni_yt&utm_source=youtube…	mar23_doni_yt
`utm_campaign=`	moises.ai/beat-friday-2023?utm_campaign=nov23_martymusic_ig…	nov23_martymusic_ig
Android `referrer=`	play.google.com/…?referrer=utm_source%3Djun_eloy_YTIG%26…	jun_eloy_YTIG

Era 2 — 2024: AppsFlyer OneLink → campaign leaves the URL ❌ (89% NULL)

Example destination_raw	Parsed
moises.onelink.me/AuSS/eddiewarboy	NULL
moisesai.onelink.me/lbUs/bf24kleyttonfarney	NULL
moisesai.onelink.me/lbUs/bf24kaelinellis	NULL

The campaign moved into the OneLink path / slashtag. No ct=/utm_campaign= → parser returns NULL. This is the 2024 clicks crater.

Era 3 — 2025: messy split

Example destination_raw	Parsed
moises.ai/features/ai-studio-creators/?utm_campaign=aug25_ericassarsson_yt…	aug25_ericassarsson_yt
moises.onelink.me/AuSS/pw6rzgpp (opaque token, not the campaign name)	NULL

Many links returned to utm_campaign= (parse OK → 2025 clicks recover), but some OneLinks now use opaque random tokens that even a slashtag fallback can't resolve.

Parse success by link-creation year

Link year	Distinct links	Parsed OK	NULL	% NULL	Dominant new pattern
2021	35,869	35,642	227	0.6%	utm_campaign / ct
2023	29,130	28,937	193	0.7%	utm_campaign / ct
2024	21,203	2,253	18,950	89.4%	onelink.me (14,033)
2025	20,024	19,202	822	4.1%	back to utm_campaign (19,196)

Root cause & why it was never caught

rebrandly_campaign_utm_ct is a hard-coded CASE with no ELSE. When Marketing changed link tooling (query-param links → AppsFlyer OneLink → back to web links), nobody updated the SQL. A NULL doesn't error — it silently drops the row, so the funnel quietly under-counted for a full year. People changed the links; we never changed the query.

Fix direction (for the dbt migration)

Add an AppsFlyer-OneLink branch: derive the campaign from the OneLink path / route_slashtag (and exclude opaque tokens).
Add an ELSE fallback (slashtag → creators sheet) so unmatched destinations don't silently become NULL.
Segregate generic CTAs (download-app, bf25-lp…) so they don't pollute creator-campaign clicks.

See the recovery numbers in 2026-06-08 clicks (rebrandly) attribution issues.

Reproduce with qmb

session pi-2026-06-08-rebrandly-link-patterns

Parse-rate by link-creation year: qmb jobs sql qmb_2026-06-08_15-55-29_3c2ce7
Example links per era — 2021: qmb jobs sql qmb_2026-06-08_15-56-09_7f5f4d
Example links per era — 2023: qmb jobs sql qmb_2026-06-08_15-56-20_e49a51
Example links per era — 2024: qmb jobs sql qmb_2026-06-08_15-56-28_bb607d
Example links per era — 2025: qmb jobs sql qmb_2026-06-08_15-56-38_2aae34

Rebrandly — clicks source & the campaign_utm_ct issue