Cookie based Conversion Tracking - Domain matching and conversion statistics explanation

Everything starts by receiving an email from an Engage system in this example the Engage system has a delegated domain name called mail.example.com where the message has conversion tracking enabled.

You have obtained and customized the conversion tracking pixel from your Engage system.

Contents:

• Case 1: You do not have a dedicated SSL certificate for your delegated domain

  • You send a mail with conversion tracking enabled

  • When the conversion pixel is loaded

  • How can you make this work without an SSL certificate?

• Case 2: You do have a dedicated SSL certificate for your delegated domain

  • You send a mail with conversion tracking enabled

  • When the conversion pixel is loaded

  • It works!

• What the statistics mean in the conversion tracking overview

Case 1: You do not have a dedicated SSL certificate for your delegated domain

Your system will allow you to generate 2 conversion pixels: one to your delegated non-secure domain, and one to the generic secure domain. You must integrate one of them on your payment confirmation page on your target website:

• Unsecure pixel to your delegated domain: http://mail.example.com 

• Secure pixel to your generic secure domain: http://a.shortest-route.com/mailexample 

Note that as you do not have a dedicated SSL certificate on your delegated domain, you cannot use https://mail.example.com  as your system is not set up to use this.

You send a mail with conversion tracking enabled

• Your source email has a link to https://myshop.example.com 

• Engage will recode this link to a tracked link. For example: http://mail.example.com/re?ABC123 

• You click on this link in a mail client which opens in a browser

• Engage will respond with an HTTP header containing:

  • A tracking cookie valid only on the mail.example.com  domain, that your browser automatically stores in memory

  • A redirect Location: https://myshop.example.com which tells your browser to go to this new location

  • The browser will within a fraction of a second, load the requested page at https://myshop.example.com 

When the conversion pixel is loaded

• You will browse and make a purchase on this domain, and finally, the page with the conversion pixel is loaded:

  • If your conversion pixel is pointing to http://mail.myshop.com  technically may work, as the tracking cookie domain matches the conversion pixel domain, BUT most browsers today will refuse to load images loaded over HTTP if the page itself is loaded over HTTPS

    • The conversion tracking pixel will probably not work because of browser security limitations.

  • If your conversion pixel is pointing to https://a.shortest-route.com/mail then the conversion tracking pixel domain does not match the domain that dropped the cookie which is mail.example.com  and no recipient ID/message ID can be sent back to Engage.

  • Engage will track an impression of the pixel, but cannot link that impression to a specific message or contact as the browser did not send the cookie along with the load request for the tracking pixel as the domains did not match.

How can you make this work without an SSL certificate?

The only solution is to work with your CSM to change your system setup so that all links that are sent in emails through the Engage system use the generic secure domain which will all start with https://a.shortest-route.com/mailexample  - your delegated domain representing your brand cannot be used as the domain today must be secure, and you do not have a secure option on your delegated domain.

Case 2: You do have a dedicated SSL certificate for your delegated domain

Your system will allow you to generate 2 conversion pixels. You must integrate one of them on your payment confirmation page on your target website:

• Unsecure pixel: http://mail.example.com 

• Secure pixel: https://mail.example.com 

It is strongly recommended that you only use the secure pixel link in this case!

You send a mail with conversion tracking enabled

• Your source email has a link to https://myshop.example.com 

• Engage will recode this link to a tracked link. For example: https://mail.example.com/re?ABC123 

• You click on this link in a mail client which opens in a browser

• Engage will respond with an HTTP header containing:

  • A tracking cookie valid only on the mail.example.com  domain, that your browser automatically stores in memory

  • A redirect Location: https://myshop.example.com which tells your browser to go to this new location

  • The browser will within a fraction of a second, load the requested page at htps://myshop.example.com 

When the conversion pixel is loaded

• You will browse and make a purchase on this domain, and finally, the page with the conversion pixel is loaded:

  • The conversion pixel URL https://mail.example.com  matches the mail.example.com  domain in the cookie

  • The cookie will be added to the HTTP request made by your browser to download the conversion-tracking cookie

Engage will then take the conversion details from the URL of the tracking pixel URL, and link them to the contact ID and message ID contained within the linked pixel sent by the browser.

What the statistics mean in the conversion tracking overview

The conversion tracking overview is explained in the public documentation visible here:

There are 2 numbers that can cause confusion: why the "orders" stat can be much bigger than the "conversions"? Semantically this confusion is understandable. Previously the "orders (all)" number was called "display" or "impressions" which may have been slightly less confusing in the past.

Globally, one number tracks how many times the conversion tracking pixel on the confirmation page was called from Engage overall, and the second number is the number of click-through conversions from a valid Engage contact who clicked on a conversion tracking enabled and tracked link in a received email:

• Orders (All): This corresponds to the total number of times the conversion tracking pixel installed on the order confirmation page is called from Engage. It will save whatever conversion details are stored in the customized URL of the tracking pixel, but it is not the total number of conversions coming from a clicked link from a conversion tracking-enabled email, because:

  • Not all the orders on a client's website come from an Engage click-through

  • Orders may come from an Engage message click-through:

    • If the cookie-based conversion is active but the domains do not match, as noted in the sections above, Engage cannot get the message id and user id details that are stored in the tracking cookie that is placed on a visitor's browser when clicking through a redirected link

    • Conversion tracking is not activated on the links from a message

    • Engage links are not tracked at all (so there will not be a redirect at all, and so Engage cannot place the messageid/userid data as a cookie

• Conversions (from messages): This is the number of calls to the conversion tracking pixel on the order confirmation page where the visitor sent a valid conversion tracking cookie containing the messageid/userid in the HTTP header request where the conversion tracking pixel was called. These are conversions that can be linked to a valid Engage contact, and to a specific message where the initial click-through originated.

Knowledge Base Reference ID: 202204251446