is the Visit Number dimension based on Global report suite?

[HanzalahUs]

If I have a few servers sending data to one Global report suite, would the visit number reset dependent on the server they are on?

for eg, I visit xyz.com as a first time visitor, this sends data to my global report suite, call it allSites. I then visit a subdomain abc.com as a first time visitor, which also sends data to the allSites. would that account as 2 first time visits dependent on server or would it be allocated to one visit to visit number 1 and another to visit number 2. 

Thanks for the help in advance!

[bjoern__koth]

Hi @HanzalahUs 

Visits are Cookie-based and unless you are able to send the same cookies that are returned from the first server call with the subdomain server call, the user won't be identified as the same.  

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

That's not strictly true... I have a network of 30 sites, I did not set up any special Cross Domain ECID stitching, because we rarely have direct traffic from domainA to domainB.

The ECID is for the most part set to the exact same value for the user on the same browser so they are identified as the same person and I can see those users and their journeys on multiple domains. Even on Safari which is the most subject to ITP. There will be instances where the ECID fails to re-identify the user... but then we have that issue with users changing devices, browsers, or using incognito / private browsing that wipes out all their cookies.

So for the most part, the same user will be tracked across your domains, and be identified as the same user, and no, Visit number is tied to the Global Suite, not to the server they are on.

And if you are talking about actual subdomains... i.e. www.domain.com and abc.domain.com, if you ensure that your cookies are set to the main domain (i.e, the cookie domain shows .domain.com), then the cookies don't even need to be re-set... the cookies will be shared by all subdomains of domain.com. 

[HanzalahUs]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan , @MandyGeorge , @bjoern__koth 

Thank you for sharing your understanding of how this works, now this all makes sense, so visitor number is stitched to the ECID?

Also how would you approach tracking new vs repeat visitors for each server, would that be possible?

Many thanks, 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Yes, the ECID (or MID, or MCMID, there are a lot of names) is the shared "Visitor ID" across your network.... however, the Visit Number (while yes, is tied to the ECID) it is also per reporting suite.

So if you have a Global Suite for domainA, domainB and domainC, then the Visit Number will be incremented any time that visitor goes to any of those sites.. if they visit multiple sites in the same "visit" the visit number will not increment between domains.

However, if you also have domainD on a separate suite, the ECID value will be the same for the visitor, but the Visit Number will be counted separately for this domain.

Example:

Visit 1:

• domainB
  • Visit Number = 1 (global suite)

Visit 2:

• domainA
  • Visit Number = 2 (global suite)

Visit 3:

• domainC
  • Visit Number = 3 (global suite)
• domainB
  • Visit Number = 3 (global suite)

Visit 4:

• domainD
  • Visit Number = 1 (separate suite)

Visit 5:

• domainB
  • Visit Number = 4 (global suite)

Visit 6:

• domainD
  • Visit Number = 2 (separate suite)
• domainA
  • Visit Number = 5 (global suite)

If you were to do an export of the data, you would be able to see this user's ECID (let's user 12345 as an example), in both Global Suite and Separate Suite... as this is the same user identified within your overall Organization (ECID is set against your Org ID)... however, Visit Number is specific to the suite, so the two suites will maintain a separate Visit Number journey for each suite... the domains in the shared Global Suite will share the Visit Number data between them.

[HanzalahUs]

Thank you for the in-depth explanation @Jennifer_Dungan, I follow this, which sorts of raises a problem around understanding new vs repeat visitors at a server level, any suggestion on if this is possible to do as I'm trying to understand new vs repeat visitors on each server rather than at a global report suite level

Many thanks!

[HanzalahUs]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan , @MandyGeorge , @bjoern__koth

Any thoughts on how I could report new vs return visitors at server level? very much appreciate your thoughts

Thank you!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hi, you should be able to use a modification of my "non-repeat new/repeat users in a specific time frame" tip from a few years ago... you will just need to add one more "and" container identifying the server you want to isolate.

Here is the tip:

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/events/the-skill-exchange-recordings/analytics/may2023/ro...

I just tested this and when I look at my sample domain, between my "Global" segment and the specific domain (for that domain), my UVs is higher, which is a good indication that this is working... since its taking the specific domain into account

[HanzalahUs]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan, 

Thank you for sharing this, just a couple of queries is Days since Last Visit a lifetime metric? is this cookie dependent? 

I've tried the above segment and followed the tutorial I'm seeing a marginal difference (2) between the segment total UV and UV, Would this be normal?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hi,

There is no specific cookie for "Days Since Last Visit", but it should be calculated on the server based on the identified user... However, first time users won't have a "Days Since Last Visit" since it's their first visit... this will only apply to visitors who have returned to the site...

I believe that the Days Since Last Visit should persist across the whole visit, so if you are restricting to "server x", but their initial page view where this would be calculated might be lost due to the server restriction in the segment?

The more complex the rules, the more chance some oddities might occur... but if you are looking at a difference of 2, it's probably not worth digging into, but you can.. but this would require breaking things out into mini logic blocks, checking and re-checking to try and figure out where those 2 are being lost (or added?).

[HanzalahUs]

Thanks @Jennifer_Dungan,  Thats understandable, will look into this more, just a couple of questions in relation to the segment above:

1. Is there a reason on why all the containers are hit based and not visitor based?

2. In the recording you mentioned the containers should be correlated but the segment above isnt, is there a reason behind this?

Really appreciate all the support provided!

Many thanks, 

 Hanzalah

[HanzalahUs]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan ,

So I looked into the differences between segment total UV and UV and it could be due the date range that I use:
1. Using Last 30 days there is no difference

2. Using this month with relative date range - This is where differences are observed, and I've done a deep dive; all UV's that are not being captured in the segments sent a hit at 12:00AM on the first of the month, so assuming these are visitors that are on the site from the day before, though they are a relatively small proportion of users, anyway I could capture them in the new visits segment? 

Many thanks, 

 Hanzalah

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hi @HanzalahUs,

---

1. Is there a reason on why all the containers are hit based and not visitor based?

---

Yes, the containers inside the segment are hit based to ensure that ALL the logic in each grouping is part of the same hit. If the containers were also "Visitor" based, then any hit by that visitor that matched any of the values in isolation of one another would have returned a "true" state... it wouldn't match the behaviour that is needed.

The segment as a whole needs to pull the Visitor... but the logic to meet each of the criteria has to look at the hits.

While I will be addressing this more specifically in a future article, this article in my segmentation series touches on segment and container scope:

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/perspectives/the-magic-behind-the-curtain-complex-segments

---

2. In the recording you mentioned the containers should be correlated but the segment above isnt, is there a reason behind this?

---

I am not sure exactly what part of the video you are talking about... but my "Days Since Last Visit" do correlate to one another... and the counterpart segment also uses the same range checking for the opposite behaviour and contains the corresponding exclusion to prevent overlap....

I hope that makes sense.

[HanzalahUs]

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan ,

That makes sense thank you!

in relation to what part of the video, its when you adjusted the segment for new visitors to correct the double counting issue; 

Hi @Jennifer_Dungan ,

That makes sense thank you!

in relation to what part of the video, its when you adjusted the segment for new visitors to correct the double counting issue around the (9:55 minute mark, apologies I cannot add snippets to this board; restrictions), in the segment above you have is greater than equal to (exclusion) and is greater than, in the shared video you have is less than equal to (exclusion) and is greater than. 

is there a post in relation to the new and repeat visitor setup?

Many thanks,

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I don't have a blog post at this time in relation to this.

However, between the two segments, you need to make sure you don't have a one day overlap.

So in my current segments.. my "New User (30 Days)" uses

[

    Days Since Last Visit is greater than 30

    OR

    Visit Number equals 1

}

AND

EXCLUDE Days Since Last Visit is Less than or equal to 30

When I say "correlating to", I also mean that they don't overlap.

You need to identify people who's last visit was either more than 30 days ago, or is their first ever visit (that first visit is inside the 30 days)

I am excluding the return visits that are inside the 30 days.

My "Repeat Users (30 Days)" uses:

Days Since Last Visit is Less than or equal to 30

This matches the exclusion from the other segment... so what this segment returns, the other should exclude.

[MandyGeorge]

In short, yes the visit number would be the same across the sites. 

In a global report suite you are able to combine visits from more than one domain. If a customer starts on one domain and moves to the other, it will follow them and recognize that it's the same visit (and even have the correct attribution). This means that if they have visit 1 on site A and visit 2 on site B, they would count together.

The important thing when it comes to visit number (and visitors) is cookie IDs. The visit number is based on a unique customer identifier. If a visitor changes browsers, changes devices, or clears their cookies, they will appear to be a new visitor with a different visitor ID. The visit count is tied to the specific visit ID, so if that ID hasn't been on the site before, it will start the count at 1.

Here's some documentation about global report suites.

Global report suites in Adobe Analytics | Adobe Analytics