Metrics & Dimensions
Below is the base list of Metrics and Dimensions supported by OWA. Not all metrics may be combined with all dimensions. See the Allowed Combinations for allowed combinations.
The most basic unit of measure; a single number, or percentage calculated by counting specific events such as a visit, click, or viewing of a web page. Metrics are often a whole number (Visits = 12,398), but not necessarily (Total Sales= $52,126.37). Some metrics can be summed across time (File Downloads) while others cannot (Average Time Spent per Visit).
Some metrics are calculated utilizing other metrics. These “Calculated Metrics” are usually expressed as a percentage or ratio (Click Through Rate = 0.15%., or Pages Per Visit = 1.34).
| Name | Description | Group |
|---|---|---|
pageViews |
The number of times a page (an analyst-definable unit of content) was rendered and supposedly viewed by a user. | request, session |
visits |
A visit is an interaction, by an individual user, with consisting of one or more requests for an analyst-definable unit of content (i.e. "page view"). Also commonly referred to as a "Session". | request, session |
uniqueVisitors |
The number of unique individual people with one or more visits. | request, session, action, click, domstream, transaction |
visitors |
The number of unique individual people with one or more visits. | request, session |
newVisitors |
The number of Unique Visitors with activity including a first-ever Visit. | session |
repeatVisitors |
The number of Unique Visitors with activity consisting of two or more Visits | session |
bounces |
Visits that consist of one page view. | session |
bounceRate |
Single page view visits divided by entry pages. | session |
visitDuration |
The length of time spent between the start and end of a visit. Calculated using the first and last timestamps of pageViews occurring during a visit window. | session |
uniquePageViews |
The number of distinct pages viewed during a visit. | request |
pagesPerVisit |
Page Views divided by Visits. | request, session |
actions |
A generic analyst-defined event performed by a user. | action |
uniqueActions |
The number of unique action types performed. | action |
actionsValue |
The total value of all actions. | action |
feedRequests |
feed_request | |
feedreaders |
feed_request | |
feedSubscriptions |
feed_request | |
goal{1-10}Completions |
The number of times a particular goal was completed. | session |
goal{1-10}Starts |
The number of times a particular goal was started. | session |
goal{1-10}Value |
The total value of a particular goal. | session |
goalCompletionsAll |
The number of times all goals were completed. | session |
goalStartsAll |
The number of times all goals were started. | session |
goalValueAll |
The total value of all goals. | session |
goalConversionRateAll |
The rate that all goals are completed as calculated by all completions divided by all starts. | session |
goalAbandonRateAll |
The rate that all goals are abandoned. | session |
transactions |
The total number of e-commerce transactions. | transaction, session |
transactionsRevenue |
The total revenue associated with all e-commerce transactions. | transaction, session |
taxRevenue |
The total tax revenue associated with all e-commerce transactions. | transaction, session |
shippingRevenue |
The shipping revenue associated with all e-commerce transactions. | transaction, session |
revenuePerTransaction |
The average revenue per transaction. | transaction, session |
revenuePerVisit |
The average revenue per visit. | transaction, session |
ecommerceConversionRate |
The rate that visits result in an e-commerce transaction. | transaction, session |
uniqueLineItems |
The total number of unique product line items associated with all transactions. | trasaction, session |
lineItemRevenue |
The total revenue for all product line items in all transactions. | transaction, session |
lineItemQuantity |
The total quantity of product line items in all transactions | transaction, session |
domClicks |
A dom click is a the act of "clicking" or touching a dom element on a web page or interface. | clicks |
Metrics are typically calculated by performing an aggregate count of all events of a particular type that occur on a website. However, metrics can also be calculated by only counting a subset of events generated by a particular group, or segment, of visitors (i.e., Repeat Visitors).
This is where dimensions come into play. Dimensions are data properties that are used to describe events. They are usually expressed as text (such as the URL of a web page, or day of the week) but can also sometimes also be expressed as numbers.
| Name | Description | Group |
|---|---|---|
date |
A date string in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 20200415) | time |
day |
The day of the month (1-31) | time |
month |
The month of the year (1-12) | time |
year |
The year (e.g. 2020) | time |
dayofweek |
The day of the week (1-7) | time |
dayofyear |
The day of the year (1-365) | time |
weekoftheyear |
The week of the year (1-52) | time |
siteId |
The id of the tracked website. | site |
siteDomain |
The domain of the tracked website. | site |
siteName |
The real name of the tracked website. | site |
visitorId |
The id of the visitor. | visitor |
userName |
A generic string used to store the user name of the visitor. | visitor |
userEmail |
A generic string used ot store the the email address of the visitor. | visitor |
isRepeatVisitor |
A boolean indicating if the visitors has had to two or more visits. | visitor |
isNewVisitor |
A boolean indicating if the visitor has only had one visit. | visitor |
sessionId |
The id of the visit/session. | visit |
entryPageurl |
The url of the page first viewed during a visit. | visit |
entryPagePath |
The path portion of the URL of the page first viewed during a visit. | visit |
entryPageTitle |
The title of the page first viewed during a visit. | visit |
entryPageType |
The page type of the page first viewed during a visit. | visit |
exitPageurl |
The url of the page last viewed during a visit. | visit |
exitPagePath |
The path of the page last viewed during a visit. | visit |
exitPageTitle |
The title of the page last viewed during a visit. | visit |
exitPageType |
The page type of the page last viewed during a visit. | visit |
timeSinceLastVisit |
The time in seconds since the last visit. | visitor |
daysSinceFirstVisit |
The number of days since the last visit. | visitor |
priorVisitCount |
The total number of visits that occurred prior to the current visit. | visitor |
pagesViewsInVisit |
The number of pages viewed during a visit | visit |
revenueInVisit |
Revenue generate from e-commerce transactions during a visit. | visit |
itemRevenueInVisit |
Product revenue generated from e-commerce transactions during a visit. | visit |
shippingRevenueInVisit |
Shipping generate from e-commerce transactions during a visit. | visit |
taxRevenueInVisit |
Tax revenue generate from e-commerce transactions during a visit. | visit |
transactionsInVisit |
Number of transactions that occurred during a visit. | visit |
itemQuantityInVisit |
Number of products purchased during a visit. | visit |
distinctItemsInVisit |
Distinct number of items purchased during a visit. | visit |
goalsInVisit |
The numbest of goals completed during a visit. | visit |
goalStartsInVisit |
The number of goals started during a visit. | visit |
goalValueInVisit |
The value of all goals completed during a visit. | visit |
browserType |
The type of web browser used by visitors. | technology |
browserVersion |
The web browser version used by visitors. | technology |
osType |
The type of computer operating system used by visitors. | technology |
language |
The web browser language setting of visitors. | technology |
ipAddress |
The IP address of visitors. | technology |
city |
The inferred city location of visitors. | geography |
country |
The inferred country location of visitors. | geography |
latitude |
The inferred latitude location of visitors. | geography |
longitude |
The inferred longitude location of visitors. | geography |
countryCode |
The country code for the inferred country location of visitors. | geography |
stateRegion |
The inferred state or region location of visitors. | geography |
source |
The origin of traffic. Possible values are the domain of referring websites (foo.com) or app search engines (Google), etc. | traffic |
medium |
A high-level classification of the traffic source through which a visitor arrives at a website. Possible values are: Direct, organic-search, etc. | traffic |
campaign |
The name of a marketing campaign. | traffic |
ad |
The name of an advertisement. | traffic |
adType |
The type of an advertisement. | traffic |
referralPageUrl |
The url that referred visitors to the tracked website. | traffic |
referralPageTitle |
The page title of the url that referred visitors to the tracked website. | traffic |
referralWebSite |
The domain of the referring URL. | traffic |
referralSearchTerms |
The search term that led visitors to the tracked website. | traffic |
referralLinkText |
The anchor text of the link that referred visitors to the tracked website. | traffic |
isSearchEngine |
A boolean indicating if the referring url is a search engine. | traffic |
latestAttributions |
A string of the latest OWA campaign attributions. | traffic |
priorPageUrl |
The url of the page viewed before the current page view. | |
priorPageType |
The type of page viewed before the current page view. | |
pageUrl |
The url of the page viewed. | content |
pagePath |
The path of the page viewed. | content |
pageTitle |
The title of the page viewed. | content |
actionName |
The name of the action. | action |
actionGroup |
The group associated with the action. | action |
actionLabel |
A text label associated with the action. | action |
productName |
The name of the product. | ecommerce |
productSku |
The SKU of the product. | ecommerce |
productCategory |
The category of the product. | ecommerce |
transactionOriginator |
The originator of the sale. | ecommerce |
transactionId |
The unique id of the transaction. | ecommerce |
transactionGateway |
The payment gateway used for the transaction. | ecommerce |
daysToTransaction |
The number of days between the first visit and the transaction. | ecommerce |
visitsToTransaction |
The number of visits that occurred prior to the transaction. | ecommerce |
timestamp |
The timestamp of the transaction. | transaction |
domElementId |
The id of the dom element clicked on. | click |
domElementName |
The name of the dom element clicked on. | click |
domElementTag |
The html tag of the dom element clicked on. | click |
dom_element_class |
The css class of the dom element clicked on. | click |
feedType |
The type of syndication feed (RSS, ATOM etc.) | feeds |
customVarName{1-10} |
The name of a custom variable associated with the tracking event. Note: the name of they dimension is dynamic depending on which of the 10 custom variables you want to retrieve (e.g. customVarName1, customVarName5, etc.) | custom |
customVarValue{1-10} |
The value of a custom variable associated with the tracking event. Note: the name of they dimension is dynamic depending on which of the 10 custom variables you want to retrieve (e.g. customVarName1, customVarName5, etc.) | custom |
Following are the allowable metric and dimension group combinations. Metrics groups may not be combined with each other.
| Metric Group | Dimension Groups |
|---|---|
request |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, content, custom
|
session |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, custom, visit
|
action |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, content, custom, action
|
ecommerce |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, custom, e-commerce
|
click |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, content, custom, click
|
domstream |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, content, custom
|
feeds |
time, site, visitor, technology, geography, traffic, feeds
|
Different web analytics tools use different methodologies to track sessions. As a result it is important to understand how this metric is computed. For example, the OWA time-out period for a visit is 30 minutes, but this may not be the case with all web analytics tools. Many web analytics tools make the visit time-out period configurable.
A visit typically consists of one or more page views. However, in the case of sites where interaction consists solely of file downloads, streaming media, Flash, or other non-HTML content, a request for this content may or may not be defined as a “page” in a specific web analytics tool but could still be viewed as a valid request as part of a visit. The key is that interaction with the site is represented.
When performing analysis using this metric, be mindful of the dimensions that are being added across or else a summation could result in an inflated total. For example, visits can be summed across a dimension such as Entry Page because a visit only has one Entry Page. However, visits are not additive over other dimensions such as Page, because visits can be associated with views of multiple pages.
Most web analytics tools use the timestamp associated with the Page View or Event that starts and ends a Visit to calculate this metric.
The timestamp used to determine the end of a Visit may differ by tool. Some tools use the timestamp of the last Page View, while others use the timestamp of other Events such as clicks, video start, etc. OWA uses the timestamp of the last event (page view, action, etc.).
Also, because this metric is calculated using the timestamps of Events, actual time spent on the website after the last Event is usually not included in the total.
Consider this example: (time is in the HH:MM:SS format)
-
Timestamp of first Event in Visit – Jan 19, 2014 15:05:21
-
Timestamp of last Event in Visit – Jan 19, 2014 15:17:35
-
Visit Duration = 12m 14s
This metric relies on the assignment of a unique ID to visitors of your website or application. The most predominant method for storing this unique ID is via a persistent browser cookie, although implementations vary tracking client/sdk.
Authentication, either active or passive, is the most accurate way to track unique visitors. However, because most websites do not require a user login, the cookie-based "unique visitor" is often used as a proxy for a unique individual. The cookie-based measurement method can lead to inaccuracies due to cookie deletion, shared computers, and browsing from multiple browsers or devices.
When performing analysis using this metric, be mindful that a summation using this metrics across multiple dimensions will result in an inflated total. For more information please reference the “hotel problem” as described on Wikipedia.
To reduce confusion when web analytics and audience measurement tools are used together, some web analytics providers have renamed the Unique Visitors metric to “Unique Browsers.”
This dimension is often used in two contexts: “Traffic Sources” and “Site Searches” (internal searches that happen mid-session on the website).
In the context of traffic sources, this dimension is used to determine which search terms are driving browsers to visit the website from organic or paid search sources. When two or more searches drive the user back to the same website within the same visit/session, the last search term is typically attributed to the session. However, this varies by the traffic attribution model configured for use by the tracker code.
Analysts also use this dimension to identify high performing search terms that might be candidates to purchase as part of paid search programs.
Site Search terms are terms within the particular domain. For instance, a visitor on amazon.com performs a site search when they enter a term like “electric blankets” in the search box.
When analyzing Site Searches, this dimension is used to analyze what people are searching for within a website.
Google and other search engines have stopped including the search term in their referring URLs when the search takes place under https protocol. In this case OWA will display the (not provided) label for the search term value.