Matraxis Blog

                This is a question that we are often asked as the numbers that appear in the reports do

                not always appear to make immediate sense…

 

            Firstly – from the notes at the top of the Campaign report:

 

This report shows activity occurring during the report time period segmented according

to the campaign ID of the most recent campaigns. For the report time period, all conversions

and other activities are tracked and attributed to the last campaign to which visitors

responded. Thus, even if the conversion does not happen on the first visit generated by the

most recent campaign, the appropriate source is “credited” with the conversion.

 

                i.e. it will attribute later visits to the campaign as well, regardless of whether or not they

                click through a second time.

 

                To answer the question about the difference between Visits, Page Views and Clickthroughs,

                from the Help Card at the bottom of the report:

 

·         Visits - A visit is a series of actions that begins when a visitor views their first page

        from the server, and ends when the visitor leaves the site or remains idle beyond

         the idle-time limit. The default idle-time limit is thirty minutes. 

·         Page Views - A hit to any file classified as a page. (i.e. it does not include

        downloads etc.)

·         Clickthroughs - A single instance of a click on an advertisement link.

        (More accurately whenever the visitor looks at any URL which includes the

        WT.mc_id parameter on the end)

 

                I thought this would be explained best with a short example:

 

        Consider 3 people who click on a link including the campaign id:

 

1.       Fred – arrives on the site and goes on to a second page

2.       Bert – arrives on the site, goes on to a second page and then either:

a.        Presses the browser back button

b.       Clicks through again

(we can’t tell which)

3.       Tom – arrives on the site and goes on to a second page which he bookmarks

        in the morning.  Returns via the bookmark in the afternoon

 

 

In a table:

 

Visitor	Time	Page	Visits	Page Views	Clickthroughs
Fred	09:00	/Page1.html;WT.mc_id=campaign1
	09:01	/Page2.html	1	2	1
Bert	09:00	/Page1.html;WT.mc_id=campaign1
	09:01	/Page2.html
	09:20	/Page1.html;WT.mc_id=campaign1	1	3	2
Tom	09:00	/Page1.html;WT.mc_id=campaign1
	09:01	/Page2.html
	14:00	/Page2.html	2	3	1

 

So:

 

1.       Fred – is straightforward

2.       Bert – has 1 Visit (no gap of greater than 30 minutes), but 2 clickthroughs because

        the WT.mc_id parameter appears twice

3.       Tom – has 2 visits (there is a gap greater than 30 minutes), only 1 clickthrough

        (because the WT.mc_id parameter appears only once), but this second visit is still

        attributed to the earlier clickthrough from the campaign

Tags: Webtrends

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 10:20 am by John Wood and is filed under Search Engine Marketing, Tech Tips, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.