[October 2018] Convert Support Wisdom: All About Google Analytics

Dionysia Kontotasiou
By
November 20, 2018 ·
Convert Support Wisdom: All About Google Analytics

The Convert support team gets lots of questions about Google Analytics – all year round. But the month of October saw an upsurge in the volume of queries.

Since we learn as we resolve, this month our support wisdom is a comprehensive compilation of the most asked Qs that we found ourselves giving the As to!

If you use Convert Experiences as your preferred testing tool and want to keep your reports in Google Analytics, this will be of immense value.

We Hear You:

These are some topics that seem to make their way to the tickets time and again.

Yes, we do have articles in our database to address the queries.

But a blog is a better way to get conversational and elaborate on the little things we pick up from every support request we handle.

Integrate Convert Experiences with Google Analytics

The first and most asked question is about the Convert Experiences-Google Analytics installation. Here are the steps to make this happen.

In short, you have to make sure that Google Analytics tracking code is placed under Convert Experiments code, in your website’s header. You can use the Classic Analytics (ga.js) or the Universal Analytics code (analytics.js) or the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) version. Any custom Google Analytics code could break the integration.

you have to make sure that Google Analytics tracking code is placed under Convert Experiments code

After setting up the experiment variations, go to Experiment Summary by editing the experiment. Once you are in the Experiment Summary, go to Settings section and then select Add/Edit Integrations.

You can either select Classic or Universal Analytics in order to activate the integration. If you use Global Site Tag in your website select Universal Analytics as it works for both Universal and Global Site Tag tracking codes.

you can either select Classic or Universal Analytics in order to activate the integration

What Convert Experiences data can I send to Google Analytics?

You might want to access the running experiment’s data or the data of all experiments that were triggered for a specific visitor in order to push them in Google Analytics. For that we make available two Javascript objects:

  1. convert.currentData
  2. convert.historicalData

These two objects are described in detail here.

Basically you can send the experience name or ID, the variation name or ID, goals names or IDs that were triggered.

How to Quickly Check if Convert Experiments is Sending Data to Third Party Vendors?

You can use the Google Chrome Debugger and search for the rows:

You can use the Google Chrome Debugger and search for the rows
You can use the Google Chrome Debugger and search for the rows

[History Lesson] Do you support all versions of Google Analytics?

Let’s clarify the different versions of tracking codes in Google Analytics.

In November 2005 Google launched Google Analytics, known also as ‘Classic Analytics’. The tracking code can be found by the name ga.js. From 2016 it is considered Legacy and most of the accounts have been migrated to Universal Analytics.

In October 2012 another new version of Google Analytics was announced, called ‘Universal Analytics’. The tracking code can found by the name analytics.js. The key differences from the previous version were: cross-platform tracking, flexible tracking code to collect data from any device, and the introduction of custom dimensions and custom metrics.

In October 2017 the newest version of Google Analytics was announced, called ‘Global Site Tag’. The tracking code can be found by the name gtag.js. Its purpose is to unify the tagging system and simplify implementation.

Convert Experiences support all these three versions.

Can I use GTM Data Layer to send Convert Experiences data to Google Analytics?

Yes, this feature is available. You can read the full details in this article.

Can I Import goals from Google Analytics?

One way to get started fast with your Convert Experiences account is to import existing goals from Google Analytics. This import helps you hit the ground running, but since it’s not an integration you do need to check the imported goals before you assume that they will work well.

Here is a checklist to import and setup Google Analytics goals.

  • Go to your goals overview in the left menu
Go to your goals overview in the left menu
  • On the right top you find the green icon with “Add Goal” as text, click that and a pop-up with 3 menus will open. Select the middle category called “Import” (see screenshot below)
On the right top you find the green icon with "Add Goal" as text
  • You have to give Convert the authorization to look into your Google Analytics account and select the goals. If it is prompted to you accept the offline access.D
  • Select the correct project on the left and select the Page URL, Time on page, Number of pages visited goals (event based goals cannot be imported at this moment).
Select the correct project on the left and select the Page URL, Time on page, Number of pages visited goals
  • To verify if the import was successful, please open the imported goals by editing them.
please open the imported goals by editing them

You see in this example the import went well, but this goal will not work.

We are monitoring a full URL, but the import only took part of the URL. We need to change “Matches Exactly” to “Contains”.

We are monitoring a full URL, but the import only took part of the URL

When you change and save this, the goal will be tracked (please make sure the project code is installed).

When you change and save this, the goal will be tracked

Why Convert Experiences Data is Different from Google Analytics?

Convert Experiences and Google Analytics (GA) have different tracking methods and technology.

This is the reason why you see a difference between GA and Convert Experiences data for your website. To make it easy to find out what the differences are, we have this article.

Can I track revenue with Google Analytics?

If you paste the Convert Experiences code right after the </title> tag and you use the latest Google Analytics e-commerce tracking, we will automatically connect e-commerce revenue tracking of Google Analytics to all your tests.  There is no need to install anything; this works out of the box for all customers.

You just have to create a revenue goal:

create a revenue goal

Fill in the Goal name and Revenue Page URL to match the confirmation page of your purchases:

Fill in the Goal name and Revenue Page URL to match the confirmation page of your purchases:

Save it and you are done.

I do not have the latest Google Analytics e-commerce tracking, can I still track revenue?

If you don’t want to use Google Analytics e-commerce tracking or you cannot use it as it’s not implemented through the standard tracking code, we have a workaround for you.

  • First create a revenue goal:
First create a revenue goal
  • Make sure that in the following step you fill in a dummy URL that does not match a URL on your site. For example, “http://domain.com/dummy.html”.
Make sure that in the following step you fill in a dummy URL that does not match a URL on your site

After you have saved the goal, go edit it and you will find the JavaScript code below. You will need to copy and paste this script anywhere on the page (after the main Convert tracking code) of your website to send revenue and ordered products count to our system with the appropriate fields mapped to variables in your e-commerce system.

<script>
window['_conv_q'] = window['_conv_q'] || [];
window['_conv_q'].push(["pushRevenue",revenue,products_cnt,goal_id]);
</script>

In the above code you need to replace the following fields with the actual values:

  • Revenue: revenue using 123.45 (dot as cent divider)
  • Product Count (number of products in the cart): products_cnt
  • Parameter goal_id is automatically filled in with the ID of the goal once you have saved the goal.*

What is the difference between sendRevenue & pushRevenue?

In February/March 2018, we made a change to our revenue code, changing “sendRevenue” to “pushRevenue” and removing the transaction ID in the new pushRevenue code. This was a GDPR requirement. Don’t worry, this won’t have any negative impact on the previous experiments that used sendRevenue — theose will continue to work.

Are you using Google Analytics in a GDPR & Privacy compliant way? Learn more here

Where can I see Convert Experiences data in Classic Analytics?

If you are using the ga.js tracking and therefore the custom variables, the data will be visible in two locations:

  1. Under Audience –> Custom –> Custom Variables, there will be a variable named CONVERT-XXXX where XXXXX will be the experiment ID inside Convert Experiments. You can see the Convert experiment id in the address bar when you edit your experiment.
Where can I see Convert Experiences data in Classic Analytics?
  1. Under that variable, you will see your testing combinations.
Where can I see Convert Experiences data in Classic Analytics?
  1. On each pageview of a tested page we also send an event to Google Analytics. You can find those under Content –> Events inside your Google Analytics. You can use the events to see reports of how many times a variation has been seen (not just by how many visitors).
Where can I see Convert Experiences data in Classic Analytics?

Where can I see Convert Experiences data in Universal Analytics?

If you are using the Universal Analytics tracking (analytics.js) or the Global Site Tag (gtag.js)  method and therefore the Custom Dimensions, you can use the custom dimensions inside custom reports or inside segments (to filter standard reports).

Go to Customisation and then Custom Reports:

Go to Customisation and then Custom Reports

Create a new Custom Report, and under dimensions select the Custom Dimension you created in the previous step:

Create a new Custom Report, and under dimensions select the Custom Dimension you created in the previous step:

Once the report has been created, you should wait until you see the variations and data coming in. Google says that there could be a 24-48 hours data processing latency.

Once the report has been created, you should wait until you see the variations and data coming in

But eventually it should look like this. Each variation of the Convert experiment that you use should have a corresponding row in the Custom Report:

But eventually it should look like this

Does Convert experiences support multiple GA trackers?

If you have multiple Google Analytics trackers, you can follow these steps to install them on your website. It will look like this:

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-xxxxxxxxx-1', 'auto');
ga('create', 'UA-yyyyyyyyy-1', 'auto', 'clientTracker');
ga('clientTracker.send', 'pageview');
ga('send', 'pageview');

Once you have installed them, you can select which tracker to use inside Convert Experiences Project Settings. Simply fill in the “Google Analytics UA Property”:

Simply fill in the "Google Analytics UA Property"

If you have one tracker and you fill the “Google Analytics UA Property” field, it will send the Convert data to that tracker as if it was not filled.

If you have more than one tracker and you do not fill the “Google Analytics UA Property” field, data will be sent in one of the Google Analytics trackers, the one that you have defined first in order in your page source.

That’s it for our October Support Story.

Our team will be back with another area of interest for Convert users and the intriguing, oft-asked questions that we find in our tickets.

Here’s to closing the month with a snapshot of our support metrics.

How Did Convert Serve You in October?

Chat Support:

3 minutes 30 seconds

Email Support:

2 hours

NPS Score:

75

Originally published November 20, 2018 - Updated January 20, 2022

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Authors
Dionysia Kontotasiou
Dionysia Kontotasiou

Convert's Head of Integration and Privacy, helping customers with technical queries.

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