The same CIDs are sometimes being classified incorrectly

[azmeister3000]

we have set up our CIDs so that if it starts with “cpc” or “ppc” it will be classified as paid search as below

This works well for most campaigns. However some campaigns starting with cpc get classified as other campaigns. Any ideas why?

thanks

aaron

[abhinavbalooni]

Hi @azmeister3000 

Since marketing channel rules follow a waterfall model, is there any possibility of a rule higher up satisfying the criteria for these campaigns before they even get to the above rule you've put in?

May be a higher rule is interfering with the classification here.

Regards,

Abhinav

[azmeister3000]

I don’t believe so. Other Campaigns, which is where some CIDs containing “cpc” end up, is much lower down the list 

[abhinavbalooni]

Hey @azmeister3000 

That is strange.

Would it be possible to share a few examples of tracking codes of right classification and incorrect classification. You can mask the sensitive bits. 

Cheers,

Abhinav

[azmeister3000]

Thanks Abhinav

Here's an example of exactly the same CID being classified as both Paid Search and Other Campaigns

 

[abhinavbalooni]

Hi @azmeister3000 

Usually, as per my understanding, we break down channel with channel details. I think, this also has to do with the visitor engagement window expiration that you might have set at your end for the channels. Repeat visits from a few users from other campaigns might be showing up in the reports. Classification looks to be fine. Would think more about it and get back but definitely related to expiration of the engagement window.

Also, what are the metrics you are looking at in this instance ? Custom attribution ?

Similar but not exact issue below except that they are looking at channel and tracking code.

https://experienceleaguecommunities.adobe.com/t5/adobe-analytics-questions/marketing-channel-against...

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hmm I was going to say that maybe the Paid Search Detection wasn't being triggered, but you have "Any" not "All" in the screenshot, so that shouldn't be the case... it should be the Adobe Paid Search detection OR the s_cid starts with.... the rule looks ok...

While this may seem like overkill, you could try adding a second rule for just "starts with" and place it immediately after the first rule and see if that helps resolve the issue...

You shouldn't have to do this... but I am just wondering if for some reason Adobe is trying to do "AND" logic on the rule despite it clearly being set to "OR" logic.... and maybe some of your cod campaigns aren't getting detected as "Paid Search"?

[abhinavbalooni]

@Jennifer_Dungan Does it look like anything to do with the expiration here Jennifer ? 

[Jennifer_Dungan]

@abhinavbalooni  Marketing Channel and Marketing Channel Detail as shown in the screenshot share the same expiry... You can almost think of Marketing Channel Detail like a specific classification of the parent Marketing Channel....

Now, if they were mixing Marketing Channel with Campaign (eVar0) or a custom dimension capturing their campaign value, then expiry/attribution mis-matches could be coming into play... but right now that doesn't seem to be the case.

[abhinavbalooni]

@Jennifer_Dungan Yeah makes sense. Is there any detailed documentation around how channel details behaves ? Adobe documentation doesn't delve much into details just that it is like 'last touch channel'.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Yeah.. this is pretty limited isn't it?

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/dimensions/marketing-detail.html?lang=e...

But, remember that the "Marketing Channel Detail" is set inside the Marketing Channel Processing Rules...

"Identify the channel as" sets Marketing Channel

and

"Set the channel's value to" sets Marketing Channel Detail

Adobe will keep track of both the "First Touch" and "Last Touch" values... 

These are actually the "First Touch" (within the specified period) Marketing Channel values.

[abhinavbalooni]

@Jennifer_Dungan Right ! And cause both get set in the same rule and at the same time so it does not makes sense that they should differ as per the expiry logic. Makes sense. 

Thanks ! The issue does look weird in that case.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Right.. you were on a good track though.. thinking about mis-matched expiry - that does tend to come up a lot when people mix Marketing Channels (usually 30 day attribution) and Tracking Code (usually 7 attribution)... 

But in this case, this should be the exact same attribution, set at the same time... 

It's actually a very strange bug...

Unless, of course, the Marketing Channels were recently modified?? With a 30 Day Attribution, if the rules were updated say 2 weeks ago... one set of data could be coming from the old rules (set 3 and 4 weeks ago), and the other data could be using the more recent rules (within the last 2 weeks)....

[abhinavbalooni]

@Jennifer_Dungan Yeah in that case they would need to have expired the initial channel attribution else it would show up weird like above.

[azmeister3000]

@abhinavbalooni @Jennifer_Dungan 

Thanks for the discussion. We actually did modify the channels in July and then once again in August. 

Is expiring the initial attribution definitely the right way to go?

[abhinavbalooni]

@azmeister3000 Yeah that would be the reason then. Cause the earlier categorisation for users would definitely lead to the mix up that you are seeing. You should have reset it when you did the changes.

Here's a link on how to do it :

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/admin/admin-tools/manage-report-suites/edit-report....

[azmeister3000]

I get how this would be impacting first touch but shouldn’t the last touch be getting reclassified properly though? We’re still getting lots of visits for last touch on that CID in both classifications 

[abhinavbalooni]

@azmeister3000 That can be in scenarios where folks came later through direct or a channel which doesn't override the pre-change classification in case of a few users.

That's one scenario I can think of off the top of my head.

[azmeister3000]

So if I drag in referring domain, all the last touch channel details starting with cpc that are classfied as have a referring domain "typed/bookmarked" and it looks like the original was google, which makes sense.

Supposing we had expired the attribution window at the time - would these now be coming through as Direct traffic for last touch channel or still attributed to "Other Campaigns".

If we expire the channels now, will they all now come through as Direct if people return and will the first touch remain the same?

[abhinavbalooni]

Hi @azmeister3000

Yea, If you would have expired the window at the time of changing the rules, they would be attributed to direct.

If you do it now, if they come through Direct then direct would reflect as first touch channel as all the previous attached values to channel would be reset.

This example from the link I shared above might help.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

It still depends on how long the attribution is set for.... and what time frame you are looking at....  If you are set for 30 day expiry, then looking at this or last month on your reports, you should be fine as the windows would have cleared already... but if you are looking at the last year, then yeah, you can end up with some odd mis-matches when rules were modified.

As for breaking down your Marketing Channels by Referring Domain, remember that those have different attributions... Marketing Channel is likely to be 30 days (but you may have changed this in your settings), but Referral Domain is definitely Visit level attribution.

But, if you use the Marketing Channel Instances metric, this should only be when a marketing channel value was set, and then your Referring Domain should also be the one as recorded when the channel was set. Basically this should compensate for the attribution mis-match, because you are no longer looking at 30 (or custom) days against all visits, but looking specifically at visits where the channel was set.