Visits are higher than Click-Throughs

[cristine_drach2]

Hello,

Within campaigns > tracking code and looking at Click-through and Visits metrics, for most tracking codes my visits numbers are higher than click-throughs. 

 How is this possible? This is driving me crazy, any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Cristine

[brian_au]

Hi Cristine,

The discrepancy is typically due to the campaign persistence expiration settings. Whereby a given visitor can increment a clickthrough & visit upon initial click of the ad. Then going forward incremental visits are still tied to the campaign as attribution to the campaign persists per the settings in the admin console (week, month, etc.), but no further clickthroughs register. I recommend verifying how the campaign variable in question is setup in admin to confirm.

Best,

Brian

[cristine_drach2]

Thanks for your quick reply!

Campaign variable is set up as most recent (last) allocation, expire after 1 week, and do not reset. I attached a screenshot of the settings. Is this set up ok?

To be clear, you are saying that visits within 7 days after clicking on this code are being attributed to this tracking code? This would definitely make visits higher than clicks.

Thank you,

Cristine

[brian_au]

Hi Cristine,

Yes that is clearly the cause in this case if expiration is set to last for 1 week attribution which allows for subsequent visits to potentially increment (along with any revenue, orders, custom events, etc). A clickthrough tied to the campaign tracking code is only triggered upon the tracking code being set instance. The setup looks fine and is fairly standard (Last Click, 1 Week Expiration).

Best,

Brian

[cristine_drach2]

Thanks so much!

One last clarification - the visits will only be incremented for that tracking code UNTIL the code is overwritten by another code, right? So email > direct > natural search will count clicks=1, and visits=3 for that first email tracking code since the other two means of reaching the site do not have campaigns. Then in the scenario email > direct > paid search will be email clicks=1, email visits=2, paid search clicks=1, paid search visits=2.

Thanks!
Cristine

[brian_au · Accepted solution]

Hi Cristine,

Strictly talking in terms of the tracking code dimension it will increment visits until it either: Expires (1 Week in this case) OR is overwritten by another Tracking Code OR tracking code cookie is deleted in browser somehow.

email  (tracking code set and 1 week expiration starts)> direct (no tracking code) > natural search (no tracking code) = email clicks=1, and visits=3

email (tracking code set and 1 week expiration starts)> direct (no tracking code) > paid search (new tracking code set and 1 week expiration starts) = email clicks=1, email visits=2, paid search clicks=1, paid search visits=1

A good campaign tracking primer via Adam Greco:

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/campaign-tracking-inside-omniture-sitecatalyst/

Also main campaigns Help Link:

http://microsite.omniture.com/t2/help/en_US/sc/implement/campaign.html

Best,

Brian

[cristine_drach2]

Thanks so much for your help!