Divergence between Instances and Page Views for one article

[jcaponi]

We have an strange result on one article in our Analytics Instance (crn.com). This article

http://crn.com/news/applications-os/300074085/microsoft-lays-off-2-100-more-employees-plans-to-shut-...    

Displays as about 1,500 page views in our headline, author, and other reports that typically track, but over 85,000 Instances.  We never see a difference of more than one or two percent between page views and instances, except in this case. 

What could cause such a result? Is it possible this article appeared on another site and the headline was tracked there? Thanks for the thoughts.

[brian_au]

Hi Joe,

It is difficult to assess without further background on the variable dimension(s) in question and how everything is being set. 85k instances in which context? Is this a Custom Conversion eVar, Custom Traffic Prop, or a Site Content Page? How is the tracking being set: full page call or via custom link tracking? What are the expiration settings as well?

Best,

Brian

[jcaponi]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the reply. Most of our variables are set on the page level with H.26.2 code and some custom javascript, but I"m afraid I don't have all the implementation details.

Let me ask a more general question - what's an instance? I don't think we track that at all.

[brian_au · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

An instance is a metric occurrence of the given variable value being set via a tracking call. It is tracked inherently along with your variable being set (like a page view or visit). From the variable in question with 85k instances if you investigate how/when that is being set; that should illuminate the tracking behavior causes.

http://microsite.omniture.com/t2/help/en_US/reference/metrics_instance.html
>>>

The number of times that a value was set for a variable.

Instances are counted for all hit types, but are not counted when a value is recorded for a variable on a subsequent hit due to persistence.

For example, if a user arrives on your site via example.com, the first image request on your site contains the referrer of example.com. When this value is set, one Instance is attributed to example.com even though this referrer is recorded for all pages viewed during that visit.

Instances for conversion variables in data warehouse were added mid-2011, allowing data warehouse requests to treat a specific conversion variable instance as a metric. These metrics are not available for reporting prior to the time they were introduced.

Best,

Brian