Visits - Engaged Visits Invented Metric

[N9KD637]

Hello,

Our org came with up an invented metric called "engaged visits".

Visits minus Bounces.

I ignore it because it's invented and our site UX leaves a lot to be desired - which makes "engagement" an even more difficult read than it is to begin with.

It seems this invented "engaged visits" is a vanity metric that is unnecessary and can be misleading (particularly when lead gen is tied to it). People are hung up on it; they think it proves engagement, or maybe even more. I thought Visits were already "engaged".

Question: Are there better, more straightforward - not invented - Adobe Analytics components / combinations of components we can use besides the scenario described above? What are some best practice ways to gauge "engagement" on a website?

Thank you,

Bryan

[debwilliam]

Visits minus- bounces, could include visits that just had a reload- so thats something to consider. Also if a page is not tracked for scroll analytics- then even if the visitor landed and scrolled but didnt fire a second image request, the visit would be considered 'unengaged' according to your definition.

In the past, we have worked with the business to build calculated metrics for engagement. The list of metrics under engagement, would be an arbitrary list of all high value actions like downloads, video views, social shares, etc... and would be used as engagement rate. Total engagement/Total visits. - The caveat is to build consensus and education around what the engagement metric is defined as.

[N9KD637]

Thank you for your insights. Yes, our org's definition of "engaged" visit is just too 0 / 1 and seems vanity-ish. It's too simplistic (Visits minus Bounces). I always thought a Visit was "engaged" and did not include Bounces anyway, so it's unnecessary to subtract Bounces from Visits. And, to your point, that does not really get to the crux of the matter of "engagement". Adobe has Single Page Visits, too, which can just confuse matters.

Thanks for your time and reply!

Bryan

[kayawalton · Accepted solution]

Measuring engagement depends on what your organization wants your visitors to complete and the content on your website or platform.

It sounds like generating leads is part of your goals, so instead of looking at engaged visits, I might look at the ideal user journey and see how far into the journey the visitors get before they drop off or complete the process.

To give you another example, my organization (a news publisher) focuses on content consumption. We started looking at bounces but eventually realized that people who landed on the content they want will leave once they consumed it because they have achieved their goal. Instead, we shifted our measure for engagement to different metrics depending on the content type:

• For articles, we look at the average time on page to see if visitors spent enough time reading the article.
• For multimedia content, we look at consumption rates (i.e. how much of the video or audio did they watch or listen to)

[N9KD637]

Hi @kayawalton ,

Thank you for your reply and your insights. I completely agree with your stance that it "depends on what your organization wants your visitors to complete and the content on your website or platform."

I've tried to get the org's thinking past the whole "engaged visit" as a binary metric, and instead think of it as a concept that is influenced by so many factors. But some people just want a simple metric that says "Engaged!".

Is this the right way?

Or does Visits alone cover that simplistic view (without a custom calculation of subtracting Bounces)?

I suppose when the identified goal, or to paraphrase your words - what we want our visitors to complete - is simply calculated "Visits minus Bounces", we have an entirely different issue that is outside the realm of analytics.

To @debwilliam 's point, what would indicate actual engagement is more along the lines of downloads, video views, etc., as well as time on page all the way to a form complete.

We can calculate the number of "Visits minus Bounces", no problem - but that tells us what, really? It's the question I've asked assorted people in the org, all with no real answer or definitive rationale on how it's a legit metric. On the surface I suppose such a calculation can be used as a rough gauge of the UX of a landing page.

I'm probably missing something in the definition of Visits (https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/metrics/visits.html), but it's not clear to me if Visits alone can just be counted and considered "engaged" without subtracting Bounces. What does subtracting Bounces really get us?

I guess I'm asking the community at large if something like this makes sense?

Can we just use Visits, or do we have to subtract Bounces to get a surface readout of "engaged visit"?

Blow a decisive hole in the idea or affirm it.

Thank you for your time and attention!

Bryan