Sales Tracking

Learn how Omnisend tracks sales and how the attribution window can be adjusted

Ira avatar
Written by Ira
Updated over a week ago

In the Reports, the Sales graph indicates the number of sales generated by a campaign or automation and the number of orders placed. In ecommerce, sales are the primary indicator of the success of marketing campaigns. Omnisend tracks sales from all channels and shows it next to other metrics of that particular campaign or automation so that you can get a full view of the results.

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Sales tracking across different channels

Sales tracking is available on all platforms (full API integration is required in case you have a custom e-commerce platform) and works out of the box with all Omnisend apps or plugins.

For now, Omnisend can track your sales in these channels:

  • Email

  • SMS

  • Push notifications

If you have more than one channel in the workflow, we will be able to attribute the purchase to that particular message.

Note! If you've sent campaigns before full API integration is finished, previous sales won't be backfilled once the full API integration is in place.

How does sales attribution work?

If your customer has shown a specific activity with your marketing message and then places the order in your store, we attribute that sale to the last message your customer received. What is essential to know about the logic we apply is that:

  • there is a single attribution window for both Campaigns and Automations, Email and SMS channel;

  • we attribute the customer according to his email address or the phone number;

  • an engagement with a marketing message is recorded when the Email message or Push Notification is opened, an SMS message is clicked;

  • the attribution window count starts after the customer shows engagement (opens or clicks);

  • the sale is attributed to the last message your customer has interacted with and only in case it falls in the attribution window domain;

  • Note! If the order gets 'canceled', 'voided' or 'refunded' status, it's deducted from the Sales performance report. Orders with all the other statuses (including 'partially refunded', 'partially paid' and 'pending') are added to the revenue with full order value.

Let's say that your Campaign is sent on January 1st. The attribution window is set to 5 days. The customer opens this Email Campaign on January 3rd. In that case, any order between January 3rd and January 8th will be attributed to the Email Campaign sent on January 1st, unless the customer opened another email within the attribution period. In that case, this sale will be attributed to the last email opened.

Changing the attribution window

The default attribution window is set to 7 days but can be adjusted in your Store settings -> Settings -> Sales attribution

Once you change the attribution window, we will start tracking sales according to the new logic, but the previous sales won't be recalculated.

Be careful when choosing the attribution window. Look into different stats, including the time when most of the messages are opened or clicked, and orders are placed. If you are sending frequently, it is better to specify a short time frame.

Even though it makes sense to try changing the window, strive to the consistency. This ensures that month-over-month or year-over-year revenue comparisons accurately reflect the results of your marketing strategy.

Changing the email attribution model

With the release of iOS 15, Apple has changed the way open rate data is received on your emails by prefetching tracking pixel in the Apple Mail App. It's vital to understand how opens rate tracking will be changed with this release for the Apple Mail App. You can read more about all the features impacted by iOS 15 here.

To adapt our sales tracking logic, we've released a feature that allows switching between attribution by opens and clicks.

You can check the number of customers that open your emails using your Email Campaign Reports to see how many of the opens are made from the Apple Mail App for each of your campaigns or you can use our new segmentation to check how many customers opened any of your emails using the Apple Mail App in the last couple of days/weeks/months. It should help you to understand how massive is the impact on your open rates and make the decision on whether it's needed to switch tracking logic to a clicks-based one or not.

Note! If you change the attribution model, the historical data will not be recalculated. Also, keep in mind that our system needs 30 minutes to switch between open-based and click-based tracking. It means that if you send a campaign right after switching to a new attribution model and some of your customers will place an order in the 30-minute period after the attribution model switch, they’ll be still attributed based on the previous logic. So, if you want to get the correct results for clicks-based attribution only, it’s better to wait for 30 minutes after switching the Sales attribution to clicks-based.

Why did Omnisend choose this method?

Based on our experience, this method has a severe advantage over others due to a variety of reasons:

  • we are not losing any sales because of the cross-device and cross-channel communication. If the customer opens the message on his phone and then places the order via desktop, our attribution won't fail, as it would with cookies or pixel. This method is also not vulnerable to the incognito window of the browser.

  • you may adjust the attribution according to your business average. If you see that most of the opens happen within the first 24-48 hours, you may leverage the tracking according to this number. If it takes a little longer, you may specify that number.

Note, since Omnisend is transferring to this method over the tracking by cookies, which was losing a vast number of sales due to the mentioned limitation, you may see a considerable increase in sales attributed to Omnisend.

Why is there a discrepancy with other services?

The answer to this question is straightforward - each of the services chooses its own way to attribute your sales. It is always hard to say what was the final drop that made your customer purchase. Whether it was enough to see your advert somewhere on Facebook or to see the email message in the inbox? Of course, it would be better to compare the information collected with different services and look at the average. However, in Omnisend we believe that cross-device tracking is crucial in today’s super-connected world.

While the mobile plays an essential part in our buying habits, particularly in the research/consideration process, the actual conversion may happen on the laptop when you have more time for consideration. According to Facebook, more than 65% of conversions start on one device and are completed on another. So, with this in mind, Omnisend reporting is going to be more representative of the conversions you get from your Omnisend campaigns.

The Omnisend Dashboard

You can now track all sales-related activity in one place with our Omnisend Dashboard. You will be able to study data such as revenue, sales differentiated by campaigns and automation, orders placed, and more.

FAQ

What happens if I change the attribution window after the message is opened/clicked? The sale will be attributed based on the order date. If you change the attribution window, the new order will be assigned based on the new window the old one based on the old window.

If I sent a Campaign and Automation workflow was triggered, where would my sale be attributed? If your customer has opened both of the emails, the order placed within the attribution window will be assigned to the last email opened.

Will you attribute orders based on the discounts provided in the message? No, the attribution logic doesn't check the source of the Discount code.

What happens with the attribution in case the Campaign is clicked twice or more? Only the first open or click can affect attribution.

Have more questions? Drop us a line at [email protected].

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