Segment container types Hit, Visits, Visitor - How to use correctly?

[akasha53249386]

I want to understand how and when to use 3 different segment container type Hits, Visits & visitor with example?

Below is the scenario

I have single page application with 4 steps and thank you page(Total 5). Application starts from step1 always.

We are capturing one evar (stepNumber) on each page view when customer visits. However visitor may choose to visit back and forth between step 1 to 4.

In Normal scenario - visitor starts with Step1 followed by Step2, Step3, Step4 and then Thankyou Page. So values captured in eVar(StepNumber) on each page view would be

PV1 => stepNumber = Step1, PV2 => stepNumber = Step2, PV3 => stepNumber = Step3, PV4 => stepNumber = Step4, PV5 => stepNumber = ThankYou

Freeform Report

StepNumber	StepNumber Instances
Step1	1
Step2	1
Step3	1
Step4	1
ThankYou	1

But in-case visitor does back and forth in between steps, values would be

StepNumber	StepNumber Instances
Step1	4
Step2	6
Step3	8
Step4	4
ThankYou	1

Question: Now in given visit if user go back and forth between various steps, reports should only count 1 visit of that stepper page. So we actuaully want to capture stepNumber reports of visits where multiple hits of given page should be count as single visit. What should be done in order to get following reports for following scenario?

Scenario:

visitor 1 -

              Visit 1 - step1, step2, step3, step4, thank you

              visit 2 - step 1, step2, step3, step2, step3, step4

              visit 3 - step 1, step2

Visitor 2

              Visit 1 - step1, step2, step3, step2, step3, step1, Step2, Step3, step4, thank you

              visit 2 - step 1, step2, step3, step2, step3, step4, thank you

              visit 3 - step 1, step2, step3

Now we want below report

StepNumber	StepNumber Instances
Step1	6
Step2	6
Step3	5
Step4	4
ThankYou	3

Now what should be done to achieve above report, what type of segments should be used?

[ashokkumarm · Accepted solution]

Hi akasha53249386​

Instead of using "Step Number Instances" metric, use "Visits" metric to avoid duplication in a Visit.

No need to create separate segment.

Result when we use Visits Metric is,

Step Number     Visits

Step 1                6

Step 2                6

Step 3                5

Step 4                4

ThankYou          3

Hope this could helps you.

Regards

Ashok