Internal Marketing Variables
Introduced in Angelfish v2.4, Internal Marketing Variables (MVs) track promotional activities that occur within your websites & web applications. Internal MVs also enable A|B testing of your site's navigation elements.
External MVs and Internal MVs serve different purposes. External MVs are Visit-level Dimensions: they track inbound marketing initiatives that bring traffic to your website. Internal MVs are applied to existing Visits on your website and are similar to Internal Search, in the sense that each Visit can have multiple values for Internal MVs or for Internal Search.
Internal MVs are assigned by query parameters - the parameter names start with iagf. This makes it easy to visually differentiate between External and Internal MVs.
The three variables used to assign Internal MVs are:
- Internal Campaign
- Internal Medium
- Internal Variation
These variables are conceptually similar to the Campaign, Medium, and Variation used in External MVs...but they're applied to Internal MVs.
Internal MVs are are most useful when they're combined with Goals: the Active IMV gets credit for goal conversions.
Internal MV Terms
ACTIVE IMV
When a link with Internal MV parameters is clicked, the parameter values become the Active IMV and overwrite any previously assigned Internal MV parameters. The Active IMV gets credit for goal conversion, when one occurs.
INTERNAL CAMPAIGN - iagfc - Required
A variable that lets you group initiatives together by a common thread: by department, by project, etc. For example:
- nav-menu
- hr
- button
The reports are most useful when you only use a few options for Internal Campaign.
INTERNAL MEDIUM - iagfm - Required
Describes the type of link clicked. For example:
- button
- banner
- image
- text
The reports are most useful when you only use a few options for Internal Medium.
INTERNAL VARIATION - iagfr - Required
Allows you to identify different versions of images, links, placements, etc. For example:
- top-slider-image1
- menu-help-openticket
- search-advanced-exactmatch
We recommend using a "location-type-description" naming convention.
INTERNAL MV ORIGIN
A Page that contains a clickable element (image, text, etc.) with Internal MVs in the destination URL. When the link is clicked, the Internal MVs are applied.
INTERNAL MV DESTINATION
A Page that contains Internal MVs in its URL. The same Internal MVs are also in a link on the Internal MV Origin.
Internal MV Examples
Internal MVs are flexible and there aren't any restrictions in how you can use them. That said, here are some usage examples:
A|B TESTING: LANDING PAGES
Scenario:
Show different versions of a Landing Page to Visits who click on an internal banner image.
Notes:
- The Landing Page URL needs to contain the Internal MV parameters
- This also means the Landing Page is the Internal MV Destination
- Use Internal Variation to store the Landing Page version
- At least one Goal must be configured so you can see which Landing Page version "wins"
URL Examples:
NAVIGATIONAL LINKS
Scenario:
Each Page of your website has two identical links and you'd like to know which link gets the most clicks.
Notes:
- Goals aren't necessary for this scenario, you can just use the Clicks Metric
- Identify the link in the Internal Variation
- The examples below show the Internal MVs you would attach to the Page Stem
Internal MV Examples:
agfc=navtest&agfm=text&agfr=footer-contactagfc=navtest&agfm=text&agfr=top-menu-contactINTERNAL PROMOTIONS
Scenario:
You have multiple images promoting this year's open enrollment: which images draw the most clicks?
Notes:
- Look for a way to incorporate Goals into the promotion so you can measure the effectiveness of each image
- Use Internal Variation to identify something unique about each image
- Can also use Impressions to generate a CTR (Click Thru Rate) for each image
- The examples below show the Page that would load when an image is clicked
Internal MV Examples:
Pro Tips
RE-USE EXISTING MVs
If you have already tagged links with MVs for another analytics product, you can re-use them in Angelfish without updating the tags! The Internal MV params are configured in the Advanced tab of every Profile.
ENACT STANDARDS
MVs are flexible and you can use them however you wish. However they get out of control quickly if not managed. Here are some lessons learned:
- Always use lowercase
- Never use spaces
- Use 1 Medium for each type: e.g. email, banner, image
- Use 1 Campaign for each type
If your Internal MVs become too cluttered with options, you can fix them retroactively by adding a Filter to the Profile & reprocessing.