Conversion tracking

In this topic, you'll learn about conversion tracking in Responsys Express and how to set it up in your web sites for tracking conversions and revenue generated by your messages.

About conversion tracking
Implementing conversion and revenue tracking
Testing conversion tracking
Using conversion and revenue tracking in your campaigns
Conversion tracking reporting and analysis

About conversion tracking

The goal of any conversion campaign is to convert a customer by having that person complete a desired action, for example, make a purchase, through a link in your email message.

Example: Your online shopping site is having a sale on shoes. Your targeted customer receives an email message with a link that goes to the shoe sale page on your online shopping site. They choose their shoes and click a Place Order button. When they click the Place Order button, this completes the conversion.

A conversion is when the recipient completes the desired action. This means that your campaign was successful: your email recipient has been converted from a browsing, uncommitted customer to a customer who has completed the action you proposed in your campaign message.

Conversion tracking helps you evaluate how effective your message is in driving a particular action after a recipient clicks the call-to-action link. With conversion tracking, you can monitor and report on the success of a message that contains links, based on its resulting conversions. The following image illustrates the conversion tracking flow between Responsys Express, the email recipient, and your web site. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

(* The cookie recorded on the recipient's computer is a first-party cookie if your branded domain base domain is the same as your web site's base domain. However, if your branded domain base domain is different from the website’s base domain, the cookie is considered a third-party cookie.)

A typical conversion occurs after a recipient receives your email message and takes some desired action (purchases an advertised product, signs up for a newsletter or a training class, pledges for a charity, and the like), as requested in your message.

When a recipient clicks your email link, this click-through action is recorded as a cookie on the recipient's device. If the recipient then completes the desired action, the recipient's browser is then directed to your specified confirmation browser page, known as the conversion acknowledgment page. At this point, a conversion is then registered, and reflected in Responsys Express logs and reporting.

Conversion tracking cookies

Conversion tracking processing requires that your email recipients have their browsers set to accept cookies. A recipient can also prevent a conversion from being recorded by clearing cookies between clicking the tracked link (when the cookie is written to that recipient's computer) and visiting the conversion acknowledgment page (when the cookie data is used in conjunction with the conversion tracking tag data to record a conversion).

Note: Conversion tracking uses cookies that are compatible with the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) project. This means that Internet Explorer 6 (and above), as well as other P3P-enabled user agents accept them, and your conversions will be recorded as expected.

Important: Recent updates to the Chrome web browser (version 80 and beyond) may have an impact on email conversion tracking. These changes only affect Responsys Express instances using the conversion tracking feature if the email tracking link (response handler URL) is different from the main web site of the conversion landing page. Learn more about these changes.

Conversion acknowledgment page

The actual conversion for your message request is recorded only after the data is collected from the recipient's receipt of your conversion acknowledgment page.

This page should in some way confirm or acknowledge the action that your targeted recipient has just completed.

Note that you probably already have several types of acknowledgment pages, for example "Thank you for your recent purchase". With a small modification, you can easily turn an existing page into a conversion acknowledgment page for all of your conversion tracking messages.

To make a conversion acknowledgment page, you need to insert a conversion tracking image tag within the page. See the conversion tracking tag section for details about how this tag can be used to record and monitor your conversions or revenue or both.

Important: To accurately record a conversion, your conversion acknowledgment page should be displayed after your email recipient commits to your requested action. It should not be the same page as the message click-through link destination.

Conversion tracking terminology

Conversion tracking tag: To record conversions or revenue or both, you must place special snippets of HTML code on your web site's conversion acknowledgment page. The conversion tracking tag source URL is available from Settings > Configuration > Conversion Tracking. You can copy and customize it to meet the objectives of each or all of your conversion tracking messages.
Message click-through link: This is the link in the email message that you want recipients to click, so that they can complete the desired action.
Message click-through link destination: This is a destination on your web site that opens in a web browser after the recipient clicks the call-to-action link in your message. For example, it could be a page from which the recipient orders a product.
Conversion tracking cookie: This is a cookie that is placed on your recipient's device after they click the message click-through link. This cookie identifies the instance, originating message, the tracking link that was clicked, and the recipient.
Conversion acknowledgment page: This is a page on your web site that displays in the customer's web browser after they have completed the action you requested using your message click-through link. Before you can track conversions or revenue or both, you must add the conversion tracking tag to this page.

Implementing conversion and revenue tracking

This section contains instructions for setting, testing, and using the conversion tracking process. The instructions include the steps for revenue tracking, but those steps are optional if you only plan to implement conversion tracking.

Before you begin: Work with your web site developers to plan how conversion tracking will be set up on your web site. Key decisions include which page to use as the conversion acknowledgment page and whether they will be able to dynamically populate values for revenue tracking parameters (required for revenue tracking).

Steps	Roles
Get the conversion tracking pixel URL. For revenue tracking only: Add the OrderID and OrderTotal parameters.	Responsys Express user
Construct the conversion tracking tag (IMG tag) and add it to the conversion acknowledgment page.	Web developer
For revenue tracking only: add code to dynamically populate OrderTotal and OrderID values, based on data from the order acknowledgment page.	Web developer
Test the conversion tracking process.	Responsys Express user
Create conversion campaigns.	Responsys Express user
Use Insight Interactive Dashboards to review conversions and revenue (if tracking).	Responsys Express user

Step 1: Get the conversion tracking pixel URL

This URL is a required attribute in the conversion tracking tag.

To get the conversion tracking pixel URL:

Click from any page in Responsys Express.
Click Settings, and then click Configuration > Conversion Tracking. The Conversion Tracking page is displayed.
If you plan to implement revenue tracking, select parameters to include in the conversion tracking pixel URL. (This is not required if you only plan to implement conversion tracking.)

You can include Order ID, Order Total, and Num Items (total amount of items in the order). OrderID and OrderTotal are required for revenue tracking.
Copy the conversion tracking pixel URL shown on the page.
Without the additional parameters set: it should resemble the following (where {your_branded_domain} is the branded domain or subdomain defined for your instance; also known as the response handler URL):
```
https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y
```
With the revenue tracking parameters set: it should resemble the following:
```
https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y&ORDERID={order_id}&ORDERTOTAL={order_total}&NUMITEMS={num_items}
```
Note: A different conversion tracking pixel URL will display each time you open the Conversion Tracking page. Only the _ri_ and _ei_ name-value pairs will change. This is the expected behavior. Each version of the URL points back to your Responsys Express instance.
Share the conversion tracking pixel URL with the web site developer.

Step 2: Construct the conversion tracking tag and add it to the conversion acknowledgment page

The conversion tracking tag is an IMG HTML tag. Responsys Express provides a basic source URL for you to use for it. The tag creates a transparent 1-by-1 graphic on the page that you can place anywhere between the opening and closing BODY tags on your conversion acknowledgment page. We recommended placing it near the closing BODY tag.

To construct the conversion tracking tag and add it to the conversion acknowledgment page:

Obtain the conversion tracking pixel URL from an Responsys Express user.

Paste the URL into a text editor, and then construct an IMG HTML tag that uses the conversion tracking pixel URL as the SRC attribute value, similar to the examples below (where {your_branded_domain} is the branded domain or subdomain defined for your instance).

Conversion tracking only:

<IMG SRC="https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y"
			WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">

Conversion and revenue tracking:

<IMG SRC="https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y&ORDERID={order_id}&ORDERTOTAL={order_total}&NUMITEMS={num_items}
" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">

(Optional but recommended) If you want to restrict the number of times a conversion can be counted for the same action, edit the SRC URL to add action=once. This code restricts the number of times a conversion can be counted for the same action.
```
<IMG SRC="https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y&action=once"
			WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
```
Important: &action=once string must be within the “quoted” string, and not part of the WIDTH or HEIGHT specification. <IMG SRC="…&action=once" WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">).
As long as your conversion tracking campaign cookie remains on a recipient's computer, another conversion will be recorded by the event capture system, and associated reporting each time the conversion acknowledgment page is visited by that same recipient. Including &action=once as one of the name- value pairs, as shown in the example above, automatically clears the cookie as soon as it is first used.
Copy the IMG tag that you created in the steps above.
Open your conversion acknowledgment page using your preferred text or HTML editor.
Paste the IMG tag (a transparent, 1-by-1 graphic) into your conversion acknowledgment page between the opening and closing BODY tags. We recommend placing it near the closing BODY tag.

The following shows a simple example of a conversion acknowledgment page. Note the placement of the conversion tracking tag.
```
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Thank you!</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <p>Thank you for your order! We appreciate your business.</p>
<IMG SRC="https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_=EgwtZPFqF5KnjZtjC44v7Bc&action=once" "WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
    </body>
</html>				
```
When copying/pasting the IMG tag source code, be sure to include all code between the opening and closing angle brackets (<>) as shown in the example above.

Important: Your IMG tag must not break inside the “quoted” conversion URL assigned to the SRC attribute (IMG SRC="...") as shown in the highlighted code below.
```
<IMG SRC="https://{your_branded_domain}/pub/cct?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DS%3AzbHS%3ASRCR%3Aq&_ei_
				=EnVd2LoBFEIeOzPXj3wLH0Y"
			WIDTH="1" HEIGHT="1">
```

Note: If your conversion acknowledgment landing page is using SSL, then the email click-tracking domain (response handler) should be on SSL too and you should use the https:// version of the conversion tracking tag. For example, if the landing page is https://www.example.com/conversion, then the response handler should be https://email.example.com and not http://email.example.com.

Step 3: Add revenue tracking code to your conversion acknowledgment page

If you are implementing revenue tracking, you must ensure that the ORDERTOTAL and ORDERID pair values are dynamically populated, based on data from the order acknowledgment page. This will vary depending on how you have developed your web site.

Testing conversion tracking

It is strongly recommended that you test the entire conversion tracking process before using it with your messages and campaigns.

To test conversion tracking:

Create a message with a click-through link that leads to the desired destination on your web site.
Validate your message, and then choose Actions > Send Proof.
Depending on the option you choose, the message is sent to the selected proof group or to the email addresses you specify.
Alternatively, if you have testers set up in your contact data, you can set up a campaign to send an email message to a tester contact segment.
Before you receive the message, ensure that your web browser settings are set to accept cookies. Otherwise, the system will not receive the conversion.
When you receive the message, click the click-through link. You should arrive on the desired destination on your web site.
Complete the action that the click-through link in the message requested until your reach the conversion acknowledgment page. For example, if the requested action is to make a purchase and the confirmation acknowledgment page is a "Thank you for your purchase" web page, complete the steps until you arrive at the "Thank you..." page.
Repeat this process for all conversion tracking links in your message.
Go to Insight Interactive Dashboards and view your message performance dashboards. You should see conversions recorded for your messages. Alternatively, you can also look for the conversion data in your Export Feed Data job results (also known as CED feed data).

Using conversion and revenue tracking in your campaigns

Once you have conversion or revenue tracking set up on your web site and tested, you can create conversion campaigns.

To use conversion and revenue tracking in your messages and campaigns:

Create a message with links that request some type of call to action or follow-through from your email recipient. Ensure that the message click-through links result in the recipient taking the action and then seeing the conversion acknowledgment page in their web browser.
Create and publish a campaign that sends the message to your contacts.
Note: Conversion Tracking requires that your recipients have cookies enabled. Recipient cookie data is compared to conversion tracking tag-enabled data. If data matches, results are logged as a conversion event

Conversion tracking reporting and analysis

Using the data collected using the conversion tracking process, you can analyze your resulting conversions using Insight Interactive Dashboards. You can also export data using Connect and view it using third-party reporting tools.

To review conversion and revenue tracking data in Insight:

Click from any page in Responsys Express.
Click Insight.
On the Email tab, expand Performance and select Message.

Analyze your resulting conversions using Message Performance, Message Analysis, and Link Performance reports in Insight.

conversion tracking, revenue tracking, pixel

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