"Unspecified" in breakdown of Marketing Channels by Tracking Code

[DiegoRa1]

Hello!

I have a specific set of Marketing Channels that depend on the tracking code to categorize traffic. I can see traffic on all of these channels. However, if I do a breakdown by Tracking Code, I get a large chunk of all metrics attributed to "Unspecified".  

Below is a screenshot of this ocurring with Paid Search: 

What could be causing this? I ran Omnibug and sent tagged traffic to my site. I can see that, on the first visited page, the xdm.marketing.trackingCode is filled with the correct CID, but on subsequent page views the field comes up empty. Is this the intended behaviour?

All your help is much appreciated, this is driving me a little insane. Thank you so much for any guidance you can give me :)!

All the best, 

Diego

@PratheepArunRaj

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

What is the attribution on your Marketing Channel? What is the attribution on your Tracking Code?

Marketing Channels I believe by default have a 30 day attribution.. and Tracking Code has a 7 Day attribution... so mixing those 2 different attributions will often result in such mis-matches...

Keep in mind, that "Direct Traffic" Marketing Channels generally don't override stronger Marketing Channels like "Paid Search"...  so the last Marketing Channel (possibly set 3 weeks ago) could be Paid Search, but in the 3 days, users came directly to the site (there would be no tracking code, and therefore be unspecified)

This is why in your Marketing Channel rules you can set the Marketing Channel Detail to the Tracking Code value (where the rule is based on tracking code values - and on other Marketing Channels you can change the detail to referring domain or entry page, or Search Engine, etc)

Therefore, when you are breaking down your Marketing Channel values, you can use your Marketing Channel Detail (so that you are absolutely sure that you are looking at the same attribution model).

[DiegoRa1]

Thanks Jennifer! Will definitely look into the different expiration timelines for each element, I have a hunch this is a big part of issue from what I´ve read. 

[DiegoRa1]

Hi Jennifer! Thank you again for your reply :)!

I looked into it and my Marketing Channel Detail is set to "Tracking Code" for all of the channels that would capture paid traffic. If I break down Marketing Channel by Marketing Channel detail I get the same issue. 

If I understand correctly, the "detail" dimension will have the same expiration/attribution as Marketing Channel, in which case, could it still be the mismatch between expiry dates that is causing this, or could this be a deeper issue in my setup or the way my website works?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Marketing Channel Detail would be the same attribution as Marketing Channel... but if you are setting with / using Tracking Code, you are likely picking up an attributed value.

The other option is your Paid Search Detection...

In your processing rules, hypothetically you are looking for ANY rule of:

• Paid Search
• cid=paid

And your tracking code is the value of cid

But what if your Paid Search detection is also looking for UTM_Medium=paid or UTM_Medium=cpc?

Those are not cid, your tracking code will be empty, but your paid search rule is still triggered

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Paid Search Detection can be found in the Admin > Report Suites

Edit Settings > General > Paid Search Detection

[DiegoRa1]

I modified the tracking code’s expiration time to match that of Marketing Channels. This got rid of "Unspecified" in the tracking code breakdown of every single channel other than Paid Search. Now, I need to focus on this channel and see whether my specific configuration is the issue with this channel. Thank you so much for all of your help! :)!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You're welcome

[yuhuisg]

Your implementation is correct. xdm.marketing.trackingCode would normally be set on the first page, since that page has your campaign tracking code, usually in the page's URL. Subsequent pages that don't have the tracking code in the URL would not be expected to set xdm.marketing.trackingCode. 

There are some other posts in this forum that might be related to your question: https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/GlobalSearch#q=marketing%20chan...

Here are a few that might help you get to your answer:

• https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/marketing-channel-instanc...
• https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/same-tracking-code-diffen...
• https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/marketing-channels-campai...
• https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/last-touch-channel-by-tra...
• https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/chanel-and-tracking-code/...

[DiegoRa1]

Thank you Yuhuisg for referring me to these answers, I will be going over them and hopefully update with either a more specific question or a solution. 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Yes, I should have added that to my answer.. when you have attribution, it's set on initial then carried forward on subsequent hits... both Tracking Code and Marketing Channels work like this, but they are generally set at different expiry periods:

Default Settings:

In fact, you don't want these to be "set" on each call, so that you can see the difference between the instance of the value being set, and the carry forward.

• Page A (campaign)
  • Instance of Tracking Code Set
  • Value of Tracking Code available
• Page B
  • No instance here
  • Value of Tracking Code Still set and available
• Page C 
  • No instance here
  • Value of Tracking Code Still set and available

So if you say need to know the average number of pages per Campaign Entry... you can look at:

"Pages with Campaign Value" / "Pages with Instance of Campaign Value" so you can see if your campaigns are generating more "one and done" type traffic, or if those campaigns are creating good engagement to stay on the site... etc

[DiegoRa1]

Oh! This is pretty explanatory as to why I would want the value to be set only on the first hit . At least that´s correct in my setup XD!