1 Tracking Code attributed to multiple last touch channels (entries metric)

[user70977]

We've noticed an issue in Adobe Analytics where a single campaign tracking code is being attributed to multiple last touch channels (e.g., some users end up in "Direct," others in "Display") when looking at "entries" metrics. It is bit strange because tracking codes should only be attributed to paid channels.

Could this be an issue with our processing rule or something else (maybe issue with entries?)? For context, there were no major changes to our processing rule.

[yuhuisg · Accepted solution]

I assume that you're breaking down the Marketing Channel dimension's values by the Tracking Code dimension. And I further assume that your Tracking Code has been configured with the default "Week" Expiry.

In that case, what you're observing is reasonable. Consider this scenario:

Monday: Enter your site with the tracking code "foo".

Wednesday: Enter your site without any tracking code.

Let's say you have a Marketing Channel Processing Rule that states that if Query String Parameter contains "foo", then the Marketing Channel is "Display".

Result:

You have 2 Total Entries for Marketing Channel: 1 for "Display" (from Monday's entry), 1 for "Direct" (from Wednesday's entry).

You also have 2 Total Entries for Tracking Code, and both Entries are for "foo". The reason is that AA persists your Tracking Code value for up to a week (7 days). Wednesday is just 2 days after Monday, so Wednesday's entry gets attributed to "foo" too.

So, when you break down Marketing Channel by Tracking Code, your Entry from Wednesday gets reported with "Direct" Marketing Channel and "foo" Tracking Code.

To prevent such reporting discrepancies: always breakdown Marketing Channel by Marketing Channel Detail instead. That ensures that both dimensions are reported with the same persistence.

[user70977]

@yuhuisg Thank you for explaining. This makes sense but we've always broken tracking code by last touch channel, but we are only seeing this issue (with attributing to multiple channels) starting this month. We have not faced this issue in previous months when we broke down tracking code by last touch channel. Do you have any other hypothesis we can look into?

I double checked out tracking code persistence and this has remained the same as well.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I agree with @yuhuisg, just because you haven't seen it before, doesn't mean it didn't work like that... it's possible people now are just having more cross channel engagement.

This is why I always tell people not to mix Tracking Code with Marketing Channel.. they are different logic for related (but different) behaviours, and often have different attribution models (30 days default for Marketing Channels and 7 Days default for Tracking Code).

If your Marketing Channels are based on campaign values, set your campaign in to the Marketing Channel Details. If the Marketing Channel is based on something else (Organic Search, Organic Social, Referrer based, etc), then set the Details appropriate to those rules...  and only correlate between Marketing Channel and Marketing Channel Details.

Try checking the Tracking Code Instances and the Marketing Channel Instances metrics against your data...

You should see that Tracking Code "unspecified" will have Marketing Channel Instance, but the Tracking Code Instances will be 0.

And that the Tracking Codes that belong to other Marketing Channels will have 0 Marketing Channel Instances, but will show Tracking Code Instances..

Because these have been set in different contexts, and its the attribution that is causing the confusion.

The "Instances" metrics are set only when the Marketing Channel or Tracking Code dimension is explicitly set, but does not apply to persisted (attributed) values.