Sentry Page Protection
Domain Tracking
Domain Tracking is an optional feature that can be used in two different scenarios: 1) for companies using restricted access websites, where only registered users can access specific website content; and 2) for users who click through to the website from an email sent through the ECN email platform in conjunction with Conversion Tracking.
This feature allows the user’s behavior or activities throughout the site to be tracked through the javascript provided by KM that includes the tracker key. The client will need to drop in the cookie called “ECNEmailAddress.” If a user clears their cookies, the tracking process will stop. This feature tracks known site visitors in the standard version, and both known and unknown visitors in the premium version. If you are interested in tracking anonymous users (a premium feature), contact your km Digital Services Account Manager for pricing.
Domain Tracking provides the ability to track user activity across sub domains, and also across multiple websites, and/or multiple protocols*.
This feature allows the user’s behavior or activities throughout the site to be tracked through the javascript provided by KM that includes the tracker key. The client will need to drop in the cookie called “ECNEmailAddress.” If a user clears their cookies, the tracking process will stop. This feature tracks known site visitors in the standard version, and both known and unknown visitors in the premium version. If you are interested in tracking anonymous users (a premium feature), contact your km Digital Services Account Manager for pricing.
Domain Tracking provides the ability to track user activity across sub domains, and also across multiple websites, and/or multiple protocols*.
Unknown users are site visitors with an unknown email address. The system tracks visitors by IP address. If an unknown visitor visits the site on another occasion, and provides an email address (directly, through cookies or local storage on their computer, or a link that includes their email as a querystring parameter), the system converts them to a known user.
How to utilize the Domain Tracking Feature
This feature is located on the Home Page.
1. Click on Domain Tracking.
1. Click on Domain Tracking.
2. Select ‘Create New Domain’ to add the specific website you wish to track the user activity.
Header sort options include: by Tracker ID (a system generated number, automatically incremented by 1) and thus the default is the order in which the domains were added, then by ascending and descending by toggling the header again.
3. Enter the domain name in the text box. Please use the format of www.domain.com for domains and subdomain.domain.com for sub-domains. Click Save.
Best practice is to use the format of www.domain.com, but what happens when a site visitor types in domain.com instead? Does the visit still get tracked? Click here to learn more!
The Standard Data Points shown below will be automatically included. Any Additional Data Points you wish to add can be named, select what Source (process activity) will be tracked: Query string, HTML, or cookie (you may wish to consult with your IT department if you are unsure which Source to select); and enter the Source ID.
4. Click the Add button. Repeat if more Data Points are needed.
The system will generate tracking codes that must be placed on the individual pages of your website by your webmaster or technical team. A tracking code needs to be generated for each domain (but not each page), and each subdomain.
To access the script icon, return to the Domains listing page, and select Script from the Actions menu for the domain.
The system will generate tracking codes that must be placed on the individual pages of your website by your webmaster or technical team. A tracking code needs to be generated for each domain (but not each page), and each subdomain.
To access the script icon, return to the Domains listing page, and select Script from the Actions menu for the domain.
You will need to copy this script into a Notepad document and send it to your IT team for insertion on your web pages. Your IT department can advise whether they need the script for pages with or without jQuery.
Please advise your IT department to add the KM Domain Tracking code script below the DOM (document object model). Since the DOM is essentially everything on the webpage, the browser load things in order of the html document. When it finds some javascript that calls on something that's only created further down the page, it can cause an error. Moving javascript that manipulates this DOM to the bottom of the page ensure that any of the page elements that the javascript references will be loaded by the time the script executes.
[Note: If you have website content such as PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc. that is hosted outside of your website, domain tracking will not capture the activity. However, a simple solution is to host the content in an iFrame on your website.]
To view Reports, select Reports from the Actions menu located on the Domains listing page.
Please advise your IT department to add the KM Domain Tracking code script below the DOM (document object model). Since the DOM is essentially everything on the webpage, the browser load things in order of the html document. When it finds some javascript that calls on something that's only created further down the page, it can cause an error. Moving javascript that manipulates this DOM to the bottom of the page ensure that any of the page elements that the javascript references will be loaded by the time the script executes.
[Note: If you have website content such as PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc. that is hosted outside of your website, domain tracking will not capture the activity. However, a simple solution is to host the content in an iFrame on your website.]
To view Reports, select Reports from the Actions menu located on the Domains listing page.
The report above shows the total page views, most visited pages, browser and platform stats for the previous 30 days (default; however a custom date range may be applied).
You can also search by URL, or even partial URL, and by users--known, unknown or all. Known users is the default. Unknown users are a premium feature. The Most Visited Pages results can be selected from the following options:
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If no data is available, the image shown at the right will appear.
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Click the number associated with the Most Visited Pages to view the email addresses of those who visited.
When searching by user type, selecting All, statistics for All, Known, and Unknown Users will be displayed.
Total Page Count and View Chart
Most Visited Pages; displays top 5, top 10, top 25 or all.
Browser and Platform Stats
The Platform Statistics shows the number of users that use each type of platform. The system runs on many platforms, and this chart shows the most popular in order of usage.
How does this help? Similar to knowing how our email renders on various devices, viewing this chart can also help you to understand how your viewers will see your website. Do you need a mobile version for your site? Check out how many users are mobile from this chart.
Location Stats: Separate heat maps for Known and Unknown users are displayed, and can be toggled between US and World Maps.
User information is downloadable either into a file (XML, CSV, XSLX), or into a new or existing email group.
[Note: The Created Date is the date visitor activity began. ]
Don't forget! If an individual visits your website, and you obtain their email address, permission to email is NOT implied! Don't forget best practices (and laws) for permission-based email marketing.
Download to File:
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Export to New Group:
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Export to Existing Group:
[Note: Unknown users, and queries for All Users can only be downloaded to a file.]
To view individual user activity, click on the Users icon. To view the profile of each User, click on the +Details and the pages the individual viewed will appear. This data is available for download.
Sample of downloaded data:
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs:
Q. How does the tracking script identify the user clicking on the link in the email campaign?
A. We append the unique identifier for each subscriber at the end of the link. This unique identifier is read by the domain tracking script to identify the user. This information is used to track the user’s activity within the website.
Q. How does the tracking script identify the user who visits the website directly and not through an email campaign?
A. The domain tracking script cannot identify the user who visits the website directly. You can have your IT team write the code to create a cookie called ‘ECNEmailAddress’, containing the user's email address, when the user signs into your website. This cookie is read by the domain tracking script to identify the user’s activity within the website.
Q. Can you track PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc on your websites by using Domain Tracking?
A. Yes. You must upload PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc to an HTML page on a domain that is being tracked and then display the content within an iframe.
Below is a Javascript example of creating a domain tracking cookie. This sample is to provide direction on implementing the cookie on your website and it does NOT provide any programming support for your website. This work must be completed by your IT team, as KM does not have access or knowledge on your methods to capture a visitor's email address.
function createCookie(emailAddress)
{
//Name of Cookie must be 'ECNEmailAddress'
var name = 'ECNEmailAddress';
//Specify the cookie expiration date
//In this example we are setting it to expire one year from current date
var days = 365;
var date = new Date();
date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
var expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
//Create a Cookie
document.cookie = name + "=" + emailAddress + expires + "; path=/";
}
Note for Unified Audience Database Users: The activity data is recorded in real time as long as the cookie is tagged to the email address (from an email campaign). If the data being collected is something different than the website and email address (such as topic id or article id), then a specific dimension in the Unified Audience Database will need to be developed to show those results. A weekly sync from the tracking group to the Unified Audience Database will need to be built.
Once the setup has been completed, consult with your Account Manager regarding syncing this data to your Unified Audience Database.
Domain and URL activity that is synced with the Unified Audience Database can be queried through the Activity Filter.
Q. How does the tracking script identify the user clicking on the link in the email campaign?
A. We append the unique identifier for each subscriber at the end of the link. This unique identifier is read by the domain tracking script to identify the user. This information is used to track the user’s activity within the website.
Q. How does the tracking script identify the user who visits the website directly and not through an email campaign?
A. The domain tracking script cannot identify the user who visits the website directly. You can have your IT team write the code to create a cookie called ‘ECNEmailAddress’, containing the user's email address, when the user signs into your website. This cookie is read by the domain tracking script to identify the user’s activity within the website.
Q. Can you track PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc on your websites by using Domain Tracking?
A. Yes. You must upload PDFs, videos, advertisements, etc to an HTML page on a domain that is being tracked and then display the content within an iframe.
Below is a Javascript example of creating a domain tracking cookie. This sample is to provide direction on implementing the cookie on your website and it does NOT provide any programming support for your website. This work must be completed by your IT team, as KM does not have access or knowledge on your methods to capture a visitor's email address.
function createCookie(emailAddress)
{
//Name of Cookie must be 'ECNEmailAddress'
var name = 'ECNEmailAddress';
//Specify the cookie expiration date
//In this example we are setting it to expire one year from current date
var days = 365;
var date = new Date();
date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
var expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
//Create a Cookie
document.cookie = name + "=" + emailAddress + expires + "; path=/";
}
Note for Unified Audience Database Users: The activity data is recorded in real time as long as the cookie is tagged to the email address (from an email campaign). If the data being collected is something different than the website and email address (such as topic id or article id), then a specific dimension in the Unified Audience Database will need to be developed to show those results. A weekly sync from the tracking group to the Unified Audience Database will need to be built.
Once the setup has been completed, consult with your Account Manager regarding syncing this data to your Unified Audience Database.
Domain and URL activity that is synced with the Unified Audience Database can be queried through the Activity Filter.
The Activity Filter window is available in all the different audience views (Consensus, Product, Cross Product, and Record Details).
Filter for a specific domain or URL to find the subscribers who visited that page.
Within the Record Details Audience view, track website activity for individual subscribers, in addition to the subscriber and activity details. View all the domains and the URLs visited by the subscriber. This information is tied to Domain Tracking within the Email Marketing module and is updated every week.
Within the Record Details Audience view, track website activity for individual subscribers, in addition to the subscriber and activity details. View all the domains and the URLs visited by the subscriber. This information is tied to Domain Tracking within the Email Marketing module and is updated every week.
Q. Will Domain Tracking work on both HTTP and HTTP Secure (HTTPS) pages?
A. Yes, we have built the code to work with both HTTP and HTTPS pages/domains.
HTTP: http://webservices.ecn5.com/ECN_tracker.js
HTTPS: https://webservices.ecn5.com/ECN_tracker.js
Domain Tracking works across protocols within the same website (http versus https).
Domain Tracking works within the same protocol (http OR https) across multiple websites/domains.
*NOTE: If you are a client who wants to track from multiple websites and multiple protocols, please contact support@knowledgemarketing.com for more detailed setup instructions.
A. Yes, we have built the code to work with both HTTP and HTTPS pages/domains.
HTTP: http://webservices.ecn5.com/ECN_tracker.js
HTTPS: https://webservices.ecn5.com/ECN_tracker.js
Domain Tracking works across protocols within the same website (http versus https).
Domain Tracking works within the same protocol (http OR https) across multiple websites/domains.
*NOTE: If you are a client who wants to track from multiple websites and multiple protocols, please contact support@knowledgemarketing.com for more detailed setup instructions.
Updated 8.8.17