Average Time Spent 00:00:00

[mrgupta]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone suggest what could be the reason if Avg time is showing 00:00:00 and bounce rate is 16%.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Time spent is a calculation of time stamps.. (Page B timestamp - Page A timestamp to get time spent on Page A)

If Page A is the only page in the visit or the last page in the visit, there will be no time spent... Bounces is "a single hit per visit", last pages in the visit (with earlier hits in that visit) will not count as a bounce.

There may be some calculation error when trying to do this against an unspecified value such as a campaign? 

[mrgupta]

Thanks @Jennifer_Dungan for the reply.

Please correct me - If a user came from

Search Ad > Page A and spend 1 min on the page and close the page. In this scenario Avg Time Spent on site will be 0 and bounce rate will be 0 and exit would be 1.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

In this scenario:

Search Ad > Page A and spend 1 min on the page and close the page.

The Avg Time Spent on site will be 0 and bounce rate will be 1 (or 100%) and exit would be 1.

Bounce Rate is single hit per visit, that 1 Page View is your 1 hit.

[mrgupta]

Thanks @Jennifer_Dungan. For this scenario in my case  - Avg Time Spent on Site is showing 0, bounce rate is 0% and exit is also showing as 0. It will help if I can get some direction on debugging this.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Well bounce rate could be affected by other hits on the same page, Adobe's bounce rate is "single hit" per visit.... unlike most definitions are "single page view" per visit....

What happens if you use Avg Time on Site again something standard like "Day"??

[mrgupta]

@Jennifer_Dungan What happens if you use Avg Time on Site again something standard like "Day"??  - It looks fine. There is no 0 value.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

It must be something to do with the way Campaigns are attributed? They are generally set to a one week expiry date?

[mrgupta]

@Jennifer_DunganIn marketing channel processing rule its set to 30 days. Could you please suggest if i need to modify expiry in any other AA setting?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Campaign is different than Marketing Channel... 

Also, since the default "Campaign" (eVar0) actually comes through Workspace as "Tracking Code", I am guessing that your "Campaign" is actually a custom dimension...

I would need to know more about how your dimension is actually set up.

[RobertBlakeley]

You can test various scenarios by going to your site yourself and use a custom tracking code for each scenario. Then create a visit based segment using your special tracking code for the scenario you are testing. You know what you did, and can see how it comes out in reporting.

At the risk of over communicating, Average Time Spent on Site is calculated using sequences as its denominator. A sequence is a contiguous series of “same” values. So if you saw two of the same values in a row, it would show that as 1 sequence. It gets even more interesting for the Campaign variable, which is basically an a evar.

Time is tracked across persisted values in evars. In the following example, a tracking code is set on the second page of the visit. The user sees 2 more pages before the user returns to the site using a different tracking code. The user then sees a page and returns to the site again using the original tracking code.

For the tracking code 123, the first sequence is 3 minutes. The sequence is then interrupted when the second tracking code is set. The last two pages create a second sequence for the tracking code 123. Time is not tracked for the last page of that second sequence because it was the exit page so the second sequence lasts 1 min. The Average Time Spent on value for tracking code 123 is 3 min + 1 min / 2 sequences, or 2 min.

[mrgupta]

Thank you @RobertBlakeley . I agree with your point. But i checked other metrics such as Total seconds spent it also shows as 0. I am assuming it could be possible because of the campaign Regx rule in classification rule builder. Please suggest any thoughts to start finding root cause of it.

[lukewahn]

Not sure about the technical reason, but I always find 'avg. time' to be zero for 'unspecified' values when using evars or classifications. I'm suspecting it has something to be with a value not persisting, and there is no second element to make that calculation. 

[mrgupta]

Thanks @lukewahn. I doubt if its persisting issue, persisting will happen when user navigate to another page. What if a user exit from the first page.

[lukewahn]

My intent was not related to a persistence issue itself, but rather that particular evar not having any value that persists. In the end, 'avg time' does not appear whenever the 'unspecified' value is shown for classifications or the underlining evar. 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I don't really use the Time metrics in Adobe, mostly because they are limited in what is reported, and we have another system which uses heartbeats and is more reliable.... So when I have used the Adobe Numbers, I generally keep them to very basic breakdowns...