As it's unusual that two different reporting sources have the same attribution logic, they often report different revenue, numbers of orders and visits.
It's common for attributed revenue in Ometria to differ up to 15-20% from revenue reported by Google Analytics (GA) because the two tools count visits in different ways.
However, where the differences are more significant, it’s worth looking at in more detail to find out if there is a wider issue.
Attribution in Google Analytics
Google uses a last click attribution model. This means that GA counts the last visit the contact made before placing an order.
Even if a contact was prompted by an email, they might have visited via a Google search, in which case GA attributes the order to ‘search’.
See also: Check order attribution in Ometria against Google Analytics
The contact may also leave your site (after having clicked through from an email) to look for a coupon code and then return to your site again. Even if the contact doesn’t find a coupon code, the most recent visit will have been via Google search, so GA attributes the order to ‘search’.
If you have sent the contact a coupon code and the contact copies and pastes it some days after receiving it, visiting the site via a saved bookmark, GA will attribute the order to ‘direct visit’, as it has no information on where the coupon code came from.
Attribution in Ometria
By default, Ometria attributes orders based on:
The time window means that if the contact opens an email, clicks on it and arrives at your site, but later leaves and comes back again within two hours of the first click, Ometria attributes any order they place to the original email.
Troubleshooting attribution discrepancies
If you suspect a problem with your revenue attribution, the first thing you should do is take a sample of orders within a specified date range (e.g. seven days) from Ometria’s orders report.
Cross reference the Visit medium in the orders report with a sample of orders from the same date range in Google Analytics (using GA’s source medium).
This way you can see which sources are misaligned, which should indicate where to look next.
In particular, look out for orders that Google Analytics attributes to a known source which Ometria has marked as either Not tracked or Not provided.
|
Status |
Description |
|
Not provided |
There was a visit associated with the order, but the UTM parameters:
so that Ometria couldn't attribute the source. This status also includes direct visits, as no parameters would be passed with the event. Direct visits can still be attributed by coupon attribution or time window attribution. |
|
Not tracked |
Ometria does not have the tracking information for the visit for a variety of reasons. Examples:
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When Ometria is reporting lower revenue from email than Google Analytics
If Ometria’s revenue from email is lower than in Google Analytics, any of the following may account for it.
If you think any of the issues in this article might be the case, contact Support or your customer success manager.
Your JavaScript is not correctly implemented
JavaScript tracking on your site tracks your customers’ visit sessions and activity.
If the JavaScript is not correctly implemented, it may cause discrepancies in your reporting statistics.
Take the following actions to test your JavaScript tracking:
- Open a campaign email and click a link through to your website.
- In your browser, add #om_debug ‘to the end of the URL (e.g. so www.abcshop.com/#om_debug)
- If the JavaScript is working correctly, a small box pops up in the top right of your screen, which tracks your session through the website:
- If no box displays, there could be a JavaScript tracking issue.
See also: Debugging JavaScript tracking
A data integration error
There may be an issue where some orders are not being sent to Ometria from your importer or API.
Take the following actions to test your data integration:
- Place a test order on your site.
- Refer to the orders report and see if your order has been captured.
The JavaScript is being called for orders that are not yet valid
Some ecommerce stores are set up so that orders are only defined as valid once they are shipped, meaning that revenue is not fully accounted for until hours or days after the order is placed.
Take the following actions to test:
- Place a test order on your site.
- Refer to the orders report and see if your order is listed as Valid.
Recent changes to your website
If you’ve recently added new pop-ups, footers and web pages to your site, the JavaScript tracker may not have been implemented correctly.
Take the following actions to test your JavaScript tracking for your new pages:
- Open a campaign email and click a link through to your website.
- Navigate to one of the new pages and add an #om_debug to the end of the URL.
- If the JavaScript is working correctly, a small box pops up in the top right of your screen, which tracks your session through the website:
- If no box displays, there could be a JavaScript tracking issue.
See also: Debugging JavaScript tracking
Missing or incomplete UTM parameters
UTM parameters, or ‘tracking parameters’ ensure that revenue is attributed to the correct source.
See Tracking parameters in Ometria for more information.
To test your UTMs, take the following actions:
- Open a campaign email and click a link through to your website.
- Check that the URL of the page you land on contains tracking parameters.
Payment gateway redirecting
If your payment gateway redirects contacts from your site in order to pay for their order (e.g. PayPal), the redirect link might be stripping out the tracking parameters.
To test your UTMs in this case, take the following actions:
- Place a test order on your site using a payment method which will redirect you to another site.
- Refer to the orders report and see which source your order was attributed to.
When Ometria is reporting higher revenue from Google Analytics
If Ometria’s revenue from email is higher than in Google Analytics, any of the following may account for it.
If you think any of the issues in this article might be the case, contact Support or your customer success manager.
Missing or incomplete UTM parameters
UTM parameters, or ‘tracking parameters’ ensure that revenue is attributed to the correct source.
See Tracking parameters in Ometria for more information.
To test your UTMs, take the following actions:
- Open a campaign email and click a link through to your website.
- Check that the URL of the page you land on contains tracking parameters.
You should check that the parameters are not just Ometria specific ones (beginning with om_), but also source_medium=email- which Google Analytics uses for attribution.
Orders paid via PayPal or other third parties
Orders which are paid for using PayPal or other third parties are not always tracked by Google Analytics, whereas Ometria can still attribute orders in some (not all) cases where UTM parameters are stripped out by payment gateways.
This means that if the payment page on your site redirects to PayPal or another third party payment page and strips the parameters, then Google Analytics can’t track the transaction.
To test your UTMs in this case, take the following actions:
- Place a test order on your site using a payment method which will redirect you to another site.
- Refer to Google Analytics and see which source your order was attributed to.
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