Unspecified data - Adobe Analytics

[reddy_y-11]

Hello everyone,

V11 (Expiry after HIT ) - capturing the data like "A, B, C , D ". 

V11 fires in every server call.

Here my question are

1. more number in Occurence then page views and custom page view(e1) why?
2. In Dashboards should we use Occurence are not ? If yes in which seniro we should consider Occurence?
3. In Dashboards should we use Page views are not ? If yes in which scenario we should consider Page views?
4. To aviod unspecified what are the steps need to be consider?
5. Why unspecified values are following into Analytics?

Please help me on this.

[leocwlau · Accepted solution]

Hi @reddy_y-11,

Two reference documents

Unspecified, None, Other, and Unknown in reporting | Adobe Analytics.

Occurrences | Adobe Analytics

So it doesn't seem v11 fired (or has data) in every server call as there are lots of tracking without v11

To your questions:

1. Occurrences including non-page view tracking.

2. I generally discourage the use of occurrences as it is the count of "hit" and no business contest. There are 1000 custom events that can be used to measure and give more meaningful reports, such as download, button click, video play, and etc.

3. When you want to know how many pages have been viewed, as traffic or as engagement.

4. No, you cannot avoid "Unspecified" as it is the nature that not all evars have values in all tracking. However, in your case, you are expecting v11 to have value on all server calls but seeing "Unspecified", you need to check the tracking and see where the data is missing.

5. As above and the nature

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I agree with @leocwlau, v11 doesn't seem to be fired on all server calls, the discrepancy is too large.

It's almost as though you are setting v11 on page views, but not on actions (but without knowing your tracking this is a guess).

Unlike Leo, I don't tell people not to use Occurrences, however, I do stress caution when using it... if you do use it, you should know exactly what you are pulling, why and also, you will often need to pair it with a segment to get exactly what you think you are getting... so if you don't really understand it, then yes, don't use it

Leo is correct though, if you are expecting v11 on all server calls, reviewing your tracking to make sure this is actually happening would be a good place to start... same with where you are firing "Custom Page Views", as there seems to be a mismatch with Page Views there...

Do you have mobile apps? Are they rolled into the same suite? Are the dimensions and events being properly set in processing rules for those apps? This could be causing some of the discrepancies....

[Damonwhall]

Agree with @leocwlau,

You should really only use Occurrences to directionally understand call volume.  Occurrences provides page view + on page events.   

Regarding "unspecified", you are likely going to see this when the related dimension is not capturing values for that dimension for the related hit.  You can see this often when looking at click based dimensions (ex: if you solved for text values for your clicks and not say images).  

[reddy_y-11]

@leocwlau , Thank you!
A small correction, I have filtered unspecified data that is the reason, seeing only unspecified.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

To help clarify "eVars and Unspecified", eVars were started as (and are still called) "conversion variables", even though there usage has changed over the years to encompass more than just conversions.

However, in the following scenario (let's assume eVarX is a Hit level expiry, and eVarY is a Visit level expiry)

• Page 1
  • eVarX not set (therefore reporting will apply Unspecified
  • eVarY not set (therefore reporting will apply Unspecified
• Page 2
  • eVarX is set with "value"
  • eVarY is set with "other"
• Action 3
  • eVarX is not explicitly set, due to "Hit" expiry, value will be Unspecified
  • eVarY is not explicitly set, due to "Visit" expiry, value will remain "other"
• Page 3
  • eVarX is set with "value-two"
  • eVarY is set with "other-two"
• Page 4
  • eVarX is not explicitly set, due to "Hit" expiry, value will be Unspecified
  • eVarY is not explicitly set, due to "Visit" expiry, value will remain "other-two"
• Purchase event
  • eVarX is not explicitly set, due to "Hit" expiry, value will be Unspecified
  • eVarY is not explicitly set, due to "Visit" expiry, value will remain "other-two"

The eVarX will stay the last touched value for the hit.. but looking at the whole of the visit (i.e. page views, occurrences, etc), you will have three values for eVarX:

• value
• value-two
• Unspecified

If you are looking only at purchases, the eVarX value will be "Unspecified"

The eVarY will stay the last touched value for the visit.. but looking at the whole of the visit (i.e. page views, occurrences, etc), you will have three values for eVarY:

• other
• other-two
• Unspecified

If you are looking only at purchases, the eVarY value will be "other-two"

Unspecified is important as a conversion variable on Purchases... this allows you to attribute the purchase to last values set during a Visit, or if nothing was ever set before a purchase knowing that no internal campaign or drivers contributed to the purchase... 

But when not using a eVar as a conversion variable, the Unspecified values don't have as much meaning, and this is why there is an option to include or not include it in your tables.

[leocwlau]

Regarding your original question about the difference between occurrences, page views, and custom page views. My suggestion is still to check the tracking implementation to ensure V11 is set on every server call. Now it has hit expiry and with "Unspecified" as a value, it is suggesting there are scenarios v11 is not set and page view tracking fired.

[reddy_y-11]

Thank you @leocwlau and @Jennifer_Dungan for the support. 

I have question.

When we click on button (Online), open new tab.

There are no any server calls for click (Online) may be for this reason we are seeing “Unspecified”? if YES, when no server call is sent why do we track an occurrence?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

If there's no server call at all, then there will be no occurrence either... 

Would you be willing to share a link so we can see the behaviours you are trying to track? (you can send via a private message so that it's not available for everyone to see)