Reporting on Conversions of Unique Visitors

[#1]

Hi All - my question is around the right segment structure needed to allow us reporting on conversions per "Unique Visitors"

When we built the segment (in the segment builder) based on "Visitor" and the metric applied was " Tracking Code (cid) ", we reported more conversions per unique visitor (the metrics in the free table were: unique visitors and conversions)

However, when we built the segment based on "Visit" and everything else remained the same, we ended up reporting on less total conversions per unique visitor!

So which way of building the segment is the one to go with: based on "Visit" or "Visitor"?

Thanks!

[#2]

Both the approaches to view data is correct. It depends on what data you want to see.

Is you want to see the data from visitors  who saw a specific campaign, use Visitor container. If a visitor sees a campaign in one of his visits and not in other, he will still qualify for the segment and therefore data for both the visits will be reported. That is why you see more data when using Visitor container.

While using VIsits container, it will report on only those visits where the campaign was seen, therefore less data than in segments with Visitor container.

Hope that helps.

[#3]

A segment is basically saying: "Find me all of the data points for my scope where there is at least one hit containing such-and-such specifications."

Consider 2 visitors:

John: visited your website 2 days ago through your campaign tracking code and converted.

Mary: visited your website last month through your campaign tracking code but didn't convert, then came back to your site yesterday and converted.

And let's say your report's date range covers the last 7 days.

Then:

Visitor-based segment would include both John and Mary's data. John: because his visit from 2 days ago falls under the 7-day range of your report, and Mary because of her visit from yesterday AND she qualified in the segment because of that visit last month. Unique Visitors = 2 (John + Mary), Conversions = 2 (John + Mary).

Visit-based segment would include only John's data. John: because his visit from 2 days ago falls under the 7-day range of your report. Mary is excluded because her visit within that 7-day range did not include that tracking code. Unique Visitors = 1 (John), Conversions = 1 (John).

Hope that helps to clarify what you're seeing.