Tracking offline data
When a user visits your website, Yandex.Metrica collects information about the user's characteristics, behavior on the website, and goals completed. But your business might have other important information that it collects offline about payments, calls, and so on. You can transmit this data to Yandex.Metrica and link the behavior of your customers on the website to their actions offline.
Transmitting offline data can help you to:
- Connect users' online and offline history to get a better view of the conversion funnel.
- Use offline data for advertising: create segments for advertising in Yandex.Direct, including targeting new users with look-alike technology available in the Yandex.Audience service.
You can transmit the following types of offline data:
Offline conversions (for instance, information about orders that were created on the website and paid for in the office). You can send the data in a CSV file on the Yandex.Metrica website, or by using the API.
Information about calls. This information is usually available from the call tracking service your company uses. More information about transmitting data.
- Using IDs to track offline data
- Recording offline conversions
- Questions and answers
Using IDs to track offline data
To link offline data to website users and their sessions, Yandex.Metrica uses multiple IDs:
Unique website session ID created automatically by Yandex.Metrica.
Used for tracking offline conversions and calls and transmitting user parameters.
You can use the ClientID if your website doesn't have a dedicated ID framework or you don't need one. Use the getClientID method to get the IDs.
The website user ID assigned by the website owner (for example, via CRM).
Used for tracking offline conversions and calls and transmitting user parameters.
It's a good idea to use the UserID if your website already has its own user ID framework (for example, based on usernames) and you actively manage this kind of data. If you want Yandex.Metrica to detect unique users through your dedicated framework, you need to link the UserID to ClientID with the setUserID method.
Your website user ID is associated with the ClientID of a particular user only if the setUserID method was called during the user's session. To get more complete statistics, we recommend waiting some time until a larger volume of data is transmitted to Yandex.Metrica.
The ID of a click on a Yandex.Direct ad assigned by Yandex.Direct. Use this ID if you want to directly link your conversions to ad clicks. For more information, see Conversion tracking with yclid.
Recording offline conversions
The Recording offline conversions option specifies the time interval during which session data can be supplemented with conversion information that you transmit to Yandex.Metrica.
In some cases, there is quite a long delay between the session and the conversion, like if the conversion action is performed offline. This is why the conversion tracking period is 21 days. This means that data about an offline conversion is added to a session if 21 days or less have passed since the user's last session on the site when the file with conversion data is processed.
Offline conversions will only be added to sessions that take place after the option is enabled. The time interval for changing session information increases incrementally. On the day after enabling this option, the interval is one day, and it keeps getting longer until it reaches a maximum of 21 days.
A conversion will not be linked to a session if the conversion or your transmission of conversion data takes place more than 21 days after the session on the website.
If you use different IDs, conversion attribution methods will differ:
- ClientID and UserID. Offline conversions and calls are added to the user's session that directly preceded them. For example, the user had three sessions: March 1, March 5, and March 11. On March 10, this user paid for an order at a retail store, and this date was registered in the CRM. On March 20, the manager sent the data to Yandex.Metrica. The order paid for on March 10 was added to the customer's website session as of March 5.
yclid. Conversions will be added to a session initiated through an ad linked to the transferred yclid.
Questions and answers
- Is it possible to track a conversion if the user viewed my page but made an offline order?
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Tracking offline conversions can be more complicated. If you want to link an online event to an offline one, you first need to combine their entities. For example, if your online action is an order, then the link would be an order number, and if it's a call, then your link would be a phone number. If you want to link a website session with an offline action, you can display unique promo codes to users that they could then show in the store.
