Google Analytics/conversion tracking question

[cpi]

Only been using E-junkie for about a week (it's f'ing awesome, by the way), and I seem to be having some trouble getting it to work correctly with Google Analytics.



I'm using the "Buy Now" button (no shopping cart), and PayPal standard.



The analytics code that is on all of my pages (including e-junkie's "thank you" page) looks like this:



<script type="text/javascript">

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

var pageTracker = gat.getTracker("UA-xxxxxxxx");

pageTracker._setDomainName("none");

pageTracker._setAllowLinker(true);

pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script>



And the "buy now" links on my product page all look like this:



<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?i=xxxxxx&c=single&cl=xxxxx" onclick="pageTracker.link(this.href); return false;">



Now with all of the above in place, GA is accurately tracking my conversions, but none of the additional info that goes with them. For example, all of my "Return Goal Path" data starts like this:



entrance) >>/ecom/rp.php



And all of my goal referral data shows paypal as the referring url.



What I'm looking for specifically is data like how each customer got to MY site (via google, what keyword, etc.) and then the path they took on my site to get to my product page and then go to paypal/e-junkie and buy my product.



So I guess my question is, what did I screw up that is causing this to not work right?



Thanks in advance for any help.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Since you are using Buy Now buttons that bypass the cart, you aren't using any of the GA integration built into our cart, so that means your use of GA is a "plain vanilla" implementation that does not involve us at all. You might do better to inquire with Google Analytics help pages, forum or support staff to get advice straight from the source.



http://www.google.com/analytics/supportoverview.html

http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/

[krals]

I've had a problem with "false conversions.*" My GA panel will show a conversion, but there's nothing to correspond to the sale in my sales report. This is a real headscratcher for me because theoretically, the only only GA conversion trigger ought to be the "Thank You" page - meaning a truly completed transaction? I haven't tested any transactions by buying myself or done anything like that which would be a quick explanation. Any thoughts on this?



*sounds like a cool name for a horror movie set in Salt Lake....



All hail e-junkie!

[E-junkie_Guru]

Are you using E-junkie View/Add to Cart buttons together with our modified Google Analytics tracking code as documented here?

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.tracking.htm

[krals]

OK, I just read it three times and I guess I'm a little confused. I guess because I'm using your "Add to Cart" buttons, I don't need to add the Analytics Snippet to my checkout page?



I guess my confusion is with this line on your Customize Your Thank You/Product Download Page that says "Tracking code for Google, Yahoo, AdBrite or any other tracking service can be entered here."



I can remove the snippet, but I'm still confused as to how I could have a phantom conversion - it seems like the only way for that to happen would be a completed transaction?



My site is: InglesFluidoConSolo1000Palabras.com



thx! ak

[krals]

I looks like I'm not using your button after all - I'm using PayPals... still don't see how that could create the conversion issue though... thx... ak

[E-junkie_Guru]

It looks like your site is using the PayPal Cart version of your E-junkie-issued button codes for some reason. You don't need to use that version of the code merely to accept PayPal checkout payments, but perhaps you had your own reasons to require PayPal's cart system instead of using the E-junkie cart. Otherwise, the standard E-junkie Shopping Cart buttons will provide a PayPal checkout button inside our cart with full support all of our other cart-based features.



If you use the standard E-junkie View Cart and Add to Cart button codes on your site (not the PayPal Cart version of our codes), then you can use the special Google Analytics tracking code we provide as described on our tracking help page, which will also, as we explain there, "ensure that we don't report duplicate sales if the buyer returns to their thank-you page again."



If (and only if) you are using the special version of Google Analytics tracking code we provide (to use in your own pages to take advantage of our cart's built-in GA tracking features), then you should not also add that tracking code to your E-junkie-generated thank-you pages, as that would conflict with the special tracking code we already provide there.



If you are instead using the standard Google (or another service's) tracking code, then you would add that to your thank-you pages, but we cannot prevent phantom conversion tracking if the buyer revisits their thank-you page.

[doolin]

Thanks for answering this again.



Every time someone asks about this, they ask in a slightly different way, then you answer in a slightly different way, so I'm getting a much better picture of what has to be done.

[E-junkie_Guru]

The basic rules of thumb are:



- If you're using the standard E-junkie Cart and Cart Buttons codes (where our cart appears as an overlay "inside" your page), put our special version of the GA tracking code in your site's pages, but don't add it to your E-junkie-generated thank-you pages;



- If you're using any other button codes (including if you're using our cart buttons in a manner where the cart appears in a separate window/tab), just use GA's standard tracking code in your site's pages AND add it to your E-junkie-generated thank-you pages;



- Whichever version of the GA tracking code you're using, make sure you're using only that version everywhere -- i.e., don't mix'n'match using our version of the GA code on some pages with GA's standard code on other pages, and certainly don't put both on the same page! :^)

[doolin]

Ok, that's even more clear, and I can write testable web pages on that.



Thanks!

[poleskivvies]

I'm getting a mix of false conversions and actual sales not getting tracked. I use Wordpress for my site and put the e-junkie Analytics code in the page template, but there is no /body code on that template, so maybe that isn't where I should put it. When I do "view source" on my purchase pages, though, the code is there.



I also wonder if I've just set up my Analytics funnel wrong - my goal is my ejunkie common notification URL.



Any help in understanding this would be hugely appreciated!

Jennifer

[E-junkie_Guru]

The concerns you raised are addressed on our Tracking help page here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.tracking.htm

[poleskivvies]

Thank you! I just heard back from e-junkie's help and it seems my Thank You page was not what I thought it was, and that was why analytics wasn't working.

[tresero]

So, does this replace the standard GA script? Or do I need both?

[E-junkie_Guru]

You would use our version of the GA tracking code instead of the standard code provided by GA. The only difference is that our version allows GA to track cart button clicks, and we would provide some hidden E-commerce Tracking data in the thank-you pages we generate for GA to pick up from there; this also means f you use our version of the GA code, you should NOT add it to your E-junkie-generated thank-you pages, as that would conflict with the code we already provide there.

[nomeatathlete]

I know this is an old thread, but I'm hoping you'll still be able to answer my question ...



I followed the instructions to use the e-junkie version of the GA code, therefore I did not add anything to my e-junkie thank-you pages. But I have since made sales that are not being tracked as conversions.



When I view the page source of my e-junkie cart, should I see any GA code? I don't see anything that looks like it, so I'm wondering if something is wrong.



Thanks.

[E-junkie_Guru]

In order to use our version of the GA tracking code, you must be using our standard Add to Cart and View Cart button codes that display the cart as an overlay "inside" your own page. Make sure every page that has any number of Add to Cart buttons also has one complete block of your View Cart code, which loads some javascript into your page for managing the overlay-style cart display as part of that page. Also, make sure you use only our version of the GA tracking code in every page where you want to use any GA tracking at all -- i.e., do not mix'n'match our GA code on some pages with Google's own GA code in the same or other pages.



However, if you prefer to use any standard GA tracking code as provided/documented by Google (including Google Website Optimizer), you should use only that code on all pages (instead of using our version of the GA code), and add that code to your E-junkie-generated thank-you pages as explained here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.custom.thankyou-page.htm



See also the tips on conversion tracking covered here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/tips.tracking.conversions.htm



Finally, bear in mind that browser settings/extensions which affect cookies or javascript can interfere with Analytics-style tracking, which is therefore mostly only useful as a relative metric for more/less and before/after types of comparison, rather than an absolute precision-headcount metric. Across a large enough number of visitors, the variables of cookie/javascript blocking will be a fairly consistent factor regardless of any variables you control in your site or marketing. Even though the numbers are not precise, the degree of imprecision or "margin of error" will be fairly consistent, so you can compare when changes to your site or marketing efforts result in significantly more or less traffic or conversions than before, or when more or less traffic and conversions appear to come through one part of your site vs. another.

[nomeatathlete]

Thanks for your response. I realized that I two instances of the tracking code running on my A and B test pages (though not the goal/download page on fatfreecartpro.com). So hopefully removing the one that wasn't e-junkie's will allow conversions to start tracking.



I understand what you mean about some users' settings interfering with the tracking and that it will even out over a large number of visitors, and for my purposes that's fine.



Can you please confirm that I should NOT see anything that resembles GA tracking code in the page source of the conversion (fatfreecartpro.com) page?



Thanks again.

[E-junkie_Guru]

If your pages are using our version of the GA tracking code as provided on our Tracking help page, and if the buyer's browser lets that code set a tracking cookie, then our thank-you page will detect that cookie and insert GA tracking and ecommerce-tracking code accordingly; otherwise, if no GA tracking cookie is present when the thank-you page is loaded, no GA tracking code would be added to that page.



I had a look at your nomeatathlete and pinolerecipes sites, and I wasn't finding our GA code on any sales pages using our cart buttons that I could find there, although some pages had other GA code (Website Optimizer or Content Experiment code, maybe inserted via WP plugins?), which would probably conflict with our version of the GA code. If you could post or email us a link to any page(s) where you're using our GA code, we'd be glad to take a look and confirm our GA code is set up and working properly there.

[nomeatathlete]

Thanks again. I have no idea how the code got deleted from the pages, but I confirmed that it was missing and I added it again to every page on nomeatathlete.com which has Add to Cart and View Cart buttons from e-junkie (ignoring pinolerecipes.com for now).



Here's where I'm stuck now. The reason I'm setting this is up is so that I can do some A/B testing with Google Website Optimizer (now integrated into GA). When I set up an experiment, GA asks me to add the GA Content Experiment Tracking Code to my original version of the page I'm testing. Are you saying that this additional code will conflict with the e-junkie GA code? If so, how do I run an experiment?



When I do try to add the Experiment code to the original page (which already has e-junkie GA code installed), I get this error when GA tries to validate that the experiment is set up correctly:



"Experiment code missing the cookie domain name declared in tracking code:line:57, column:14.

Your page customizes the cookie domain name in the Google Analytics tracking code. The same customization should be present above the experiment code."



Here's the url of the page I'm referring to: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/half-marathon-roadmap/



I appreciate all your help!