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SoBier
February 19, 2024
Solved

Sequential Segment and Segments

  • February 19, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 1702 views

Hi Adobe Community,

 

I'm currently developing a segment to understand the number of unique visitors that are in touch with certain areas of our site. 

 

The segment is structured to include hits on any pages that begin with 'A.com/A' or 'A.com/B', using two HIT containers in Adobe Analytics.

 

  • One HIT container includes hits where the URL starts with 'A.com/A'
  • The second HIT container includes hits where the URL starts with 'A.com/B'

The challenge arises with a subset of URLs that are structured as 'A.com/A/X', which refers to a specific section of the site (let's say, a contact form page). I want to exclude from my segment any visitors who only interact with the 'A.com/A/X' pages without also hitting other pages that begin with 'A.com/A' or 'A.com/B' during the same session.

The difficulty I'm encountering is how to exclude visits that only touch 'A.com/A/X' and do not engage with the broader 'A.com/A' or 'A.com/B' categories. The intent is to filter out visitors whose only action within their session is to visit the contact form page and none of the other service or product pages.

 

If anyone has experience with crafting such exclusion criteria within segments or can offer guidance on how to structure this logic in Adobe Analytics, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you for your time and support!

 

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Best answer by Jennifer_Dungan

I don't think you actually need an exclusion for this... 

 

So you are trying to pull back HITs on "A.com/A" or "A.com/B"... 

 

So let's look at some sample Visits:

 

Visit 1

  • A.com/A  (this should count)
  • A.com/C
  • A.com/A/X

 

Visit 2

  • A.com/B  (this should count)
  • A.com/D
  • A.com/B/X

 

Visit 3

  • A.com/A  (this should count)
  • A.com/B  (this should count)
  • A.com/A/X

 

Visit 4

  • A.com/A/X
  • A.com/B/X

 

You want to pull back the hits that have "(this should count)", if you pair your segment with Page Views, you will get 4, if you pair it with Visits, you will get 3, etc

 

 

Now, if you are capturing your URLs without campaigns, you should be able to just use:

 

 

 

Notice I used "ends with" so that "A.com/A/X" won't actually match the criteria. I also accounted for trailing and non-trailing slashes, since I don't know if your server enforces that...

 

 

However, if you are collecting query parameters and url fragments, as long as you don't need absolutely current data, you can just create a classification on your URL dimension to strip out query params and fragments (this is exactly what my "URL without Params" is, my "Full URL" is in eVar4, and my "URL without Params (eVar4)" is a classification applied to my eVar (classifications process every 4 to 6 hours).

 

This will safely allow you to look at "ends with" instead of create complex exclusion logic.

2 replies

RobertBlakeley
Community Advisor
RobertBlakeleyCommunity Advisor
Community Advisor
February 19, 2024

Will the following work for you?

It is a hit based segment that looks for pages with cancer (a.com/A) or guide (a.com/B). It then excludes pages that have cancer-fighting (a.com/A/X).

Set the exclude container through the gear icon.

    Jennifer_Dungan
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    Jennifer_DunganCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    February 20, 2024

    This could work too, depending on how many sub-pages exist under the "A/" folder.

     

    If there's a lot, that might be cumbersome...

     

     

    But there are a lot of different ways to tackle this problem.

    Jennifer_Dungan
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    Jennifer_DunganCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAccepted solution
    Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
    February 20, 2024

    I don't think you actually need an exclusion for this... 

     

    So you are trying to pull back HITs on "A.com/A" or "A.com/B"... 

     

    So let's look at some sample Visits:

     

    Visit 1

    • A.com/A  (this should count)
    • A.com/C
    • A.com/A/X

     

    Visit 2

    • A.com/B  (this should count)
    • A.com/D
    • A.com/B/X

     

    Visit 3

    • A.com/A  (this should count)
    • A.com/B  (this should count)
    • A.com/A/X

     

    Visit 4

    • A.com/A/X
    • A.com/B/X

     

    You want to pull back the hits that have "(this should count)", if you pair your segment with Page Views, you will get 4, if you pair it with Visits, you will get 3, etc

     

     

    Now, if you are capturing your URLs without campaigns, you should be able to just use:

     

     

     

    Notice I used "ends with" so that "A.com/A/X" won't actually match the criteria. I also accounted for trailing and non-trailing slashes, since I don't know if your server enforces that...

     

     

    However, if you are collecting query parameters and url fragments, as long as you don't need absolutely current data, you can just create a classification on your URL dimension to strip out query params and fragments (this is exactly what my "URL without Params" is, my "Full URL" is in eVar4, and my "URL without Params (eVar4)" is a classification applied to my eVar (classifications process every 4 to 6 hours).

     

    This will safely allow you to look at "ends with" instead of create complex exclusion logic.

      S
      SoBierAuthor
      February 20, 2024

      Thank you for your quick response,

       

      I might not have been perfectly clear in explaining my issue initially. 

       

      I'd like to provide additional detail on the specific exclusion I'm aiming to achieve in relation to the Unique Visitors metric.

      The segment's purpose is to count Unique Visitors who interact with either "A.com/A" or "A.com/B" and their respective deeper levels (such as "A.com/A/B"). The critical part of the segmentation is that a Unique Visitor should have interacted with at least one of these broader sections during their visit.

      However, the challenge comes with scenarios like this:

      • Visit 4: The visitor lands on "A.com/A/X" and "A.com/B/X" without navigating to any other pages within the segment definitions of "A.com/A" or "A.com/B". For my analysis, this visit should not be counted as a Unique Visitor because it doesn't reflect the broader engagement that the segment is intended to measure. The visitor has only interacted with a very specific subpage and has not visited any other pages within the defined segments that indicate a wider engagement with the site's content.

      In essence, the segment needs to exclude visits that are confined to these narrow interaction points and do not include navigation to the other pages within the broader segment criteria ("A.com/A" or "A.com/B").

      I hope this additional context helps in understanding the nuance of the segmentation challenge. I'm seeking advice on configuring my segment to ensure that when I report on Unique Visitors, it accurately excludes visits like Visit 4 that don't engage with the primary areas of interest within the site.

       

      Your guidance on this matter is greatly valued.

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