Using GA to determine traffic sources of revenue

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Dan Fabulich

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Mar 9, 2013, 6:23:45 PM3/9/13
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I've enabled GA tracking on the Chrome Web Store for my paid app; I see purchase hits in my GA web console like this:

/webstore/detail/app/paid-onetime/gdegfhpdhmajcafaaiheopicoamimoeg/life_of_a_wizard

I have a website where I link to my app. I then advertise my website on other sites using GA campaign-tracking URLs, e.g. mysite?utm_source=blah&utm_medium=blahblah

I'm trying to track the value of those campaign links using GA, to see how many people clicked on those links and how many people purchased my app after clicking on my advertising links.

The trouble is, I can't figure out how users got to the "paid-onetime" goal page. When I go to https://www.google.com/analytics/web/#report/conversions-goal-reverse-path it claims that 100% of the time, the Previous Step 1 was "(entrance)".

When I go to Content -> All Pages, filter for the paid-onetime page, and add a Secondary Dimension "Source" it says that the majority of the hits came from my website, which is probably true, but I can't then see the campaign tracking parameters I used when I advertised my website.

Again, my goal is simple: make a link to my website, track how many people click on it, and track how many of those people go on to purchase my Chrome app. What's the best way to do that?

-Dan

Dan Fabulich

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Mar 17, 2013, 4:13:14 AM3/17/13
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Is it really impossible to track ads to CWS apps?

Joe Marini

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Mar 18, 2013, 9:11:45 PM3/18/13
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps
Hi Dan - it's probably best to ask this over on the GA forums. This forum is pretty specific to Extension and App APIs.



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Joe Marini
Developer Advocate / Chrome

Dan Fabulich

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Mar 25, 2013, 5:24:14 AM3/25/13
to chromi...@chromium.org, Dan Fabulich
Hi Joe,

I should have phrased my question better. I claim that there's a bug in the way CWS has set up GA tracking that makes it impossible to do ad tracking like this: "Ad #1 earned $0.10/click, Ad #2 earned $0.05/click."

I'm not asking "How do I use GA?" … I'm asking "Is CWS ad tracking possible at all?"

To be clear, it is not normal GA behavior to use the same GA "UA" tracking code on multiple websites, as CWS asks us to do. It would be nice if using the same tracking code on multiple sites allowed you to track two websites as if they were one website, to track referrers (ads) to Website X (my site) and see how they navigate to Website Y (CWS), segmented by referrer. But instead, GA reports visits to Website Y (CWS) as "referred" from Website X (my site), not the true referrer (my ads).

Can you confirm that anyone has ever used GA with CWS to measure the value of individual ads?

For comparison, on the Google Play Store, we can pass in utm parameters on referral links to the store. We can then associate those parameters with the purchase. So if Ad 1 links to my site, I just need to make sure I link to GPS with ?utm_content=ad1. I still can't track referrals to Google Play by website, but that's OK, because I really wanted to track by ad anyway.

I claim that CWS will need to adopt a similar system in order to make ad tracking possible.

-Dan

Joe Marini

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Mar 25, 2013, 9:58:58 PM3/25/13
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps
OK, I understand.

Currently, the CWS doesn't measure those analytics. The only two signals it sends at the moment are for views of the item's Details dialog page and the clicks on the Install button. These help you figure out things like conversion metrics.

We are looking at ways to provide better signals in the future, this is good feedback to have.

Gabriel García

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Jan 17, 2014, 5:37:23 AM1/17/14
to chromi...@chromium.org, Dan Fabulich
Hi all, 

I have the same problem trying to track referral links using campaigns but it seems that is not working as expected. As an example, in a certain day we know that one link had been clicked more than 200 times and Google Analytics only show 14 visits under the created campaign.

Joe, can you answer me if this feature should be working well right now or it still has to be improved? 

Thanks in advance. 

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Gabriel García

Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 9:43:53 AM1/17/14
to Gabriel García, Chromium Apps, Dan Fabulich

We haven't yet implemented any new GA signals in the CWS yet.

Gabriel García

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Jan 17, 2014, 10:58:16 AM1/17/14
to Joe Marini, Chromium Apps, Dan Fabulich
Thanks Joe for the fast response. 

So, what do you recommend to track referrals using Google Analytics in the CWS? It is core for our business to know the ROI of our marketing campaigns. 

Thank you again. 

Best regards,

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Gabriel


2014/1/17 Joe Marini <joem...@google.com>

Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 2:44:45 PM1/17/14
to Gabriel García, Chromium Apps, Dan Fabulich
I'm not sure what it is you're asking for. What specific signals from the CWS do you want to be able to measure?

Joe Marini
Developer Advocate / Chrome Apps, Extensions, Web Store

Gabriel García

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Jan 17, 2014, 5:07:13 PM1/17/14
to Joe Marini, Chromium Apps, Dan Fabulich
Sorry, I didn't explain me well. 

I have several links to the CWS details page and I want to track how much traffic come for each link and also know what is the conversion % for each referral. 

Thanks again.   



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Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 5:57:58 PM1/17/14
to Gabriel García, Chromium Apps, Dan Fabulich
OK, I see. We don't yet have the ability to report that data. I'll pass this along to the engineering team.

Dan Fabulich

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:06:15 PM1/17/14
to chromi...@chromium.org, Gabriel García, Dan Fabulich
Joe, can you explain what the GA support in CWS is meant to do? I honestly can't think of any useful purpose for GA support if it can't track referrals or conversions.

Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:09:21 PM1/17/14
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps, Gabriel García
Currently there are two signals: When your details page gets viewed, and when the user clicks on the Install button.

The first signal gives you an idea of how much traffic your Details page is getting. The second signal allows you to calculate conversion rates.

We realize that we need to add more analytics signals to give store developers better insight into how their items are performing. If you have suggestions, please send them along, this is something we'd like to improve sooner rather than later.

Dan Fabulich

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:14:00 PM1/17/14
to chromi...@chromium.org, Dan Fabulich, Gabriel García
No, there's only one signal, /webstore/detail/app/paid-onetime/* which tells you when the user views the page. There's no report of installs. Hence, it neither reports on conversions or referrals.

Or am I missing it?

Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:17:32 PM1/17/14
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps, Gabriel García
There is a signal for Install button clicks.

Joe Marini

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:17:48 PM1/17/14
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps, Gabriel García
Or, at least there should be.

Gabriel García

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:18:42 PM1/17/14
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps
Dan, searching a lot on the Internet I've found that when the Install button of the CWS is clicked, Google Analytics shows a pageview with the url starting with "/track_install/". But it is not well documented.



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2014/1/18 Dan Fabulich <danfa...@gmail.com>

Gabriel García

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Jan 17, 2014, 6:21:58 PM1/17/14
to Dan Fabulich, Chromium Apps


2014/1/18 Gabriel García <gabriel...@gmail.com>
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