Tracking URLs

[AMicro]

I'm new to Adobe Analytics and struggling with some reporting stats. I used unique tracking URLs in a recently issued press release. When I go into analytics to find the results it's showing only 5 total views. The last release with a unique tracking URL had 200+ views and was distributed in the exact same manner. The other thing that makes me believe the 5 views is not accurate is that we sent the release through a wire distribution service which is reporting 140 clicks on the same URL from their website alone. 

Any thoughts or help on a better way to find this data or if there's some sort of known glitchy thing in Adobe with unique URLs?

[Damonwhall]

Hello @AMicro , 

Is it possible to share some examples of these URL's? I know from personal experience where there are special landing pages or specific UTM queries that a number of the following can cause unexpected results.  Examples: 

• bad queries - the ? is not present, or there are 2 ?'s.  This will cause the dimension that captures specific UTM parameters to likely fail.  
• Specific URL data-elements - if you URL data-element is defined in a specific way, and you have URL's that fall outside of those definitions, they will not show in that dimension.  
  • Example: with or without a protocol https://
• redirects - some CMS settings will treat URLs with and without a trailing "/" differently.  In many cases, a redirect will occur without a training "/" depending on how things are set on your site.  In that case, if the lack of a training / causes a redirect, you will not see the exact value of your URL.  

troubleshooting: 

• when in the URL dimension (OOB or your own defined eVar), try searching for a unique middle part of your URL.  This way your pasting the whole thing will have less of a chance to showing zero results in the search results in the left hand menu.  *ex: start searching "/products/thing-ABC" instead of searching for the exact match "site.com/products/thing-abc/whatever.html?utm_medium=soc&utm_source=thingamagig..."
• I would go on your page in question, open the Adobe Debugger (or your network console) and see if when you arrive to your URL, you see analytics calls show.  If they do, then you know your data is being captured.  If they do not, then you know there is something wrong with your implementation with that page.  Here is the link to the debugger: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adobe-experience-platform/bfnnokhpnncpkdmbokanobigaccjkpob

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Another possibility is that by default, dimensions in Adobe Workspaces, have a 500,000 unique value limit - this is to help improve performance of the interface (as most people are trying to see the top items)... the data still exists in the raw data (nothing is lost), but it's possible that you hit the threshold for the month (particularly if you are collecting the full URL with parameters and have multiple query string variations). This could cause your URLs to be rolled into the dreaded "(Low Traffic)" bucket.

It's for this reason that I try not to rely too heavily on URL tracking for key reports. Or I use "Canonical" URL instead of full URL so that I can reduce the URL variations in a dimension.

Now, one thing you can do is request that the threshold of unique values be increased on your URL dimension (they will warn you that this could cause performance issues, and it could.. but I increased several dimensions to 2,000,000 and haven't seen any major issues).

The other option could be to create an isolated dimension specifically for tracking Press Releases, to ensure that every single view is available for your reporting. I do this on our Advertorial Content... they don't get nearly the same views as our Editorial Content, but because it's sponsored content, we need to be able to pull the data specifically, so I have an extra parameter for that content specifically that allows me to track it in isolation of other articles and pages, ensuring that won't ever come close to hitting the monthly threshold.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Oh BTW, welcome to Adobe Analytics

If you are getting "Low Traffic" you could try doing a full export with Data Warehouse, and use Excel to filter for the matching URLs.