Learn how to track your conversions over a period of time.
Depending on the product or service they’re interested in, consumers have different buying cycles. Some will instantly purchase a product while others will take their time, engage with you, research additional websites, and only then come back to purchase.
As a campaign manager, you want to identify which engagement made your visitor convert: Was it due to a chat or content engagement? Was the engagement in the current session or a previous one? Live Assist uses a cross-session period and an attribution model to do this.
The cross-session period is used to determine the window of influence in which your engagement with the visitor assisted them in completing their journey. Following the engagement, visitors may require time to decide which product or service is right for them or may wish to involve others in the purchasing decision. When the customer returns to your site to complete their goal, if the event occurs within the window of influence (the time you deem as an appropriate period to allow the customer to reflect on your engagement), the conversion will be credited to either a campaign or agent in Live Assist. In the case of a visitor being exposed to a content banner as well as participating in a chat, the chat will always get the credit for the conversion.
Conversions are reflected in your reports and are calculated based on the date of the interaction that caused him to convert (and not when the visitor converted). The conversion period includes all the events that contributed to the conversion during a given time period. The default period is 31 days. You can define the conversion period for up to 31 days before the conversion was made (see instructions below).
- Choose longer conversion periods if your visitors are likely to take their time before making a decision. For example, consumers usually take more time when buying expensive products or services. In this case, set the time frame to the maximum (31 days), so you can attribute the purchase (conversion) to the chat or content that took place at the beginning of the time period.
- Choose shorter conversion periods if your visitors are likely to make a purchase quickly. For example, visitors are more likely to purchase flowers the same day they search for them.
In addition, Live Assist uses the attribution model, which is a set of rules that determine which agent/campaign gets the credit for the conversion. If the visitor chatted more than once, you can choose which agent gets the credit by setting the attribution model to first or last (see instructions below). By default, the last agent gets the credit for the conversion. Similarly, if a visitor was exposed to more than one content engagement of different campaigns, the last content engagement will get the credit for the conversion.
Note: Any change you make to the attribution model or time period takes effect immediately, and impacts your current and historical conversion and revenue reports (starting April 14, 2015).
For example, let’s say you are the owner of a travel agency. You created a pre-holiday campaign offering low-cost flights to various destinations. John entered your website for the first time at the beginning of the month. He clicked the chat button and chatted with an agent named Betsy about the different vacation packages. Later that month, John visited your website again and viewed a content engagement offering him a 20% discount. He chats with a different agent named Sam and he purchases a vacation package.
Who will get credit for the conversion?
You want to know which of the engagements made John convert and credit the conversion to the relevant campaign and agent. If your attribution model is set to First, the first agent, Betsy, will get the credit for the conversion. If it is set to Last, the second agent, Sam, will get the credit for the conversion.
To configure your account’s cross-session period:
1. Go to the Campaign list.
2. From the footnote, set the cross-session period. This is the number of days you want to track visitors who return after a campaign exposure.
To configure your account’s attribution model:
1. Go to the Campaign list.
2. From the footnote, set the Conversion attribution model to First or Last. This determines which agent will get the credit for the conversion, or in the case of content banners, the first or last banner the visitor was exposed to.