Attributions after opening
Edrone attributes purchase based on opening, even if a click did not follow. This is possible thanks to inserting to an e-mail a hidden tracking pixel and our mechanism of linking a session based on cookies.
GA accounts for in the attributions the openings (impressions) for its own channels (Google AdWords, Google Display Network). However, it has no data regarding opening of e-mails sent by edrone. Therefore, purchase can be attributed for edrone only if the user clicked the link in the e-mail. Depending on the number of purchases only after opening (i.e. “view-through”), the differences between edrone and GA reports can be significant.
The methods known to us to “upload” such data to GA (e.g. tracking pixel, sending GA cid) have their limitations which would cause other differences.
Attribution report in edrone
Edrone makes it possible to generate a detailed report about which orders, when and how were attributed. In order to generate a report:
Log in to the edrone panel (Mission Control)
In the menu select Settings > Export
Select “ATTRIBUTION REPORT”
Choose the date and click Export
E-commerce conversion vs. goals
GA makes it possible to define “Conversion” in several ways, including but not limited to:
Goal
Impossible to define the value of individual purchases
Regardless of the number the goal was achieved within one GA session, only a single conversion is counted
E-commerce
It makes it possible to precisely define the amount and value of conversion
Requires E-commerce integration
In order to analyse the data from edrone, only conversions from E-commerce transactions have to be taken into account.
Direct vs. assisted attributions
GA uses two different methods to calculate conversion.
GATHERING -> All traffic -> Source/medium
It takes into account the last click (i.e. the last interaction prior to purchase).
Note: If the last interaction is Direct access, conversion is attributed to the channel that occurred before the Direct access.
Exception: if there is no such channel, then conversion is attributed to the Direct access.
CONVERSIONS -> Multi-channel paths -> Assisted conversions
This takes into account the occurrence of the channel at various stages of the conversion path.
Conversions after last click or direct – conversions, in which the channel occurred as the last interaction along the path.
Assisted conversions – paths, in which the channel did not occur as the last interaction.
Note: this value contains also paths, in which a given channel had multiple occurrences: as the last and as any other but last. Some conversions are therefore attributed twice: both in A and in B.
In edrone we show the total of assisted and direct conversions. In order to see that in GA, you have to calculate:
Unique conversions = Assisted conversions (A) + Conversions value after last click or direct (B) - Twice attributed conversions (A∩B)
How to calculate the conversions that were attributed twice:
Create a segment “Last edrone interaction”
Click Conversion segments
Select “Create a new conversion segment”
Select max 4 segments for comparison
Name it “Last edrone interaction”
Include “Last interaction” from “Source / Medium” edrone / e-mail
It will apply the recently created Conversion segment
In the column Assisted conversions / Value of assisted conversions you can see the decreased numbers.
There are the conversions that were attributed twice, which you need to use in the above Unique conversions formula.
UTM settings in links
While sending e-mails, edrone automatically adds utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign parameters to the links in accordance with the values specified in the panel.
All links in the e-mail received by the recipient should have a format api.edrone.me/email_click?d=xxx. When clicked, they should redirect to an URL with the parameters &utm_source=edrone&utm_medium=email.
Note: if a link was not replaced by our system (e.g. as a format, which we do not recognize), the conversion will not be counted after clicking. Please report such a situation.
The target page of the link needs to have a GA script implemented in order for the conversion to be counted correctly.
Note: if the target page results in redirecting (HTTP Redirect), which “loses” utm parameters, the conversion will not be correctly counted by GA.
Access to Google Analytics
In order for the edrone team to analyse the Google Analytics data, we need:
Access to data from all sources (not only edrone). This is required for the needs of multi-channel paths analysis, in particular for assisted conversion.
Access to e-commerce data. They include the required information about amounts.
Note: GA gives access only to the data from the date of sharing them. We are unable to analyse previous situations.
Another difference in counting transactions between GA (when edrone counts them as purchase thanks to edrone) are the following cases:
Customer visited the page in the incognito mode
User deleted cookies
Customer was browsing through the products in a mobile device but made the purchase from a computer
Customer clicked on the link in the message, then saw the advertisement, clicked on it and made a purchase.