Attributing conversion to online publications

• Prerequisites
• Understanding the KPIs
• Creating an Audience
• Using the Audience

Prerequisites

• Google Analytics has been connected to your online publications, following the instructions for either the direct integration with GA4 or for connecting GA4 using Google Tag Manager.
• You have permissions in Google Analytics to create new Audiences.

Understanding the KPIs

Catalogs are very powerful in reaching your top-of-funnel audience, creating brand awareness, and inspiring conversion. Online catalogs' success can be tracked across the entire funnel, looking at Reach, Impressions, Traffic, and Conversion as they are all Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 

Depending on the industry, catalog-inspired purchases may happen in the same session or on a later date. This article will help set up an Audience in Google Analytics that tracks users who completed a purchase that was directly inspired by an online catalog.

Creating an Audience

Long term effect (Marketing)
The first Audience you want to set up is one that tracks the overall behavior of catalog users, which also allows you to see how much revenue is generated by this audience, after having seen one of your catalogs.

1. In Google Analytics, go to Admin
2. Select Data display > Audiences
3. Click on New Audience and select Create a custom audience
4. Enter a name for the new audience, for example: Catalog user purchasers (30 Days)
5. Look up and select the pbl_user_navigation event as the sole condition for users to become a member
6. Set the Membership duration to match the average validity of a catalog, for example 30 days for monthly catalogs
   Feel free to pick any number of days that you feel is a respectable amount of time for conversions to be attributed to a catalog-visit. 
7. Save the new audience

Creating a catalog-users Audience:

Direct sales (e-Commerce)
Audiences can also help create a more direct connection between a purchase and the use of a catalog. Use the instructions below to create a new Audience that looks for users who, within a single session, click on a link inside the catalog and complete a purchase afterwards.

1. In Google Analytics, go to Admin
2. Select Data display > Audiences
3. Click on New Audience and select Create a custom audience
4. Enter a name for the new audience, for example: Catalog driven purchasers
5. Remove the default container for conditions and Add sequence to include
6. Change the Sequence scoping to Within the same session (use the dropdown in the top right corner of the sequence)
7. Add a new condition, look up, and select the pbl_link_click event
8. Now, add a new step for which you select the purchase event
   Click on 'Or' to add any other purchase events your site is using (e.g. in_app_purchase)
9. Set the Membership duration to 1 day to avoid attributing future purchases to the same catalog-session
10. Save the new audience

Creating an Audience for direct sales:

Using the Audience

Once the Audience is set up you can select it as a comparison in your acquisition reports.