Session

A session is the concept of treating a user's interactions, from arriving at a website to leaving it, as a single unit. In Google Analytics a session is considered to have ended after 30 minutes without activity. If one person visits a site in the morning and again at night, that counts as two sessions.

A QR code scan almost always marks the start of a new session. When a user scans a physical code and a browser opens, that is not a continuation of an existing browsing session but the beginning of a fresh visit. Traffic arriving via QR codes therefore registers clearly as an increase in session count.

Behavioural data within a session is indispensable for measuring the effect of QR code marketing. The key indicators are session duration (how long the visitor stayed after scanning), pages per session (how many pages were viewed), bounce rate (the share who left after a single page), and conversion rate (the share who went on to buy or register).

To identify QR-code sessions accurately, appending UTM parameters is effective. Setting parameters such as utm_source=flyer&utm_medium=qr&utm_campaign=spring2026 lets Google Analytics pin the session source down to "the QR code on the flyer". When several QR codes are in circulation, giving each one its own campaign parameter allows the session quality of individual codes to be compared and analyzed.