Paid Search Marketing Channel

[bindukumari1990]

Hi Team,

I have created paid search marketing channel, I have selected channel value as query string parameter, but still the previous value page URL is coming for the current date too. Why it is happening? 

[yuhuisg]

@bindukumari1990 what metric did you use in your report's screenshot?

[bindukumari1990]

@yuhuisg visits metric.

[yuhuisg]

I assume that you had just updated your Marketing Channel Processing Rule to use the Query String Parameter as the channel's value. So before that, the channel's value was the referring URL.

AA does not change old values, it will just start using your changed setting for new hits. So when you run a report, you should be running it for a date range that starts from after you had changed your Marketing Channel Processing Rule. If your report's date range includes dates from before the Processing Rule change, then you should expect to see the old channel values, i.e. the referring URLs.

[bindukumari1990]

@yuhuisg Yes, I am running a report for a date range that starts from after I had changed the Marketing Channel Processing Rule, but still it is reflecting old values.

[yuhuisg]

Firstly, note that you can reply to a post by expanding the "Comments" portion in the post, then entering your reply in the text field. That keeps your replies available within the original post. If you press "Reply" in your main post, this forum treats it like an answer instead of just a comment.

Back to your reply…

Since you're using the Visits metric, then there could be visitors to your website who are still being attributed to the Paid Search Marketing Channel that had been set before your Processing Rule change.

Re-run your report, but using the Marketing Channel Instances metric instead of Visits. Do you still see the referring URL in the Marketing Channel Detail rows?

[bindukumari1990]

@yuhuisg No, don't see. But how can I remove referring page URL from visits metric, as client wants to see visits from paid search.

[vibhatna · Accepted solution]

@bindukumari1990 , This is happening because of the marketing channel persistence. 

Suppose you have not set the override last touch for Direct channel. 
User comes in via Paid search on Jun. 1st when the channel details was set as Page URL. You changed the MC(marketing channel) rule for Paid search on Jun. 2nd and set the channel detail value to QSP value.

On Jun. 3rd user came in again via Direct channel but as we know override last touch is not set for Direct, Paid search will get the attribution for this visit. So for this visit last touch channel detail value will remain same as on Jun. 1st which is the page URL as the Paid search marketing channel was NOT actually set for the visit but PERSISTED from the last visit.

MC rules persist for 30 days by default. If user does not visit between the expiration set for MC rules both First and Last touch value gets expired and then you won't face this issue. You can see it via path: Admin >> Report suite >> Select the report suite >> Edit settings >> Marketing channels >> Marketing channels Expiration

You can also manually expire the persistence of old rule after making changes in the MC rules by clicking on Expire All button in the Marketing channels Expiration section. Please use this setting very carefully as it will reset all the First touch and Last touch channels for all the visitors. 

Note: 

Channel Reset - Expire all visitor engagement periods now.

If you have need to reset all marketing channel data you can expire all visitor engagement periods. You may need to reset data if your processing rules were previously configured incorrectly. All first and last touch channel values will immediately expire and be reset when visitors return.

[bindukumari1990]

@vibhatna suppose I use channel reset option then all data like visits, orders will be reset.

[yuhuisg]

@bindukumari1990 "reset" here means to reset all Marketing Channels' visitor engagement periods. I.e. all of your visitors' Marketing Channels will be set as if they have never been set before. Reset does not mean "zero out all data".

[bindukumari1990]

@yuhuisg, So after resetting it will remove the visits of referring page URL, Is this is the correct understanding?

[yuhuisg]

@bindukumari1990 I'm not sure what you mean by "remove the visits". If you mean old data will get deleted, then no, that's not what reset is. Reset means all visitors will start being treated as if they are new to the site. For example, let's say Bob had been to your website last week via Paid Search. Then you reset your Marketing Channels' visitor expirations. Tomorrow, when Bob visits by typing in your website's address, you'd expect him to still be attributed to Paid Search. But because of the reset, AA has "forgotten" about his previous attribution, so his visit tomorrow will be attributed to Direct. His visit from last week will continue to be reported as attributed to Paid Search.

[vibhatna]

@bindukumari1990 

Expiring the MC visitor engagement will reset only the First touch channel, First touch channel detail, Last touch Channel and Last touch Channel details values for visitor.

For example, an existing visitor already has First touch channel set as Paid Search and Last touch channel set Organic.

Now you expire the visitor engagement for marketing channel.

The same user if comes again via Email channel after expiration than Email will set as First touch and last touch channel for that visitor. Going forward Last touch will keep on changing as per visitors engagement.