By analyzing the performance of marketing campaigns and links, managers can shift spending to high-performing vendors, campaigns, and creative elements.

You can complete the following types of analysis by using data from the Marketing Programs report.

• Compare campaigns using same-session metrics to understand how well campaigns drive immediate visitor response.
• Analyze various paid search terms to improve the performance of existing keyword marketing placements.
• Analyze various marketing programs to improve the performance of existing creative/content placements.
• Identify key real estate and creative elements within emails that generate the most click-throughs and transactions to maximize the value of future emails.

Trend Behaviour

When the user selects multiple weeks, months, or quarters the results for Marketing Channels and Marketing Programs' reports are as follows:

• Two or more weeks – trend by week unless a day is selected, then trend by day.
• Unless a week or day is selected, two or more months – trend by month.

When the user selects the date range and then clicks on-trend, the results for Marketing Channels and Marketing Programs' reports are as follows:

• when a single week date range is selected - trend by day (= 7 days)
• when a single month date range is selected - trend by week (= 4 or 5 weeks, according to the selected date range)
• when a single quarter date range is selected - trend by month (= 3 months)
• when a single year date range is selected - trend by quarter (= 4 quarters)

Trend option availability

1. Only valid trend options are now displayed in the dropdown, e.g., when the weekly date range is selected, there is no option to trend my month, quarter, or year. However, trend by week for a weekly date range, trend by month for a monthly date range, etc., are still available for all the reports except for Marketing Channel and Marketing Programs.
2. Only trend options larger than the selected date range are available for Marketing Channel and Marketing Programs reports. This means that for Marketing Channels and Marketing Programs, it's impossible to choose trend by week for a single week date range, trend by month for a monthly date range, etc.

Key performance indicators for the Marketing Programs report

Focus on the following key performance indicators when analyzing the Marketing Programs report data.

The Marketing Programs report provides the following metrics in the default view.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of one-page sessions out of all sessions attributable to this MMC item - which campaigns drive visitors to targeted landing pages.

Unique Visitors

The number of distinct visitors that have sessions attributable to the MMC item - how many unique users visit your website from a specific source.

Unique Buyers / Visitors

The ratio of visitors who purchased a product to all visitors who visited your site.

New Visitor Percentage

The percentage of all visitors making their first visit to the site: New Visitors divided by Unique Visitors.

Online: Sales

The dollar value of orders in any session that is attributable to this MMC item. Using sales, you can understand how your marketing campaign drives your website's conversion.

Also, you can add these metrics if you edit the Marketing Programs report.

Average Session Length

The average length of a visitor session: (Time Stamp of Last Session Record minus Time Stamp of First Session Record) divided by Sessions.

Buying Sessions / Total Sessions

Buying sessions divided by total sessions.

Event Points

The total number of event points. The Conversion Event tag collects event data. For example, action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.

Event Points / Session

The average number of event points per session: Event Points divided by Sessions. The Conversion Event tag collects event data. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.

Event Sessions

The total number of sessions that consist of at least one completed event. The Conversion Event tag collects event data. Action Type = 1 reflects an initiation. Action Type = 2 reflects a completion. Passing Event Point values is optional.

Events Completed

The number of events (as defined by the conversion event tag) completed in sessions is attributable to this MMC item.

Events Completed / Session

 

MMC Clicks

 

New Visitors

The total number of new visitors (persistent cookie values not previously seen).

One Page Sessions

The total number of sessions consisted of a single page.

Online: Average Order Value

The average order value in sessions that are attributable to this MMC item.

Online: Average Shipping & Handling

The average shipping and handling fees for transactions completed via online channels.

Online: Buying Sessions

The number of sessions in which an order was placed via online channels.

Online: Orders

The number of orders in sessions that are attributable to this MMC item.

Online: Total Shipping & Handling

The total shipping and handling value for orders completed via online channels.

Online: Unique Buyers

The total number of visitors who purchased one or more products via online channels.

Orders / Session

The average number of orders per session.

Orders / Visitor

The average number of orders per visitor.

Page Views

The total number of times the page (or category that contains the page) was viewed - a count of the collected Page View tags.

Page Views / Session

The average number of page views per session is attributable to this MMC item.

Sessions

The total number of sessions. A session is defined by a sequence of records collected by a common session cookie with no more than 30 minutes (default) of inactivity between collected records.

Using the cm_mmc parameter for the Marketing Programs report

The Marketing Management Center (MMC) looks at the first-page view of each session on your site. If the URL for that page view contains a cm_mmc parameter, that session activity will be tracked in the Marketing Programs report.

The cm_mmc parameter contains the following four elements:

• Vendor
• Category
• Placement
• Item

Each element within the cm_mmc parameter is required. If you do not need to use all four MMC elements, you can pass null or na but do not leave any MMC parameter values blank. For example, the cm_mmc parameter allows you to specify the vendor, category, placement, and item information displayed in the Marketing Programs report. Each one of these values is placed within the parameter, separated by the string -_-.

For example, activity directed to the following URL would show up in the Marketing Programs report with a vendor of Google, a category of Home and Garden, a placement of keywords, and an item of a sprinkler.

http://www.site.com/product.asp?product_id=1234&cm_mmc=Google-_-Home%20and%20 Garden-_-keywords-_-sprinkler

Each element is separated by -_-. For example, the spaces in the "Home and Garden" category have been encoded to be %20 to match standard URL encoding rules.

You should generate MMC URLs using the Tracking Code Generator to process bulk sheets and automatically append tracking codes to the destination URLs with MMC parameters. To select the Tracking Code Generator, click Manage > Marketing > from the left navigation pane. Then select Guide Me to review information about the Tracking Code Generator.

Note: The cm_mmc parameter represents the new format for MMC tracking links. The old format used separate parameters for the vendor, category, placement, and item: cm_ven, cm_cat, cm_pla, and cm_ite respectively. This format continues to be detected and tracked within the MMC, but users are encouraged to use the new cm_mmc parameter. Also, if you use the old format MMC parameters and leave a value blank, -1 is used for the missing value. In the new format, blank values generate a rejection.

Following the web standard regarding the use of the hash character is essential. It is used in a URL to indicate a fragment. Therefore, the number (#) character should not be used in MMC parameters.

Vendor / Category / Placement / Item: The four MMC parameters link information to a manageable four-level hierarchy. Although Digital Analytics recommends using each level for specific information, the client can completely customize it.

Vendor

Automatically group marketing links by an external vendor for comparison and audit.

Category

Group links by internal categories such as campaign name or business unit for individual analysis.

Placement

Group links by creative for comparison across versions.

Marketing Item

Name the marketing link so that it is easily recognizable.