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H_L
Level 7
January 11, 2019
Solved

Entry Page and Hit Depth, Real-Case

  • January 11, 2019
  • 11 replies
  • 7196 views

Hello Experts,

Since I posted a thread:Why "entry page" cannot match "hit depth = 1"  and it is answered.

But I would like to ask a real case here to make it clear:

e.g., a visit as below:

Type URL > Landing on PageA > Click LinkB > Visit PageB > Search on Google (or type the URL) > Landing on PageC

1. What's the entry page of the visit? (PageA, or PageA and PageC)

2. What's the hit depth of pageC?

3. Will pageC get a count on its' entries as well? (if pageC get its Entries+1, will it be entry page?)

   

Reason:

I get following table: on our last level "content" page (like PageC), most them get "entries", but their hit-depth-1 pageviews are most 0, there are more than 500 pages  have same results.

So, i supposed, user explore and try to reach the page (like PageC) while exploring inside the website, but cannot find the link to the pageC, then, user eventually entrered the page from search engine or a external referrer or type URL.

Then, in above user path, the "content" page will get a "entries" +1, but the hit-depth is bigger than 1 since s/he has already explored some pages in the website before reach the "content" page.

So, it means, Entries of a page will +1 once it is viewed by a user from external website, but not only the first page of the visit, is it?

Is it correct?

But when I breakdown one example page by "traffic source", it looks like below:

I tried but don't really understand this situation.

May I have your comments to this?

Thank you.

H

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    Best answer by Urs_Boller

    unfortunatelly yes, page C will not show up as entry page.

    the problem is that "entry page" is not really the page where a user landed from outside, it is the first page analytics recorded during a specific visit.

    for entry/exit use the following explanation: if you would write all hits in an excel table (rows) having the pagename in one column. (as in your picture) then

    entry page -> first value in the col

    exit page -> last value in the col

    does that help? read more about entry/exit here: Entries and Exits

    11 replies

    Urs_Boller
    Community Advisor
    Urs_BollerCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    January 11, 2019

    "entries" can only occur once per visit, it is the firet time a value is captured during a visit (does not need to be hit 1). see Entries

    what might be possible that the variable (t12) was set on the first hit (thus 1 entry) but it was not a page view (s.tl call like custom link tracking). maybe user waited on the page for more than 30 minutes (visit timeout) and then hit the link (link tracking as first hit on a new visit)

    best bet to have a look at raw data ...

      Urs_Boller
      Community Advisor
      Urs_BollerCommunity Advisor
      Community Advisor
      January 11, 2019

      change "pageviews" to "custom/download/exit link instances" and see if it was a s.tl call ...

      H
      H_LAuthor
      Level 7
      January 17, 2019

      Thanks ursboller for the reply.

      So, it does mean, in following example, PageC will never be counted as 1 "entries" although it is entered from "external website", like google. Is it?

      Thanks for your adivce as well, I will ask for the raw data and look into it.

      Urs_Boller
      Community Advisor
      Urs_BollerCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
      Community Advisor
      January 17, 2019

      unfortunatelly yes, page C will not show up as entry page.

      the problem is that "entry page" is not really the page where a user landed from outside, it is the first page analytics recorded during a specific visit.

      for entry/exit use the following explanation: if you would write all hits in an excel table (rows) having the pagename in one column. (as in your picture) then

      entry page -> first value in the col

      exit page -> last value in the col

      does that help? read more about entry/exit here: Entries and Exits

        H
        H_LAuthor
        Level 7
        February 15, 2019

        Good day ursboller,

        Sorry to this late reply.

        Your further clarified content is helpful and clear.

        I appreciate that.

        H

        vickyg28253246
        vickyg28253246
        Level 3
        March 6, 2019

        ursboller​

        I would still like to know - how could that page C be identified as a "re-entry" page.

        Is there a way to capture these "Re-entry" pages, where within the same visit session the visitor might re-enter the site, possibly on a different tab, from the same or different referring domain?

        Urs_Boller
        Community Advisor
        Urs_BollerCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        March 6, 2019

        there are at least 2 options to identify re-entries:

        first, user comes from outside with no referrer or another domain, ideally with a tracking code. this might give you some indication.

        or you could try to setup marketing channels which might detect all the cases and the you just need to watch out for "marketing channel instances"

        remark: no referrer is either a hit from outside or some back-navigation...

        vickyg28253246
        vickyg28253246
        Level 3
        March 6, 2019

        Thank you ursboller,

        Could you please clarify the first solution: how can I create a segment isolating ALL entry hits:

        - initial entries (hit depth 1)

        plus

        - subsequent re-entries (the user during the same visit re-enters from the outside with or without a tracking code and with the same or different referring domain)

        Failing that, how can we capture the hits associated with a change in either referring domain or tracking code - through Marketing Channel instances? But what if the new tracking code still belongs to the same channel but the customer lands on a different product? Besides, if the tracking code persists for the visit, re-entries will show the old tracking code.

        And, if I understand correctly, a re-entry where the referring domain and tracking code remained the same would not count as a new instance, correct?

        Thank you in advance

        V

        Urs_Boller
        Community Advisor
        Urs_BollerCommunity Advisor
        Community Advisor
        March 6, 2019

        here are some information gor your testing...

        segment 1 - referrer

        "hit segment" where

        hit depth = 1

        or

        referrer URL instances > 0

        or

        tracking code instances > 0

        remarks to this segment:

        - you need to capture the "referrer URL" somewhere, either in DTM or by processing rule

        - make sure you only have tracking codes from outside

        segment 2 - marketing channel

        "hit segment" where

        hit depth = 1

        or

        marketing channel instances = 1

        remark: basically you check if a marketing channel is set on a hit. this assumes that you have a proper setup for marketing channels and the detect only traffic from outside (if not, put the second condition in a container and add marketing channel details to narrow the desired MC)

        both solution use the "instances" metric which is only set on a hit where the corresponding value is set. that means it doesn't matter what your expiration is, it only looks at the first hit....

          vickyg28253246
          vickyg28253246
          Level 3
          March 6, 2019

          Very clear, thank you!

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