Big gulf between 'Click Email' & corresponding 'Visit Web Page' activities?

[Robert_Kelen3]

In multiple client accounts, we've recently seen large gaps in the activity data between people who clicked links in emails (Click Email) and then had no corresponding activity logged for visiting the web page (Visit Web Page) of the very link they clicked on.

This has occurred both for Marketo landing pages, and pages (with Munchkin code) hosted elsewhere.

Marketo support suggested these discrepancies could all be chalked up to security sniffs by the email clients, but based on the timing between delivery & click, I don't believe that covers all the cases.

One other clue: in one of the clients, many of the users with missing Visit Web Page activity also had no values for the Marketo inferred fields.

Has anyone else seen this problem, or have any ideas about possible workarounds? Accurately measuring the pages visits is important.

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Click Email without a subsequent Visit Web Page has multiple potential causes -- but as you've noticed, the first one is by far the most notorious, if not necessarily the most common across the Marketo userbase:

1. Anti-spam scanners automatically requesting tracked links, but not following JS redirects and/or not executing Munchkin on the final target page
2. Direct download links to assets, like PDFs, that cannot themselves execute Munchkin (such links are not recommended, despite their prevalence)
3. Links to redirector pages that do not allow adequate time/synchronization for Munchkin to complete before redirecting to an asset
4. Links with mkt_tok deliberately disabled (class="mktNoTok") so that VWP actually is logged, but tied to an anoymous lead instead of the clicking lead
5. Links to pages without Munchkin running, or with Munchkin misconfigured
6. Firewalls or browser plugins blocking JS redirects
7. Browsers with JS disabled
8. Browser plugins or modes blocking Munchkin (for example, Firefox Private Browsing)

When you talk about "the timing between delivery and click" I suppose you're talking about that delay being longer out than you'd expect than if the recipient's mailserver were following the link(s) at or directly after the point of delivery. That's a valid counterpoint, but not if the mail scanner runs on mail retrieval as opposed to mail delivery.

What else can you do to verify whether the lead ever ended up on your site?  Do you have another analytics package running, for example, or your raw webserver logs?

[Robert_Kelen3]

Thanks Sanford.

Yes, I was assuming that a non-instantaneous delay suggested real human activity, but as you pointed out, that may not be the case.

Your list of possible causes is a great reference. In these particular cases, 2/3/4/5 are not in play, so scanners (1) and JS disabled/blocked (6/7) seem like most likely culprits. Are there workarounds for cases 6/7 (or a way to validate those as the true causes)?

I'll have to see what other tools each client has in place to do any additional validation.

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Distinguishing (1) from (6)/(7) isn't possible AFAIK unless you put up your own tracking server that doesn't rely on JS, instead redirecting using HTTP 301.  Then you know that the document.location.href change isn't the direct cause. Otherwise, a mail scanner that doesn't follow the redirect and a human/browser that doesn't will look the same.

I just added (8) to the list, too, in case that hadn't occurred to you.

[Robert_Kelen3]

This cornucopia of complicating factors (especially the first one) would seem to make the accuracy of email conversion metrics open to questioning. Are there industry estimates for the scope/impact these factors have on those measures?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Are there industry estimates for the scope/impact these factors have on those measures?

Not that I know of yet. Most people are in denial.

[Tim_Madel1]

We are experiencing the same issue but not only with clicks on email but actual form fills.

Over 25% of our form fills do not have any corresponding web activity logged in Marketo.

I find it VERY difficult to believe that this percentage of visitors have Javascript turned off or are blocking cookies.

What are others experiencing?

[Scott_McKeighe2]

As of today, we are seeing No webpage activity for a trailing 72 hours, including Marketo-hosted landing pages. All other trackable activities are being seen in the Activity Log for a given record in what would classically be around a webpage activity, such as Open Email, Click Email, Fill Out Form.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Project Orion, baby!

Have you opened a support case? This isn't the first report today, unfortunately.

[Scott_McKeighe2]

Much ticket, so support. Right now I'm waiting on a second response after I provided some additional details. But it's strangely comforting to know I'm not alone!