Conversion occurs when a user completes a transaction or reaches a custom goal. The motivation for a user to complete a purchase is often a combination of events involving a variety of channels and content. As such, an online publication is rarely the sole reason for a purchase or the sole contributor. That is why, in this article, we will help you track the conversion of users that have seen your online publications and were influenced by them one way or the other.
NOTE: The details in this article are based on the options provided by Google Analytics.
How does it work?
First, you need access to the property that tracks the website and, therefore, the transactions. In here, create a new Segment that filters users who have seen or engaged with online publications. Apply this Segment to your sales reports to see how this particular audience converted.
By creating a Segment that focuses on users, the results will also include sales of other products inspired by the catalog and results from users who did not convert within a single session. When Google recognizes a returning user, any transactions the new session results in will also count towards the Segment.
Below are three situational segments to help you better understand how users convert after engaging with your online publications:
- Users that come from an online publication
- Users that viewed an online publication
- Users that browsed an online publication
Users that come from an online publication
Use this when your publications:
- Are not embedded / open outside the website
- Do not use a custom domain that shares its domain with your website
(e.g. catalog.example.com + www.example.com)
If you’re using a custom domain that shares the same domain as the website, there’s a good chance that your website property is excluding the custom domain as a referral. Traffic that is referred from the excluded referral gets treated as direct traffic.
Description:
If the publications open outside your website, you can have the Segment filter traffic that is coming from the publication domain (e.g. view.publitas.com). Also check out Appending UTM tracking parameters to all links (Beta).
Creating the Segment:
6. If applicable, replace view.publitas.com with the custom domain.
Users that viewed an online publication
Use this when your publications:
- Are embedded on the website
This works, regardless of what domain is used by the publications.
Description:
For embedded publications, it is best to look at website users that have seen the page (or pages) where the catalog is embedded. When creating the Segment, make sure only to filter the Pages that contain embedded publications. You can use the Behavior > Site Content > All Pages report to try out the filter first and see what pages pop up. Use the OR option in the Conditions tab of the Segment if you need to add multiple names to narrow down the resulting pages sufficiently.
Creating the Segment:
7. Adapt the filter value to your situation.
Users that browsed an online publication
Use this when your publications:
- Are tracked in the same property as the website by the means of cross domain tracking
This works, regardless of what domain is used by the publications or whether a publication is embedded or not.
Description:
With cross domain tracking enabled, publication events and transactions are tracked by the same property. This allows you to filter users that have not only seen the publication load but also interacted with it, improving the relevance of the results.
Creating the Segment:
7. This Publitas-specific event is triggered whenever a user navigates an online publication (read more).