URL matching in intercept studies
Intercept studies are displayed to qualifying participants when they visit specific webpages. You’ll define where exactly you want your study to appear using the URL field on the Intercept tab of your study.
Note: Intercept URLs must begin with https:// and can only contain up to two wildcards (*).
Matching methods
If you want your study to appear on a specific webpage, you’ll enter that URL here as it appears when you navigate to that page yourself. But if you want your study to appear on multiple pages, you can use wildcards (*) in your URL to represent variable text. For example, entering the URL https://shop.com/* will display your study on any page that begins with https://shop.com/ regardless of anything else that follows in that page’s URL.
Use the table below to find the matching method that works best for common use cases, or refer to the sections below for a comprehensive list of options.
We encourage you to start with domain wildcards for the greatest chance of reaching enough Scouts.
I want to intercept anyone who lands on my domain, regardless of which page they visit.
I want to intercept people on a specific part of my website.
I want to intercept people who make any search query on my website.
I want to intercept people who make a specific search query on my website.
I only want to intercept signed-in users on my website.
Multiple matching methods can support this use case as long as the matching URLs are only accessible to signed-in users.
For example, if anyone can access https://shop.com/ but only signed-in users can access https://shop.com/account, you would append wildcards to the URL only signed-in users can access: https://shop.com/account*.
I want to intercept people who use a specific keyword in their search query, regardless of what else their search query contains. For example, anyone who searches for shoes, whether they search “tennis shoes”, “dress shoes”, or any other kind of shoes.
This use case is not supported at this time. We recommend narrowing your intercept to use Exact query parameters or expanding your intercept to use Query parameter wildcards.
Domain wildcards
Displays your study on any page of a specific domain.
The example URL https://shop.com/* will:
✅ https://shop.com/ ✅ https://shop.com/products ✅ https://shop.com/about/team
❌ https://google.com ❌ https://amazon.com ❌ https://facebook.com
Path prefix wildcards
Displays your study on any page under a specific path.
The example URL https://shop.com/products/* will:
✅ https://shop.com/products ✅ https://shop.com/products/shoes ✅ https://shop.com/products/shoes/nike/air-max
❌ https://shop.com ❌ https://shop.com/about ❌ https://shop.com/contact
Middle wildcards
Displays your study on any page that matches the start and end of a specific URL, regardless of what’s in between.
The example URL https://events.com/*/calendar will:
✅ https://events.com/seattle/calendar ✅ https://events.com/new-york/calendar ✅ https://events.com/venues/chicago/calendar
❌ https://events.com ❌ https://events.com/calendar ❌ https://events.com/seattle/tickets
Multiple wildcards
Displays your study on any page that matches a specific URL except where the wildcards (*) are placed.
Note: Keep in mind that an intercept URL can use a maximum of two wildcards.
The example URL https://shop.com/*/products/* will:
✅ https://shop.com/us/products/electronics ✅ https://shop.com/categories/winter/products/jackets ✅ https://shop.com/uk/products/shoes/sneakers
❌ https://shop.com ❌ https://shop.com/contact ❌ https://shop.com/cart
Exact query parameters
Displays your study on pages that match specific query parameters exactly.
Note: Different sites use different language when handling search queries. For example, some sites use query= while others use term= or q=. We recommend conducting a search on your intercept site to verify which language to use in your intercept URL.
The example URL https://shop.com/search?category=shoes will:
✅ https://shop.com/search?category=shoes
❌ https://shop.com/search?category=boots ❌ https://shop.com/search
Query parameter wildcards
Displays your study on pages that include a specific query parameter, regardless of what that parameter’s value is.
The example URL https://shop.com/search?query=* will:
✅ https://shop.com/search?query=shoes ✅ https://shop.com/search?query=winter+jacket
❌ https://shop.com/search ❌ https://shop.com/search?category=shoes
Multiple query parameters
Displays your study on pages that have multiple query parameters, one of which requires an exact match and another that doesn’t.
The example URL https://shop.com/search?category=*&sort=price will:
✅ https://shop.com/search?category=shoes&sort=price ✅ https://shop.com/search?category=electronics&sort=price
❌ https://shop.com/search?category=shoes&sort=rating ❌ https://shop.com/search?category=electronics&sort=color
Ignored query parameters
Displays your study on pages even if query parameters (or additional text) are present after your desired URL.
The example URL https://shop.com/products* will:
✅ https://shop.com/products ✅ https://shop.com/products?filter=new ✅ https://shop.com/products-sale
❌ https://shop.com ❌ https://shop.com/search ❌ https://shop.com/category/shoes
Estimated participant reach
Once you've entered an intercept URL, you'll see an estimated Scout reach. These numbers pull from the website visitation data for members of our Scout Panel who have opted into Dscout XT, giving you an idea of how many people have visited a qualifying site for your intercept in the last 21, 14, and 7 days:
Test a domain
Once you've set up a domain, you can test whether a specific URL would trigger your intercept directly in the builder by clicking Test a URL:
In the test field, enter a domain to see whether it would trigger your intercept study or not. You'll see the result displayed below your test domain:
Will trigger your intercept:
Won't trigger your intercept:
