Conversions are one of the most important metrics to keep up in e-commerce. We will compare the methods of Google Analytics vs. Reloadify.
Google Analytics' conversion attribution model
Google Analytics uses cookies to track conversions. It gets trickier when customers use different devices to open emails, view products and make purchases.
For example: a customer opens an email and clicks through to a product. The customer does not yet place an order. At a later time, the same customer, on a different device, surfs directly to the Web shop and purchases the previously viewed product.
The email campaign worked; the customer bought the product. However, Google Analytics does not use cross-device tracking. The conversion is attributed to direct traffic instead of email.
A conversion according to GA:
A customer opens an email
Clicks from the email to the web shop
Places an order immediately
Google sees that there was a purchase and that the customer made the purchase from the email campaign. It counts the campaign as the source of the conversion.
With an even split between mobile traffic and desktop traffic in most online stores, the above scenarios are more the rule than the exception. So how do we do it at Reloadify?
Reloadify's conversion attribution model
Reloadify fixes Google Analytics' cross-device tracking problem by using a combination of the email address, unique account id and tracking.
We use a 'last-touch attribution model,' which means that the last email a customer opened or clicked on is credited with a conversion.
Also, we use an 'email conversion period' to determine attribution correctly. That means we credit a conversion to an email campaign if a purchase occurred within a seven-day period of time after opening or clicking.
For example: a customer opens and clicks on an email sent on May 2, but ultimately does not make a purchase via her mobile. She then makes a purchase using her laptop on the weekend of May 4. This conversion is then attributed to the May 2 email campaign.
A conversion according to Reloadify:
A customer opens an email
A customer places an order within 7 days of opening the email
Automatic UTM tagging
Reloadify tags every email that is sent with UTM tags. As a result, Reloadify appears as a campaign in Google Analytics. This way, you can also see the impact of your email campaign in Google Analytics. The automatic tagging looks as follows:
Campaign source: this is the name of the email you enter in the first step of an email.
Campaign medium: this value is populated with "email."
Campaign source: this value depends on the type of email. The options:
Trigger
Campaign (newsletter)
Flow