What is Conversion Tracking?​

Conversion Tracking makes it possible to evaluate message success based on pre-defined goals. This means that you are able to set goals for an email sendout and then check whether the recipient initiated the desired activity.

Such activities are always associated with one or more landing pages. Activities may vary depending on which landing page is visited through the message link.

Possible goals (i.e. the desired recipient activities) are:

  • A purchase in general, or the purchase of a special product type.

  • Registration for an event.

  • Request for further information or registration for a presentation.

Visiting a special web page or pages and retrieving information from them.

Conversion Tracking is most often used on shop pages. However, Conversion Tracking can also be used on other websites to check whether the message produced the desired effect. By tracking online shopping behavior and checking whether customers take advantage of special offers, Conversion Tracking makes it possible to collect information in Engage about the number of products sold and the value of the purchases.

For information about setting up conversion tracking for your messages, please see ​Conversion Tracking.

Determining the number of Conversions​

The  ​Conversions​  window displays the most important KPIs for evaluating the success of your campaigns. This evaluation is based on the message selected in the previous window (see Group Message Statistics (window)​). Analysis of recipient activity is made possible by using conversion tracking in the message (either Cookies-Based Conversion Tracking or ​Cookie-Less Conversion Tracking​).

Based on the conversions used in this particular message, the  ​Conversions​  window provides comparative information about conversions resulting from the message vs. conversions from all sources.

The following options are available as the basis for the calculations:

  • Last recipient activity

  • Last click activity

  • All messages

Calculation of the conversion statistics is always based on the message history of the identified recipient. When a recipient completes a conversion, the system checks all of the messages sent to this recipient in the past 30 days. If the system confirms that a message in the message history contains the matching conversion tracking, then it also analyzes whether the recipient opened or clicked the message. Depending on the selection option, different data is included in the calculation of the statistics.

Conversions - Last Recipient Activity (Opens & Clicks)​

When the radio button  ​Last Recipient Activity​  is selected, the system checks the recipient's message history for the most recent recipient activity in any message that contains the same conversion tracking as the message being viewed. The system does not differentiate between opens and clicks.

Example

A recipient receives two messages (using cookies) on different days of the week: message A on Monday and message B on Wednesday. Both contain the same conversion tracking. On Monday, the recipient opens message A and clicks on a link in the message, but does not complete a purchase. On Wednesday, he opens message B but does not click on any link. On Thursday he goes directly to the online shop website and makes a purchase, independent of either of the messages.

By selecting the option  ​Last Recipient Activity, the triggered conversion is associated with the most recent recipient activity, regardless of whether that is an open or a click. In this example, the last recipient activity was the opening of message B on Wednesday. It is not relevant that the recipient did not actually make a purchase directly through a message link.

Result:

If the Last Recipient Activity option is selected for message A, the recipient is not included in the calculation of Conversions (Unique), since the most recent recipient activity, i.e. the last open, was registered for message B and not for message A.

If the Last Recipient Activity​ option is selected for message B, the recipient is included in the calculation of ​Conversions (Unique), even though it is clear that the recipient's purchase was not the direct result of clicking on message B.

Although the recipient did not (technically speaking) make a purchase as a direct result of message B, here it is assumed that message B led to the purchase, because it was the source of the most recent activity.

Please note that it is necessary to use Cookies-Based Conversion Tracking in order to associate website purchases not directly based on a link click with the correct recipient.

Conversions - Last Click Activity​

If the radio button ​Last Click Activity is selected, the system checks the recipient's message history for the most recent click activity in a message with the respective conversion tracking. If no click activity can be found for a recipient who performed a conversion, the recipient's most recently opened message is used to calculate the conversion statistics.

The radio button Last Click Activity is the standard setting for the calculation of conversion statistics. For further information contact your customer service representative.

Example

A recipient receives two messages (using cookies) on different days of the week: message A on Monday and message B on Wednesday. Both contain the same conversion tracking. On Monday, the recipient opens message A and clicks on a link in the message, but does not complete a purchase. On Wednesday, he opens message B but does not click on any link. On Thursday he goes directly to the online shop website and makes a purchase, independent of either of the messages.

Result:

If the ​Last Click Activity option is selected for message A, the recipient is included in the calculation of Conversions (Unique). This is because the system always looks for the most recent click activity.

If the Last Click Activity option is selected for message B, the recipient is not included in the calculation of Conversions (Unique). This is because the system does not, in this case, consider opens.

The option Last Click Activity​ gives more importance to recipient clicks than to recipient opens. In this case, the system assumes that the recipient displayed greater interest in a message he clicked on than in a message he simply opened.

When using cookie-less conversion tracking, the conversion can only be associated with the message in which the link was clicked. That is because, in that case, conversion tracking can only take place through direct transmission of special link parameters.

Conversions - All Messages​

When the radio button ​All Messages​ is selected, the system checks the recipient's message history for the most recent activity in a message with the respective conversion tracking. This can be an open or a click. Using the option ​All Messages, the conversion is associated with ALL messages in the last 30 days of the recipient's history which the recipient opened or clicked on.

Example

A recipient receives two messages (with a cookie) on different days of the week: message A on Monday and message B on Wednesday. Both contain the same conversion tracking.

On Monday, the recipient opens message A and clicks on a link in the message, but does not complete a purchase.

On Wednesday, he opens message B but does not click on any link. On Thursday he goes directly to the online shop website and makes a purchase, independent of either of the messages.

Result:

In this example, both the click on Monday (message A) and the open on Wednesday (message B) are included in the calculation.

If the All Messages option is selected for message A, the recipient is included in the calculation of ​Conversions (Unique).

If the ​All Messages option is selected for message B, the recipient is included in the calculation of ​Conversions (Unique).

The option  ​All Messages​  associates a conversion with all messages that contain the respective conversion tracking. Depending on the number of messages, a conversion may appear more than once in the calculation. With this method of calculation, the system produces a higher conversion rate when calculating the conversions for all messages.