Brief information about evars, props and events

1. Omniture Basics
Props, eVar and Events
Author
Nishant Pandey

2. Props
• Props are custom traffic variables. There are 75 custom traffic variables are there in Site
Catalyst.
• They are used to count the number of times that certain values are sent into Site Catalyst.
• Traffic data includes visits, visitors, page views, sections, sub sections, internal search terms,
user type (segments) etc. You can also enable pathing on these custom variables to understand
the path that users take from prop to prop.
• They are not persistent – meaning that once they get counted in Site Catalyst they get forgotten.
• In order to understand internal search terms that eventually get the user to a form, traffic props
are not the way to go. For that, you need to use an eVar.
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3. eVar
• eVars are called conversion variables and are generally set on different pages. There are 75
eVars are available in Site Catalyst.
• They are usually used to tie success events back to the last value that was stored in the eVar.
• eVars are persistent, and can control, through the admin, how long they remain persistent (visit
or time frame or when something happens like a success event), and how to allocate a success
event to them (most recent value is the most common setting).
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4. Differences between Props and eVars
Factors Props eVars
Naming convention
used to report on popularity of various dimensions
of site
used to determine which dimensions of site
contribute the most to success events
Persistence
Props do not persist beyond the image request
they were fired on.
eVars are persistent
Success events Props can’t report on conversion events eVars are designed to report on conversion events
Pathing Props can use pathing eVars don’t use pathing
Potentially*
available metrics
Average Time Spent, Average Page Depth, Reloads,
and Single Access
All shopping cart metrics, All purchase metrics,
such as Orders, Units, and Revenue & All custom
conversion events
Breakdowns
Props use correlations, which display page views
for other traffic variables fired in the same image
request
eVars use subrelations, which provide a breakdown
on other conversion variables in relation to success
events
*The Common metrics b/w props and eVars are Instances, Page Views, Visits and Unique Visitors, Bounces, Bounce Rate, Entries,
Exits, and Total Time Spent, Participation metrics and calculated metrics
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5. Purpose, Function & Metrics – Prop & eVar
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Factors
Traffic Variables
(Props)
Conversion Variables
(eVars)
Success Events
Purpose Traffic Counters Conversion Segmentation Conversion Metrics
Function
Non - Persistent, Pathing,
Participation
Persistent, Merchandising
Counter, Numeric
Currency
Metrics
Page Views, Visits,
Visitors,Time Spent
Success Events, Visits, Visitor

6. Events
• Events are completed visitor actions on the web site.
• Site catalyst have some pre defined events as well as option of adding 100 custom events.
• The pre-defined events are most often associated with e-commerce sites and are prodView,
scView, scOpen, scAdd, scRemove, scCheckout, and purchase.
• Custom Events Path: Admin Console > Report Suite > Edit Settings > Conversion > Success
Events.
• Shopping Cart Success Events
– The Purchase event in Site Catalyst is unique in that it populates three distinct success event metrics:
Revenue, Orders, and Units
– The Carts (scOpen) success event is intended to represent how many shopping carts are created or opened
during the specified time frame
– The Cart Views (scView) success event represents the number of times visitors have viewed their cart during
the specified time period.
– The Checkouts (scCheckout) success event is set when visitors reach the checkout stage of the shopping cart,
which is normally the step directly before a purchase takes place
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7. Success Event Pathing
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8. Visits, Visitor & Page Views
• Visits: A visit can be seen as any number of page views in one “setting” or in one “session” on
the site. A visit ends after 30 minutes of inactivity, or when Site Catalyst has not heard from the
same user for 30 minutes.
• Visitors: The initial session by a user during any given date range is considered to be an
additional visit and an additional visitor. Any future sessions from the same user during the
selected time period are counted as additional visits, but not as additional visitors.
• Page Views: A pageview is defined as a view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the
Analytics tracking code. If a visitor clicks reload after reaching the page, this is counted as an
additional pageview. If a user navigates to a different page and then returns to the original page,
a second pageview is recorded as well
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