Google and FB conversion tracking Post

[gavseim]

So I've studied this page (http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.tracking.htm) and am trying to resolve problems we deal with in tracking conversions and activity.



I use the overlay view cart code on every page. I'm not sure if that gives me the full enhanced eCommerce as I don't see cart abandonment data and the like in Google, but also I have the EJ custom google analytic tracker on the footer working on all pages just like I use the basic FB tracking code, twitter tracking code etc.



My conversion codes are on the thank you page through the prefs settings in EJ admin. FB, Google Code for checkouts Conversion Page etc. It seems to be tracking but not always accurately.



Facebook often over reports. Even though that tracking code is only on the thank you page. Google is doing the same but not as much. For example Nov 4th to Dec 3rd data. Google reports 1252 transaction while the actual EJ transaction log reports 1106 transactions for that same period.



I have this code on all pages for google, using my own ID of course.



<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 ejGATracker = gat.getTracker("UA-000000-00");

ejGATracker._setDomainName("none");

ejGATracker._setAllowLinker(true);

ejGATracker._trackPageview();

</script>



I also use this google conversion pixel (taken out specific numbers) in the Thank You page...



<!-- Google Code for checkouts Conversion Page --><script type="text/javascript">/* <![CDATA[ /var google_conversion_id = 000000;var google_conversion_language = "en";var google_conversion_format = "3";var google_conversion_color = "ffffff";var google_conversion_label = "WlNzCMyU5AkQxLTQ6wM";var google_remarketing_only = false;/ ]]> */</script><script type="text/javascript" src="//www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js"></script><noscript><div style="display:inline;"><img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="//www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/0000/?label=WlNzCMyU5AkQxLTQ6wM&guid=ON&script=0"/></div></noscript>



Looking at the tracking help page I'm wondering if I should not have the google code on the thank you page, since I have the EJ custom page everywhere else. But when I initially set it up it seems that I needed it to make it work. If I understand right I need the main site tracking code on the site, the view cart button AND the separate checkout tracking code for actual checkouts.



What is very frustrating is the over counting. For example yesterday 12/03. Facebook says there were 45 conversions. Yet the EJ sales log shows only 13! That's over 300% over reporting. Most days are not that bad, which means it's not a simple problem like every pixel being double counted every time. Data like that causes huge problems for sales tracking and knowing which ads are performing.



I have been told by Facebook that a tracking pixel is only counted once even if the Thank You page is visited multiple times. They claim that even if it's from another computer it will still only count once because it connects with their FB login. Google I'm not sure. Lets say they go home and click the DL link from the email. Will it open that page and count it again as a conversion, or is it another page all together?



Just hoping people can chime in. Inaccurate conversion reporting is a huge deal and there seems to be very little in terms of solutions on any front. Let's share some ideas for improving the data.



-- Gav

[sprudio]

I also had put your tracking code on all of my pages and not one sale is recorded by google analytic. I have another website in which I use a different shopping cart like yours - with copy and paste code and their sales are reported every single time.

I want to know how many people put stuff in cart and abandon it. I want to see my sales in google analytic. please help us understand what is wrong. In the other cart they had on administrative area a place where we put the analytic number and they create a button which has that analytic code embedded somehow.

Thank you for your help.

[E-junkie_Guru]

First note that Google AdWords tracking is unrelated to Google Analytics tracking. For Analytics tracking, if you are using our version of the Analytics tracking code, you should NOT add any Analytics tracking code to your E-junkie thank-you page HTML customization fields, as we insert that code automatically (along with Analytics Ecommerce Tracking details) when we detect the buyer's browser has a cookie set by our version of the tracking code. However, if you are redirecting to a thank-you page URL on your own site, you should place our version of the Analytics code in that page (and in every page of your site where you want to use Analytics tracking; do not mix'n'match our custom Analytics code with any Analytics code provided by Google).



If you want to track AdWords conversions using your standard E-junkie-generated thank-you pages, the best place for that would be in Seller Admin > Edit Preferences > Common Thank-you Page HTML; this will ensure the code only gets inserted once in every thank-you page we generate for you. However, if you are redirecting to a thank-you page URL on your own site, you would place the code in that page. This also goes for other conversion tracking code such as Facebook, etc. As an alternative to conversion tracking code, you might also consider using the EJEJC_BEACON method described on our Tracking help page (linked in the first post above); however, this can only work with one tracking pixel URL, and you must be sure sure include the EJEJC_BEACON parameter with your View Cart customization code on every page. I'd suspect that using both EJEJC_BEACON and tracking code for the same conversion tracking service might track duplicate conversions.



Our only involvement is inserting the tracking code in thank-you pages we generate, and for Ecommerce Tracking generating the parts of that code which report order-specific details. The actual tracking occurs directly between the buyer's browser and Google's servers (or Facebook's, etc.) when the buyer's browser runs the javascript in the tracking code we inserted for you; our system is not involved in that process at all, so we'd have no insight into why conversions may be over-/under-tracked.



Since this style of tracking depends on javascript and browser cookies, a variety of factors can interfere with it, such as browser settings or custom extensions that determine if and when the buyer's browser runs any javascript, if and when cookies are allowed to be set and when they expire, selectively blocking social media tracking, etc.

[gavseim]

This is still very confusing even for a pretty nerdy guy like myself.



Let me just make it simple. For my part I am using the common thank you page. I'm not tracking ad words so much as just tracking eCommerce data in Analytics.



So that said. These are the codes I have in Seller Admin > Edit Preferences > Common Thank-you Page HTML. They represent FB, Google, Bring and Twitter. I removed my ID's.



______



<!-- Facebook Conversion Code for SE Checkout Confirm -->

<script>(function() {

var fbq = window.fbq || (window._fbq = []);

if (!_fbq.loaded) {

var fbds = document.createElement('script');

fbds.async = true;

fbds.src = '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbds.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];

s.parentNode.insertBefore(fbds, s);

_fbq.loaded = true;

}

})();

window.fbq = window.fbq || [];

window._fbq.push(['track', '###', {'value':'50.00','currency':'USD'}]);

</script>

<noscript><img height="1" width="1" alt="" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?ev=6012643007001&cd[value]=50.00&cd[currency]=USD&noscript=1" /></noscript>



<!-- Google Code for checkouts Conversion Page --><script type="text/javascript">/* <![CDATA[ /var google_conversion_id = ###;var google_conversion_language = "en";var google_conversion_format = "3";var google_conversion_color = "ffffff";var google_conversion_label = "WlNzCMyU5AkQxLTQ6wM";var google_remarketing_only = false;/ ]]> */</script><script type="text/javascript" src="//www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion.js"></script><noscript><div style="display:inline;"><img height="1" width="1" style="border-style:none;" alt="" src="//www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/###/?label=WlNzCMyU5AkQxLTQ6wM&guid=ON&script=0"/></div></noscript>



<script src="//platform.twitter.com/oct.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">twttr.conversion.trackPid('l6v6x', { tw_sale_amount: 0, tw_order_quantity: 0 });</script>

<noscript>

<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://analytics.twitter.com/i/adsct?txnid=l6v6x&p_id=Twitter&tw_sale_amount=0&tw_order_quantity=0" />

<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="//t.co/i/adsct?txn_id=l6v6x&p_id=Twitter&tw_sale_amount=0&tw_order_quantity=0" />

</noscript>



<script>(function(w,d,t,r,u){var f,n,i;w[u]=w[u]||[],f=function(){var o={ti:"5062711"};o.q=w[u],w[u]=new UET(o),w[u].push("pageLoad")},n=d.createElement(t),n.src=r,n.async=1,n.onload=n.onreadystatechange=function(){var s=this.readyState;s&&s!=="loaded"&&s!=="complete"||(f(),n.onload=n.onreadystatechange=null)},i=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0],i.parentNode.insertBefore(n,i)})(window,document,"script","//bat.bing.com/bat.js","uetq");</script><noscript><img src="//bat.bing.com/action/0?ti=###&Ver=2" height="0" width="0" style="display:none; visibility: hidden;" /></noscript>



______



Now I see that Facebook has a new tracking code and is phasing out the old making this even more confusing. But I went ahead and updated it and I'm hoping it may help data accuracy. I have one for general tracking on my site and the modified version for "Purchase" events in Seller Admin > Edit Preferences > Common Thank-you Page HTML.



_______



Also on every page I use an EJ modified GA code like this for general tracking. I though that was supposed to give me more user data.



<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 ejGATracker = gat.getTracker("UA-774269-19");

ejGATracker._setDomainName("none");

ejGATracker._setAllowLinker(true);

ejGATracker._trackPageview();

</script>





_______



My view cart is normal I believe...



<a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?c=cart&ejc=2&cl=###" target="ejejc" class="ec_ejc_thkbx" onclick="return EJEJC_lc(this);"><img src="" border="0" alt="View Cart"></a>

<script type="text/javascript">

function EJEJC_lc(th) { return false; };

</script>

<script src="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/box.js" type="text/javascript"></script>



_____



So all said I don't really know what's up. I know that conversions are being counted. I know that every visit is not being counted as a conversion so that's good. But I also know that data is off from both FB and google.



Am I redundant somewhere? A screencast from the EJ crew in implementing this stuff might go a long way to helping people understand. Even though I have pured over the help page I still walk away confused.

[sprudio]

My website uses only one code- yours. I have no sale recorded ever and I am using you for 10 years. I updated the code this month just to be sure. It is not logic that a company so big as yours has such a complicated way to get the tracking code. May be this should be the next project you guys are doing.

Thank you.

[E-junkie_Guru]

In the majority of typical cases the setup method is simple: Copy the custom Google Analytics tracking code we provide on our Tracking help page, paste that code into every page of your site where you wish to use GA tracking at all (putting your site's GA Property ID in that code where required), and make sure you're using our standard Cart button codes that display the cart as an overlay inside your page.



I checked both of your sites and found that you're using our custom GA tracking code on some pages, while other pages (such as your respective homepages) are using standard tracking code from Google, which is causing a conflict; if you wish to use our GA tracking integration at all, you must only use our version of the GA tracking code everywhere on your site.



Sprudio, I also found you are redirecting to a Custom Thank-you Page URL on your site, so GA Ecommerce Tracking cannot work reliably for you, because that type of code can only be inserted in thank-you pages we generate for you.



Gavseim, the "Google Code for checkouts Conversion Page" is only used to track conversions from an AdWords campaign, which is unrelated to Analytics and Ecommerce Tracking, so if you're not using AdWords, you don't need to use that code at all. I've confirmed that you've placed your other tracking code in your account preferences correctly to have us insert that code in thank-you pages we generate for you, which is the extent of our involvement in tracking with those services.



Unfortunately, the inherent nature of how our service works means that javascript/cookie-based tracking like this simply cannot work as simply or reliably as with other ecommerce solutions, which has become worse in recent years with the advent of new browser settings and add-ons designed to block or restrict this type of tracking in respect to users' privacy concerns. With E-junkie, unlike most other solutions, your sales pages, checkout pages, and thank-you pages cannot all be on the same domain (which can run afoul of third-party cookie blocking), and we do not have absolute control over your sales pages or other pages on your site, nor over checkout pages and the post-checkout to thank-you page transition in all cases -- e.g., PayPal's checkout site will not auto-redirect the buyer to any thank-you page, so unless the buyer has a reason to do so (such as claiming any downloads they'd purchased), they may never visit that page where their conversion could be tracked -- so we cannot fully automate how and where tracking code is inserted in, and ensure that buyers actually view, every single page necessary to track conversions reliably. That's just a side-effect inherent to the nature of our particular type of beast.

[sprudio]

Thank you for your personal Input. I change the code in index page and I made your e-junkie thank you page as the primary thank you page. Now lets see how it works. I hope I will get sale to test:-)

[gavseim]

Thanks for the input. I wish we had more solutions here.



I'm not sure why the GA code is different on some pages as I'm inserting globally the modified code above. I'll look into that.