Simple Google Analytics - Support

[econcepts]

Just a quick update. I added a line to have it echo the main_page in each path of the if statement. It seems that for some reason the main page variable as soon as I start the checkout process is set to time_out. It stays set at that value through the entire checkout process. This has to be related somehow to the COWOA mod but so far I can't see it. The url is correctly built for each checkout page. Weird.

I'm on the site now and just ran a test order. When I view the source throughout the entire process (including on the checkout success page) the tracking code is in place.

This does include the ecommerce tracking as well. It is in place and looks to be working as it should. So, if you are not seeing ecommerce tracking then there must be something else wrong within your Google Analytics account.

Did you let Google know you want to track ecommerce transactions? You have to tell Google you want to track them (from within your Google Analytics profile) for the ecommerce tracking data that is passed in the code to actually be recorded by Google. If you don't do that, no matter if the code is working or not, the data will not be saved on Google's end.

[badarac]

I'm on the site now and just ran a test order. When I view the source throughout the entire process (including on the checkout success page) the tracking code is in place.

This does include the ecommerce tracking as well. It is in place and looks to be working as it should. So, if you are not seeing ecommerce tracking then there must be something else wrong within your Google Analytics account.

Did you let Google know you want to track ecommerce transactions? You have to tell Google you want to track them (from within your Google Analytics profile) for the ecommerce tracking data that is passed in the code to actually be recorded by Google. If you don't do that, no matter if the code is working or not, the data will not be saved on Google's end.

Eric,
I really apologize for all the confusion. It looks like this is a browser problem. I tried placing an order using the Firefox browser which I normally use and the ecommerce code was not generated. After getting your reply I got to thinking that this might be a browser issue and placed a test order using Chrome. Lo and behold the ecommerce code was generated and populated with all the right stuff. I'm gonna go clear everything in the FF browser and crawl back under my rock. Thanks for the help.

[econcepts]

Eric,
I really apologize for all the confusion. It looks like this is a browser problem. I tried placing an order using the Firefox browser which I normally use and the ecommerce code was not generated. After getting your reply I got to thinking that this might be a browser issue and placed a test order using Chrome. Lo and behold the ecommerce code was generated and populated with all the right stuff. I'm gonna go clear everything in the FF browser and crawl back under my rock. Thanks for the help.

No problem. It should work on ANY browser though. I ran it on FireFox myself and saw the tracking code just fine.

I also ran it on Safari and IE and it was fine. There is nothing in the code that would prevent it from showing from browser to browser.

However, check to see if you have DISABLED javascript on your FireFox browser as that would cause the code not to show (of course).

[badarac]

No problem. It should work on ANY browser though. I ran it on FireFox myself and saw the tracking code just fine.

I also ran it on Safari and IE and it was fine. There is nothing in the code that would prevent it from showing from browser to browser.

However, check to see if you have DISABLED javascript on your FireFox browser as that would cause the code not to show (of course).

Javascript is enabled in my browser. This trouble is related to something unique to the Firefox/PC environment I'm running on. I created a new post in the general section to see if anybody can help with debugging this problem. You're mod works fine. Here's a link in case anybody can help. http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165451

[econcepts]

Javascript is enabled in my browser. This trouble is related to something unique to the Firefox/PC environment I'm running on. I created a new post in the general section to see if anybody can help with debugging this problem. You're mod works fine. Here's a link in case anybody can help. http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165451

Ah gotcha! I'll follow it there to see what comes of it.

[nathanscrivener]

Hi Eric, I have a problem with tracking that I would be very grateful if you helped with.

We are running your Simple Analytics Plugin on Zen Cart 1.3.8a. I have had the code installed and running for quite some time but haven't spent the time trying to get to understand things until recently.

I have conversion tracking turned on and integrated with Google Adwords.

At the moment there seems to be a discrepency between the data in the zen cart admin panel, in Google Analytics, and in Google Adwords Conversion Reporting.

(We are only a small start up so the figures are very low but we are working on our adwords campaigns to try and improve sales, so having accurate information is quite important)

This is a summary of the data in each for yesterday:

1. Zen Cart - 2 sales. One sale of $18.90 and one of $18.12.
2. Google Analytics - 1 sale registered only - the one of $18.12. Where is the sale at $18.90?
3. Google Adwords - 2 conversions reported - value $73.12. This looks like it picked up the $18.12 sale but this leaves a supposed sale of $55 that never happened.

Your advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Nathan

[econcepts]

This is a summary of the data in each for yesterday:

First thought is to make sure that Google has had time to fully update. I have noticed that sometimes (depending on when a sale was made) it may take up to 24 hours for the full amount of data to show for a given day.

Second thing to consider is that there will always be some type of discrepancy in reporting across platforms due to any of the following reasons:

a) Javascript is turned off or being blocked by the client browser. (Google analytics is based on Javascript tracking so anyone with that blocked or disabled will not show in reports.)

b) The discrepancies are bigger if using the ga.js version of the tracking code. I have noticed that the older legacy "urchin" code has the most accurate tracking across the board (again, a google thing.)

c) Each tracking system you use provides data that reports on DIFFERENT aspects of your business (see response to your question #3 below for more on this.)

1. Zen Cart - 2 sales. One sale of $18.90 and one of $18.12.

This is ALWAYS going to the the 'right number' of sales. Obviously if a sale is completed, it will show as a 'new order' on the zen cart side ... no way around that. So for the most accurate 'sales numbers' (revenue that is) you would want to turn to the zen cart store.

2. Google Analytics - 1 sale registered only - the one of $18.12. Where is the sale at $18.90?

This is common with analytics based on the information I listed in the very first part of the response. The one sale that did not record could have been a user with Javascript or something disabled or blocked (it happens a lot more than you think.)

3. Google Adwords - 2 conversions reported - value $73.12. This looks like it picked up the $18.12 sale but this leaves a supposed sale of $55 that never happened.

This is perplexing to me to some degree only because the (sales) values are different that which you have told my in part 1.

However, it is VERY possible that you get 2 sales, and only one shows in the Adwords side. Why? Because you'll only see a sale within Adwords if that sale came directly from your ppc advertising. If you get a sale that did not first come through an ad of yours, it will show in analyticxs, but NOT adwords. For a sale to show in Adwords the visitor has to first click on an ad of yours to get to your site.

You wouldn't want to track sales as coming from adwords if they really didn't or you would not be able to gather accurate data to find out how well your adwords is performing.

Think of it this way. Google Analytics data is separate from Google Adwords (but they both tie together to give the most accurate data) and Google Ecommerce data is slightly 'stand alone' as well from the rest (yet ties in for more accurate data.) They are all not one system and are meant to track different aspects of your business.

When users try to associate them as all being one, that is when they get confused as to what the data really means. 'Reading' analytic data is far different from 'Interpreting' analytic data.

Hope that helps.

[nathanscrivener]

Hi Eric, thank you very much for your reply.

I have switched the plugin the urchin.gs mode, to see if that delivers more accurate results in Google Analytics. I was under the impression from the text in the plugin that this is something that was to be fixed by google in 2008. I guess that never happened.

So I follow that if the user has javascript switched off, then the sale will not record in Google Analytics. I wonder how common this is?

My main concern, which remains unanswered, is this sale of $55 recorded in conversion reports in Google Adwords that never happened. Or alternatively it picked up the other sale that Google Analytics missed, but got the order value wrong. Could this be an issue in the plugin code? Could this be explained by a default conversion value?

Thanks again and I look forward to your reply.

[econcepts]

My main concern, which remains unanswered, is this sale of $55 recorded in conversion reports in Google Adwords that never happened. Or alternatively it picked up the other sale that Google Analytics missed, but got the order value wrong. Could this be an issue in the plugin code? Could this be explained by a default conversion value?

It definitely isn't the plugin code, I have used this code on a large number of sites for years and have had no issues like that.

If you have a 'default' conversion value setup (within your Google Analytics, then this could cause the problem.) Leave all default conversion values to blank or '0'.

I never set default conversion values as I use the dynamic (more realistic) values.

[nathanscrivener]

Hi Eric

I really don't know where to turn from here ... I checked G Analytics and there are no default conversion values that I can see ... so where has this conversion value figure come from?

Do you have any suggestions?