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How does s.tl() count visits and visitors

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
October 16, 2015
6 replies
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Howdy

I've got a single page form with a number of s.tl() calls on the page to capture the field and button interactions through the form.

My question is whether the visit and visitor count for each s.tl() call is unique to each button and if a visitor visits multiple times does it remember the previous visitor? Also, if the s.tl() call is fired on an onchange event does this mess up the visit/visitor count?

The reason for this question is that I have an s.tl() call fire on a spinner page (form submission processing page) which visitors can't interact with.

The s.tl() fires on an onchange event and populates a prop/evar and fires an event to capture the stage of form that has just been interacted with. Once done the visitor can't return to the form as the confirmation page displays. The only way to fire it again is to complete the form and visit to visitor ratio is around 1. To my way of thinking the visit and visitor count for this prop should always be one to one.

However, what I'm seeing is that the visit and visitor numbers don't match. For example there may be 10 visits, but six visitors. So I'm thinking the page visit/visitor count comes into play as each visitor can only pass through this section one each submission.

Anyone seen the same thing or can explain why the difference?

Thanks

Analytics

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Best answer by Alexis_Cazes_

Hi Matt,

1.The visitorID is based on a cookie on the visitor browser. So if the customer is using the same browser one the same machine and already has a cookie then when the user comes back then it will counted the same visitor for the TIME PERIOD. So if you run a report for MAY 2014 and the customer came 3 times, he should be counted only once in the total of Unique Visitors

2.Visit are counted from the point the customer comes to your website until 30 minutes or more of inactivity. The inactivity in this case means that no image request has been sent to Adobe Servers in this lapse of time. (The customer can still have your webpage open in his browser). The visit is reset also if the cookie is deleted.

3.Not when you run a report visitor and visits will be attributed for each values (line items) that were sent during a visit. The value are duplicated at the level of line items but the total at the bottom of the of a report will always be the deduplicated total of Uniques visitors or visits.

i.e: One visit only but 3 distinct values where sent

Prop report Uniques visitors Visits

Value1 1 1

Value2 1 1

Value3 1 1

TOTAL 1 1

4.The event onchange can not be applied to a link/button I believe (let me know if I am wrong), I think you might be using onclick. If it is onclick event and the customer cannot come to page if he presses back button then yes it would be strange to see more Visits than Visitors.

But if it is onchange, then it might be possible as onchange if for html elements where selection change, a textarea or dropdown box for example. What I think is the customer select the product in the specific html element, the onchange event is fired with the Adobe code. The customer is still on the Application page IF the onchange to do redirect to thank you page. In this case the customer could stop the process or wait 30min+ and submit the form. Then at this specific point we have 1 visitor and 2 visits.

Let me know if you have any further question.

Best regards.

Alexis Cazes

Alexis_Cazes_

Level 10

Visit and Visitor are counted in the same way for s.t() calls than for s.tl(). There should not be any difference.

When you say there is more visits than visitor do you speak about the eVar report? If so remember that the eVar can persist for a set period of time.

If you could give us some details like code and settings at your side, we will try to help you to explain the differences.

Best regards.

Alexis Cazes

A

Anonymous

Hi Alexis

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Below is an example of the type of visit/visitor numbers that we get for each interaction in the form.

Here is a code snippet when firing the click/onchange s.tl() call. Essentially, it's a function call in a JS file that we load in the page and we pass the interaction type etc as parameters.

var s=s_gi(s_account); s.linkTrackVars='events,eVar26,prop44'; s.eVar26=interactionType;s.prop44=s.pageName+':'+interactionType;s.linkTrackEvents='event22'; s.events='event22'; s.tl(this,'o',interactionType);

Let me know if you need anything more.


	Prop 44 - Fires on the processing page	Instance		Visitor			Visit
1.	Application-form-product1	1,250	66.4%	1,233	67.4%	1,272	67.0%

2.	Application-form-product2	381	14.5%	337	14.8%	350	14.9%

3.	Application-form-product3	337	12.8%	308	13.6%	313	13.3%

4.	Application-form-product4	166	6.3%	145	6.4%	149	6.4%

Alexis_Cazes_

Level 10

Hi,

Thanks for the details. So it seems that you are running a prop report. As it is a traffic variable it cannot persist.

Per the data that you sent here are some explanation:

a.The customer do another product application.

or

b.The visit time out, no image request is send for 30 mins and then the visitor do another action on the specific page

You said that you are using the onchange event, if you are using this event on a field when the customer lets say input something rather than the button that redirect the user to page "Thank you " then it is possible that you may have more visit than visitor per explanation b.

The best way to confirm that is to use Data feed (contact clientcare) for a day and check on which page the new visit start.

Best regards.

Alexis Cazes

A

Anonymous

Thanks Alexis

All great responses, which have led me to think of more questions (which is good thing. Hopefully we can get to a common understanding that may help others):

- a) If customers click on each button or onchange event in the form where we fire the the s.tl() call, isn't the scope of the visit/visitor count for that button click or change event only? If they go on to complete another production application the visit/visitor count would be excluded as it's a different interaction as the prop values would be different?

b) Possible. The numbers are small enough for a group of people to get distracted and come back to it. This may be especially true for the interactions high in the form, however, it brings me back to point a) above, where we fire the onchange event. Customers can't interact with this call as it's fired on submission and they would only submit the form once.

Thanks again mate. Really appreciate getting back to help me understand this.

Regards

Matt

Alexis_Cazes_Accepted solution

Level 10

Hi Matt,

1.The visitorID is based on a cookie on the visitor browser. So if the customer is using the same browser one the same machine and already has a cookie then when the user comes back then it will counted the same visitor for the TIME PERIOD. So if you run a report for MAY 2014 and the customer came 3 times, he should be counted only once in the total of Unique Visitors

2.Visit are counted from the point the customer comes to your website until 30 minutes or more of inactivity. The inactivity in this case means that no image request has been sent to Adobe Servers in this lapse of time. (The customer can still have your webpage open in his browser). The visit is reset also if the cookie is deleted.

3.Not when you run a report visitor and visits will be attributed for each values (line items) that were sent during a visit. The value are duplicated at the level of line items but the total at the bottom of the of a report will always be the deduplicated total of Uniques visitors or visits.

i.e: One visit only but 3 distinct values where sent

Prop report Uniques visitors Visits

Value1 1 1

Value2 1 1

Value3 1 1

TOTAL 1 1

4.The event onchange can not be applied to a link/button I believe (let me know if I am wrong), I think you might be using onclick. If it is onclick event and the customer cannot come to page if he presses back button then yes it would be strange to see more Visits than Visitors.

But if it is onchange, then it might be possible as onchange if for html elements where selection change, a textarea or dropdown box for example. What I think is the customer select the product in the specific html element, the onchange event is fired with the Adobe code. The customer is still on the Application page IF the onchange to do redirect to thank you page. In this case the customer could stop the process or wait 30min+ and submit the form. Then at this specific point we have 1 visitor and 2 visits.

Let me know if you have any further question.

Best regards.

Alexis Cazes

A

Anonymous

Thanks again Alexis

All of that makes sense and is how I understand the visit/visitor count to work.

I've put this table together to illustrate what I think should be happening through the form with the visit/visitor count. It makes sense until the form submit. However the numbers are as they are in the earlier post.

To my way of thinking even if the session ended and the customer continued through to submit - because it's the submission part of the form and they would generally only submit once within the reporting period - then the visit/visitor count for this tracking should be equal, right?

I think it may require a bit more investigation on our side to disprove the hypothesis that customers only apply for one product within the reporting period. Potentially, there may be a small group of customers each week that share devices/machines and both applying for the same product.

Really appreciate your help.

If you spot something I've overlooking, the let me know. I'd really like to understand why this is occurring on this part of the form.

Cheers

Matt

Action (Note: session ends after each action)	Visitor ID Cookie	Customer visit number to web site	Visit/visitor to web site product page	Visit /visitor to online application form after product page	Visit/visitor count for prop when clicks button 1 (Q1) in the form*	Visit/visitor count for prop when clicks button 2 (Q2) in the form*	Visit/visitor count for prop when onchange is fired on form submit**
Customer #1 clicks a to review product	1	1	1/1	0/0	0/0	0/0	0/0
Customer #1 Visits 3 times more to product page.	1	2-4	4/1	1/1	0/0	0/0	0/0
Customer #1 Begins to complete form then abandons after completing the second question	1	4	4/1	1/1	1/1	1/1	0/0
Customer #2 customer clicks to review product and apply, but stops after first question, session then ends	1	1	5/2	2/2	2/2	1/1	0/0
Customer #3 clicks to review product and apply, but abandons after second question	1	1	6/3	3/3	3/3	2/2	0/0
Customer #1 clears cookies and returns to apply, but again abandons after second question	2	1	7/3	4/3	4/4	3/3	0/0
Customer #2 restarts session, completes Q2, but abandons form	1	2	7/3	4/3	5/4	4/3	0/0
Customer #3 goes to product page and applies on first visit	1	1	8/3	6/3	6/5	5/4	1/1
Customer #1 returns to the site and applies	1	1	9/3	7/3	7/5	6/4	2/2
Customer #2 returns to the website and applies	1	1	10/3	8/3	8/5	7/4	3/3

* On each button click the s.tl() fires an event/evar/prop. The evar/prop is the section name of the form so each one is unique to each section of the form. On submit we fire the onchange event with a similar value

** At this stage of the form the user cannot interact with the form as it’s fired when the form is submitted. The only way for it to fire again is for the customer to complete the form again (which they don’t generally do within the weekly reporting period, or at least I believe that to be the case).

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