How is unique visitors calculated from a specific time frame?

[user70977]

I want to see how many visitors were on a specific page between 10-10:30. In reporting,  I've filtered the time frame to look between 10-10:30 on a specific page.

1) If a user came at 9:50 and stayed idle on that page, will they be included in the total unique visitors between 10-10:30 in reporting?

2) If user came at 9:50 to the page and clicked on a CTA at 10:05, ill they be included in the total unique visitors between 10-10:30 in reporting?

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Hi, 

Adobe sessions normally have a 30 min timeout...  which means so long as there isn't more than 30 mins between hits, the session stays active.

Now, when looking at your scenarios:

1. User came at 9:50, but then did not click on anything between 10 and 10:30, they will not be counted. Even if they were idle on the page, if there is no hits, Adobe doesn't know if they are on the site or if they left.

2. User came at 9:50 to the page and clicked on a CTA at 10:05. Yes, this would be counted, since that CTA click is a hit (and has a hit id, a user id, etc).

Adobe doesn't know when people are sitting on the site idle or if they have left... all it has to go on are the hits (page views or actions). So, if you are looking at a very specific time window, only the hits that were received with a timestamp that falls in your definition will be included.

[Vinay_Chauhan]

Hi,

That explanation is on the right track - unique visitors in Adobe are based on hits received within the reporting time window, not on whether someone is “still present” on the site.

To your scenarios:

1. User came at 9:50 and stayed idle until after 10:30
   --> They won’t be counted in the 10:00 - 10:30 window, because no new hit was logged in that period. Adobe has no way of knowing they’re still on the page without activity.

2. User came at 9:50 and clicked at 10:05
   --> They will be counted as a unique visitor in the 10:00 - 10:30 window, since that CTA click generated a hit within the time frame.

So in short: unique visitors in a given time frame are those who generated at least one hit during that time frame. Session length or idle time doesn’t affect the count unless an actual hit occurs.