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 in the Yandex.Metrica web interface, or using the API.

More information about transmitting data in the web interface

More information about transmitting data via 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

To link offline data to website users and their sessions, Yandex.Metrica uses multiple IDs:

The ID of a unique website user that Yandex.Metrica creates automatically.

Used for tracking offline conversions and calls and transmitting user parameters.

Transmit data using the ClientID if, for example, your website doesn't have a system of user identifiers, or you don't need the identifiers that are used.

In this case, you should:

Get IDs using the getClientID method.
Send them with the other data in the CSV file.

The website user's ID set by the website owner.

Used for tracking offline conversions and calls and transmitting user parameters.

Transmit data using the UserID if your website already has a system for identifying users (for example, by username), and you are actively using this data.

In this case, you should:

Set up ID transmission to Yandex.Metrica using the setUserID method to associate the UserIDs with the ClientIDs.
Send the UserIDs with the other data in the CSV file.

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. Used for tracking conversions.

Extending the conversion tracking period

The Enable extended conversion window option increases the time interval during which session data can be changed in Yandex.Metrica. This includes adding information about conversions that you send to Yandex.Metrica.

By default, new data can be added to a session within 16 hours after the session ends. This makes it possible to correct information about sessions in the Yandex.Metrica database (for example, add new pageviews or adjust the session length). After 16 hours, the session data can't be changed.

In some cases, it takes more than 16 hours between the session and the conversion (for example, if the conversion action is performed offline). So to add data to sessions, you need to use the extended conversion tracking window of 21 days. This means that data about a conversion is added to a session in Yandex.Metrica if 21 days or less have passed from the user's last session on the website to processing the file with the conversion data. If a conversion is completed later or you send your conversion data more than 21 days after the session on the website, Yandex.Metrica will ignore it.

Attention. The extended conversion tracking window only applies to sessions that are registered in Yandex.Metrica 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.

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.