Attribution model for tagged pages: Instance or non-repeating instance?

Question

Hi, we are trying to build a freeform table showing tagged pages. By default, when we did the segment, it shows pages that don't have the tags. When we change the attribution model to “instance” and “non-repeating instance”, it removes pages that didn't match. However, now, we don't know which models to use. Indeed, they are giving us two different numbers.

All we would like to know is which pages were tagged and how many visits those pages get. We have the feeling that we should use “instance”. Indeed, we suppose that the “non-repeating instance” is only counting a unique person visiting that particular page once but not counting any other pages that they visited. Indeed, if someone is visiting 2 pages that are tagged, we would like to see that.

Thanks in advance!

Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted Answer

I'm willing to bet you are using eVars for those dimensions?

You need to be mindful of how your eVars are configured for tracking...

To borrow a phase from a friend:

eVars are like chewing gum on the sidewalk, once you step in it, it sticks to your shoe until dislodged
Props are like a banana peel, you step on it will immediate action, then continue on forgetting about it

eVars are by default set to "Visit" level expiry. If what you are tracking should not continue past when the value is set, then you need to make sure that the expiry is set to "Hit" (so that it works like a Prop)

eVars are called "Conversion events" for a reason... think of this:

Page A with query string pararameter for campaign X (UTMs or CID, etc)
- eVar set to value "X"
- Instance of eVarX metric is set
Page B - query string no longer exists in the URL
- Value of eVar is still set "X" because of the "Visit" expiry
- There is no "Instance of" metric incremented here, because the eVar is not actually being set, it is a maintained value
After going through your site, user converts (makes a purchase, or registers, or signs up for a newsletter, etc)
- Value of eVar is still set "X" because of the "Visit" expiry
- There is still no "Instance of" metric incremented here
- You can now attribute that conversion to your campaign (hence a "conversion variable")

If you are using eVars for page level items because they have a longer character max (props have max 100 characters, and eVars have a max 255 characters), or just because a lot of "best practices" now recommend using eVars (because with the ability to set the expiry date as needed why not, plus Adobe has mentioned before that they have considered simplifying the tagging down to just eVars, but with CJA seemingly the potential Analytics replacement, I am not sure that this will happen)

Now, for you, to go back and try to get meaningful data after recording it "wrong" based on what I am seeing from your comments...

I would be tempted to use the "Dimension Name (eVar) Instance" metric instead of Page Views.. this should limit the values to just where you set the eVar.

MandyGeorge · Answer

By default, when we did the segment, it shows pages that don't have the tags.

How were you building your segment? If it was at a visit or visitor level, it would include all pages from the visit where the conditions are met. A hit level segment would be limited to just the hits with the value that you want.

When we change the attribution model to “instance” and “non-repeating instance”, it removes pages that didn't match. However, now, we don't know which models to use. Indeed, they are giving us two different numbers.

Using both of those options will only show you pages where that particular variable was set. If you're using a metric like 'instances' for that evar number, the non repeating will be less because it excludes stuff like page reloads. If you load a page, the evar fires, and then you reload the page, the evar fires again. Instance will include both of those, non-repeating instance will only include the first one. That's why you will see it be a bit less.

This documentation here has some information that might be useful (scroll down to #10 where it talks about attribution models).

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/segmentation/segmentation-workflow/seg-build.html?lang=en

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