Capturing conversions in Google Analytics

[FrazerPart]

We've been trying to look at how our site has been performing in Analytics over the last few months.
Looking at one product specifically, is there any reason why GA is only showing 3 conversions, yet we know from our SellerDeck data we have sold 18 (and all through the website rather than MOTO)?

It's a big difference!

Is this anything to do with what we are experiencing?
http://community.sellerdeck.com/showthread.php?t=51581

Has anybody else had similar problems?

We appreciate some advise from you experts out there!

[MrsBee]

I can't help unfortunately, but I can add a 'me too'.

My conversions have always shown lower than expected in Analytics. I have always suspected it's because customers didn't click right through to the final 'purchase completed' page after they viewed their receipt, so this morning I did a test purchase and paid via PayPal. After making my payment I didn't even get to view my receipt or the 'purchase completed' page - instead, on the final PayPal page it invited me to return to my website or view my PayPal account overview. I followed the link to my website and it just took me back to my home page. So I didn't get to see either my receipt page or my 'purchase completed' page - no wonder I'm not seeing conversions in Analytics!

On PayPal's 'you have paid' page (screenshot attached), I viewed the source code and saw the following (ignore the Xs which I put in):-

<input type="submit" value="Return to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" name="merchant_return_link" class="">

Does anybody know where 'merchant_return_link' is specified? Does it somehow pick it up from SellerDeck's Design > Design Options > 'URL for completed and aborted Checkout' field? I would have thought that would cause even more confusion if the same URL is used for both completed and aborted threads - although I suppose that is a subject for another thread (and I'm sure I've seen one somewhere - possibly this which I think I may have already implemented).

Anyway, something else I have just noticed - on PayPal's 'you have paid' page, if you click 'Return to [merchant site]' it takes you to a page with 'click here if nothing happens after 10 seconds'. The first time I did a test purchase (mentioned above) I clicked because I couldn't bother waiting - that's when it went straight to my home page without visiting either the SellerDeck receipt page or its 'purchase completed' page.

However, on my second test purchase I waited for the 10 seconds to be up. Then, it took me to the SellerDeck receipt page (as it should). When I clicked 'Done' at the bottom of the receipt page, it correctly took me to my 'purchase completed' page and so presumably the sale got tracked in Analytics.

I then did a third test sale using my credit card and that worked correctly (went to the receipt page, so I clicked 'Done' and it took me to the 'purchase completed' page).

Even though only the first test sale above shows a problem (clicking through to the merchant site without waiting 10 seconds bypasses both the receipt page and the 'purchase completed' page) I still think that not all conversions are tracked in Analytics because I believe that a lot of people won't bother to scroll down to the bottom of the receipt page and actually click the 'Done' button. I reckon there are a few which just shut the browser down after they have seen the receipt page. I might be wrong but I've often wondered what others think about this?

[saucysal]

Same here

This has been a pain for years. I recently changed my payment gateway to PayPal Website Payments Pro Hosted Solution, and was assured that all customers, whether PayPal or card, would be sent back to the receipt page, and I hoped that this would mean more accurate conversion data, but it made no difference.

What I do is look at the number of orders that we have received (sales invoices in Sage) and the total spent on Google (I do this once a month), to see what the cost per order was that month. Though not all orders are down to Google, it gives a comparison month to month, which tells me whether or not I need to make adjustments in Google.

The conversions in Google, though only a fraction of what the total should be, still gives a comparison between one keyword and another, and between one ad and another, or one group and another, assuming that people not clicking to return to the receipt page are evenly spread between searches.

Sarah

[peblaco]

SellerDeck recently posted a fix for the PayPal Hosted Pro to correctly return to the receipt page, see: PayPal Hosted Pro Auto Return

[FrazerPart]

This isn't just a PayPal problem for us. Whilst we aren't PayPal Pro subscribers, we do use their basic offerings and also another payment gateway service.

Capturing 3 out of every 18 conversions in GA doesn't really give us enough confidence to be able to make any kind of changes to the site.
These particular 18 conversions are a mixture of PayPal and other payment gateway services, so we can't just point the finger of blame at PayPal.

Tell me if I'm right or wrong, but I would have expected GA to give me conversion data on 15 conversions out of every 18 ........

[MrsBee]

Louise ... thank you very much for the link to the fix, which I applied last week. I am now receiving copy receipts for just about all PayPal transactions, so that's great.

However, seeing what Max says above about non-PayPal transactions, I have noticed that around a quarter of my customers who pay via PayPoint/SecPay are not receiving an email receipt afterwards (looking at 58 recent orders which paid via this method, 13 of them did not receive a receipt).

I have checked my mail server and it's not as though it's just copy receipts to me which aren't arriving - there is no record of a receipt being emailed to the customer either.

Is anybody else experiencing a similar problem? Either with PayPoint or with a different payment gateway provider? Does anybody have any information which could help please?

[FrazerPart]

I've yet to completely get to the bottom of my GA troubles but I have had a second opinion.

It would appear that PayPal isn't the problem with our site. The problem has been with "card" transactions and the customers not being returned to the official SellerDeck/website receipt page after completing the payment. From what I understand, this page then triggers the correct execution of the GA code and allows the correct capture of the conversion.

I've made a number of changes to the card transaction completion page now and hopefully the link that sends the customer back to the SellerDeck receipt page is more obvious and will be used by the customers.

This change was only implemented late Friday afternoon, so as yet, I am unable to draw any confident conclusions.

[stuartjrobinson]

Same Issue

I've been getting a message in Google Analytics saying "www. . . . . co.uk is configured for ecommerce but no data is flowing".

I've checked the tracking code and put right what I think might have been a problem.

I've tested this by going through the checkout procedure and GA only records a sale when the "Done" button is clicked (which is VERY rarely).

To get over this, is it possible to submit the data to GA on arrival at the receipt page and if so please could anyone explain how?