Steam Utm Traffic Sender

Last updated: February 11, 2026

Send one lightweight visit per URL to Steam game pages using your final URLs with UTM parameters. The actor spreads visits over a configurable time window (default 2h, cost-optimized) or uses a fixed delay between each hit—ideal for making your campaigns appear in Steam's Marketing & Visibility dashboards.

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Why Use This Actor?

Automate “one visit per game per day” at scale

• No more manual testing of UTM links
• Send visits to hundreds or tens of thousands of Steam URLs in a single run
• Perfect for validating that your campaigns show up in Steam’s reporting

Built for marketing attribution

• Designed for Steam game marketing teams
• Make your UTM campaigns appear in the Marketing & Visibility tables
• Test tracking setups before going live on paid campaigns

Two scheduling modes

• Spread mode (runHours): visits spread evenly over a time window (e.g. 2h or 24h)—best for realistic “one visit per day” pattern
• Delay mode (minWaitSeconds / maxWaitSeconds): random delay between visits—best for quick tests (e.g. 0.5–1.5 s, ~$1-2/run for 30k URLs)

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Perfect For

• Marketing managers running campaigns for PC / Steam games
• User acquisition / growth teams who want to validate attribution
• Agencies managing Steam launches for multiple titles
• Data / analytics teams who need consistent “test traffic” for dashboards

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How It Works

1. Reads a bulk array of Steam URLs with UTM parameters (urls)
2. Normalizes, deduplicates, and applies maxUrlsPerRun
3. Batching: sends batchSize visits in parallel (default 50), then waits—~$1-2/run for 30k URLs
4. Scheduling: spreads batches over runHours (default 2h) or waits minWaitSeconds–maxWaitSeconds between batches
5. Sends HTTP GET per URL, optionally via Apify Proxy (proxyConfiguration with “Customise proxy” UI)
6. Stores one record per visit in the dataset: url, startedAt, visitedAt, statusCode, success, error

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Quick Start

Minimal example (quick test with verification, 10 URLs)

{
  "urls": [
    "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1790930/Crisol_Theater_of_Idols/?utm_source=test&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=test&utm_content=test&utm_term=steam"
  ],
  "batchSize": 5,
  "verifyContent": true,
  "maxUrlsToVerify": 0,
  "maxUrlsPerRun": 10,
  "minWaitSeconds": 0.5,
  "maxWaitSeconds": 1.5,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false },
  "userAgent": ""
}

With minWaitSeconds and maxWaitSeconds, each batch of 50 visits happens every 0.5–1.5 seconds—ideal for a fast test. runHours is ignored in this mode.

Production example (spread over 2h or 24h)

{
  "urls": [
    "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1790930/...",
    "https://store.steampowered.com/app/3255890/..."
  ],
  "batchSize": 50,
  "maxUrlsPerRun": 0,
  "runHours": 2,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true },
  "userAgent": ""
}

Visits are spread evenly over 2 hours (default). Use runHours: 24 for full-day spread. Run the actor daily (Apify schedule) to send one visit per URL per day.

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Input Options

Option	When to Use	Example
urls	List of Steam URLs with UTM (bulk)	["url1", "url2", ...]
batchSize	Parallel visits per batch	50 (default, ~$1-2/run for 30k URLs)
verifyContent	Parse HTML to check real page vs challenge	true (for tests)
maxUrlsToVerify	0 = verify all URLs. 10 = only when ≤ 10	0 (verify all by default)
maxUrlsPerRun	Limit URLs per run	0 (default = no limit), set e.g. 500 to cap
runHours	Spread visits over time window	2 (default, cost-optimized), ignored if min/max set
minWaitSeconds	Delay mode: min seconds between batches	0.5 (default)
maxWaitSeconds	Delay mode: max seconds between batches	1.5 (default)
proxyConfiguration	Native “Customise proxy” UI	Type, groups (e.g. RESIDENTIAL), country (US, DE, GB, FR, PL, RU, BR, CN, KR, JP, etc.)
userAgent	Custom User-Agent (optional)	"" = Chrome desktop default

Spread behaviour: When runHours is 2 and you have 500 URLs, visits are spread over 2h (~1 every ~14 sec). With runHours 24: ~1 every ~3 min. When you have 30,000 URLs, it’s ~1 every ~3 seconds. Use minWaitSeconds / maxWaitSeconds for faster runs (e.g. tests).

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What You Get

Each visit produces one dataset record:

{
  "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1790930/Crisol_Theater_of_Idols/?utm_source=test&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=test&utm_content=test&utm_term=steam",
  "startedAt": "2026-02-11T10:00:00.000Z",
  "visitedAt": "2026-02-11T10:00:02.123Z",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "success": true,
  "error": null
}

Field	Description
url	Steam URL visited (with UTM parameters)
startedAt	ISO timestamp when the visit was scheduled
visitedAt	ISO timestamp when the HTTP request was sent
statusCode	HTTP status (200, 302, 404, 429, etc.)
success	true if status 200–399
verified	true = real Steam page, false = challenge/block, null = not verified
verifiedReason	meta-description, steam-game-page, cloudflare-challenge, access-denied, captcha, unknown
metaDescription	Extracted from meta Description / og:description. Proof of real page.
error	Error message if the request failed

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Use Cases

Marketing attribution – Confirm that UTM campaigns appear in Steam’s Marketing & Visibility dashboards before scaling spend.

Pre-launch visibility – Send one visit per day to unreleased games so your brand appears in their traffic sources.

Agency scaling – Run the actor daily for multiple clients; each client gets one visit per URL per day.

Test traffic for dashboards – Provide consistent, controlled traffic for analytics and reporting.

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Getting Started

1. Prepare your list of Steam URLs with UTM parameters (bulk array)
2. Push the actor: cd apify/scrapers/steam-utm-traffic-sender → apify push
3. Configure input: start with 50–100 URLs, minWaitSeconds 0.5, maxWaitSeconds 1.5 for cost-optimized run
4. Run and check Steam’s Marketing & Visibility dashboard for your sample games
5. For production: set runHours 2 (or 24 for full-day), increase maxUrlsPerRun, enable Apify Proxy, and add a daily schedule

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Limitations & Best Practices

• Steam anti-bot – The actor simulates lightweight, spread-out traffic. It does not bypass anti-bot protections.
• Volume – Start with 50–500 URLs, validate tracking, then scale to 30,000+.
• Proxy – Use the native “Customise proxy” UI (Residential recommended). Choose a country matching your campaigns: US, DE, GB, FR, PL, RU, BR, CN, KR, JP, or leave empty for random rotation.

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Support

If you need any help, please contact: corentin@outreacher.fr