Campaign, tracking code and query string parameter - should it be persistent?

Hi,

So for Campaign. I noticed your processing rules are used query string s_cid. That may be what you are using, most people just use cid, but if it is s_cid you should be good

i.e. do you URLs have

?s_cid=xxxxx_xxxxx_xxxx

or

?cid=xxxxx_xxxxx_xxxx

If your param is really cid, that would cause some of your marketing channel rules not to fire, but if it is s_cid (which I will assume for now unless otherwise told) then that is fine.

Now, for tracking your campaigns, since CID should be external campaigns only, yes, they should be tracked every time they are present in the URL (if you have internal campaigns most people use a different query string icid - for "internal campaign", this is used on internal promos and such when users are already on your site and navigating around)

So let's look at an example (using standard 1 Week Attribution) of Campaign (Tracking Code):

Visit 1 - Direct Entry, no campaign

• Page A
  • s.campaign is left empty
• Page B
  • s.campaign remains empty

Visit 2 - Campaign X

• Page C (url has ?s_cid=x)
  • s.campaign is set to "X"
• Page D (url has no campaign)
  • s.campaign remains "X" due to 1 week attribution

Visit 3 - Two days after Visit 2, No Campaign

• Page E
  • s.campaign remains "X" due to 1 week attribution
• Page F
  • s.campaign remains "X" due to 1 week attribution

Visit 4 - One Day after Visit 3, Campaign Y

• Page G
  • s.campaign is set to "Y"
• Page H
  • s.campaign remains "Y" due to 1 week attribution
• Conversion Triggered
  • Conversion should be attributed to "Y"

Visit 5 - Six Days after Visit 4, Multiple Campaigns

• Page I - coming from Social Media with Campaign Z
  • s.campaign is set to "Z"
• Page J
  •  s.campaign remains "Z" due to 1 week attribution
• Conversion Triggered
  • Conversion should be attributed to "Z"
• User gets a newsletter during the session, with campaign W
• Page K - clicks on Newsletter link
  • s.campaign is set to "W"
• Conversion Triggered
  • Conversion should be attributed to "W"

You can see that the attribution carries the value forward 7 days, but that 7 days resets for each value passed.... The "instance" of the tracking code is where the s_cid exists, when it exists, the value is explicitly set; and if the visit has multiple entries to the site, both of those will be recorded (Your marketing channels should do that as well).

The "last seen" campaign (at the time of the conversion) is attributed to the conversion, so in the case of Visit 5 with 2 conversions at different points in the journey are attributed to different campaigns.

Your Marketing Channels work just like the above, except they normally take more than the campaign into consideration... they would look at referrers, search engine detections, etc to apply more complex rules... and again, they should have an attribution... Without that attribution, as soon as the use navigates to another page, you will lose the information about the campaign (which it sounds like you might be getting in your Tracking Code....)

For Marketing Channel, it depends on the rules... there is usually a rule to catch "direct" traffic (i.e. no campaign query string), but this should be paired with "first page of visit" to ensure it doesn't override your other rules once the user navigates... there is also a setting in the Marketing Channel Manager that says to "not override Last Touch Channel":

This means that in this scenario, the more specific channel will be maintained (and internal navigation won't break your channels either):

Visit 1 - Paid Search

• Page A - s_cid=something_paid_othervalue 
  • Marketing Channel set to "paid search"
• Page B (no query string)
  • Marketing Channel remains "paid search" (not first page of visit, and within attribution period)

Visit 2 - Direct

• Page C
  • Marketing Channel remains "paid search" (it's within the attribution period, and direct should not override an explicit channel)
• Page D
  • Marketing Channel remains "paid search" (not first page of visit, and within attribution period)

Now, looking at your current rules... there are definitely some issues....

First Rule:

I don't think you need 3 here, it should already be covered by 1, also, depending on the attribution this might be overriding something else... a marketing rule that doesn't depend on cid values... your 1 week attribution of your Campaigns code might still have the value, but the Marketing Channel might supposed to be something like Organic Search or Organic Social (which have no campaigns). 

Also, the URL contains gclid here is yes, a "paid search", but if someone forgot to add s_cid, your Marketing Channel Details may be blank (4).  I would actually suggest splitting into 2 rules... both that identify as "paid search", but one that looks for you s_cid (and sets the details for that) (keep this as the first rule), then make a rule for gclid that falls underneath it (also note that gclid is a query string param, so while the "Page URL contains" technically works, I would make this a more specific check for "Query String Parameter gclid exists", and set your channel's value to the gclid param... 

Next Rule, Natural Search... make sure you have checked your configurations for Paid Search are properly configured. See Admin > Report Suites > (choose suite) > Edit Settings > General > Paid Search Detection

Next, your rules for "Email".. unless people constantly forget to add proper campaigns to the links in your emails, I don't think that you really need to list all those referrers... also, this won't cover desktop emails applications, or any email applications not listed here... it's best to ensure your emails are properly tagged and remove some of these complications. However, if you wish to keep these, I don't think it will interfere with anything... it's just more of a headache to manage and still won't capture everything... 

 The other rules are looking good from my scan...