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!

[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