Understand campaign metrics

[shiniga]

Hi ,

I am trying to understand the metrics : Click throughs vs Instances vs Visits from a Campaigns standpoint. How are these different and which is the one we should use to understand campaign performance. I looked at the definition on this link Compare visits and instances

However, in my report the 'instances' are almost double the value of 'Visits' and to think of most users clicking on the campaign URL multiple times, in less than 30 minutes (definition of a visit) does not make sense. Could someone help me understand this.

Thanks,

Shiniga

[PratheepArunRaj · Accepted solution]

Dear Shiniga,

Consider you have implemented Tracking Code retrieved from query string parameter 'ecp' of the URL. This is how the logic works:

Lets also consider URL as www.abc.com?ecp=Test and expiration of s.campaign variable is 1 year.

Case 1 : If you retrieve 'ecp' parameter value without using getValOnce plugin (To understand getValOnce plugin, kindly visit getValOnce page) below will happen.

Visit 1 - When URL www.abc.com?ecp=Test is loaded. Test is captured in s.campaign.

So Click through will be 1, Instances will be 1 and visit will be 1.

If you reload the page 10 times, since you didn't use getValOnce,Test is captured in s.campaign every time.

So, Click through will be 10, Instances will be 10 and visit will be still 1.

Visit 2 - When URL www.abc.com is loaded without 'ecp' parameter, Test will not be captured in s.campaign but still it is at the back end attributing the contribution for visits.

Now Click through will be still 10, Instances will be still 10, and but visit will be 2.

Case 1 : If you retrieve 'ecp' parameter value using getValOnce plugin, below will happen.

Visit 1 - When URL www.abc.com?ecp=Test is loaded. Test is captured in s.campaign.

So Click through will be 1, Instances will be 1 and visit will be 1.

If you reload the page 10 times, since you used getValOnce,Test is not captured in s.campaign every time.

So, Click through will be still 1, Instances will be still 1 and visit will be still 1.

Visit 2 - When URL www.abc.com is loaded without 'ecp' parameter, Test will not be captured in s.campaign but still it is at the back end attributing the contribution for visits.

Now Click through will be still 1, Instances will be still 1, and but visit will be 2.

Considering the above cases, Instances will be sometime more than Visits and sometime lesser than visits based on the implementation. Best practice is to implement s.campaign using getValOnce and attribute Clickthrough as metric.

Hope this helps!

Thank You

Arun

[shiniga]

Thank you very much for the detailed response. Sorry I did not get to reply earlier. But I understand the differences very clearly. Thanks again.