Showing unrelated Ad Network Extra when break down Event Page

[TungNH]

Hi guys,

I have an issue with freeform table. When i drag and drop Event Page (meaning evar13) to freeform table, and i drag and drop Ad Network Extra as break down of Event Page and i see unrelated value. For example, i only trigger Podcast for page home, however when i drag and drop all Ad Network Extra (without filter specifically value) as break down of page Category 5 and i still see Podcast value in this page. So my question is: Event Page and Ad Network Extra operate independently but can be linked in reports based on sessions and page views. Therefore, if you see unexpected eVar values, it may be due to the way Adobe Analytics binds data from sessions and page views. Am i correct?

Thank you guys!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You really have to keep in mind that Visits can have multiple Marketing Channels in theory, and Marketing Channels by default have a 30 day attribution.

Now, I am assuming that your Page (eVar13) is tracked on every page of your visit.

So let's look at a sample:

Visit 1

• Page 1 (Coming from Display Ad)
  • eVar13 is set to "Category 2"
  • Marketing Channel is set to "Display"
  • Marketing Channel Instance is triggered (due to Marketing Channel being set)
• Page 2
  • eVar13 is set to "Category 3"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Display" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)
• Page 3
  • eVar13 is set to "home"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Display" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)

Visit 2 - 5 days later

• Page 4 (coming Direct)
  • eVar13 is set to "category 4"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Display" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)
• User gets an email and clicks on it
• Page 5 (coming from email)
  • eVar13 is set to "category 6"
  • Marketing Channel is set to "Email"
  • Marketing Channel Instance is triggered (due to Marketing Channel being set)
• Page 6
  • eVar13 is set to "category 5"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Email" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)
• Page 1
  • eVar13 is set to "category 5"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Email" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)

You would end up with something like this:

				Page Views	Marketing Channel Instance	Visits
Page				7	2	2
	Page 1			2	1	2
		Marketing Channel		2	1	2
			Display	1	1	1
			Email	1	0	1
	Page 2			1	0	1
		Marketing Channel		1	0	1
			Display	1	0	1
	Page 3			1	0	1
		Marketing Channel		1	0	1
			Display	1	0	1
	Page 4			1	0	1
		Marketing Channel		1	0	1
			Display	1	0	1
	Page 5			1	1	1
		Marketing Channel		1	1	1
			Email	1	1	1
	Page 6			1	0	1
		Marketing Channel		1	0	1
			Email	1	0	1

You see that pages, even when they aren't the direct landing page for the campaign, will get the attributed values due to the 30 day attribution.

Marketing Channel is Last Touch, therefore the last value will be maintained until it expires or is overwritten (like in the case of Page 5 in visit 2, Visit 2 is a single visit, with two Marketing Channels, one is maintained from the last visit, the other is explicitly set mid-way through the visit.

[TungNH]

Hello Jennifer, first of all I want to thank you for the detailed explanation and your example is very clear. However, i still concern one thing that need you confirm. In case of users Visit 2 - 5 days later:

• Page 1
  • eVar13 is set to "category 5"
  • Marketing Channel remains "Email" due to 30 day attribution
  • Marketing Channel Instance is not triggered (since the value is carried forward and not explicitly set)

do you mean: In this case page1 will display an unrelated value of email (Marketing channel) even though the user did not trigger email with page1. The reason is because at:

• Page 5 (coming from email)
  • eVar13 is set to "category 6"
  • Marketing Channel is set to "Email"
  • Marketing Channel Instance is triggered (due to Marketing Channel being set)

Am i correct?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Correct. Page 1 is the fourth page in the visit, it will be associated to the Email Marketing Channel, since it comes after Email was set (on Page 5) and being in the same visit, it's definitely within the 30 day attribution. The Visit itself will be associated to both Display and Email (since there are pages within the visit that touch different Marketing Channels).

This is exactly how Marketing Channels are supposed to work.

Think of a site with a conversion event (like a purchase).

If a user follows a paid ad to a Product Page, they add it to their cart, they continue to do some shopping, leave, then come back a few days later and checkout.

That checkout/order will be associated with the paid ad (as the last touched marketing channel)

In a scenario where the user interacts with multiple channels:

a user follows a paid ad to a Product Page, they add it to their cart, they continue to do some shopping, leave, a few days later, they get an email reminding them they have items in their cart, they follow that link (now getting Email as the marketing channel), and they checkout.

In the case, Email will be the Marketing Channel associated to the checkout/order... however, the marketing team may want to look at a custom "Participation Attribution" on their Marketing Channels, so they will see BOTH Paid Ad and Email associated to the Email (but using custom attribution is another topic entirely)