Spring Metrics – conversion tracking¶

Spring Metrics is a convesions analysis tool. It shows you the top converting sources, search keywords and landing pages. The real-time dashboard shows you how customers interact with your website and how to increase conversion.

Installation¶

To start using the Spring Metrics integration, you must have installed the django-analytical package and have added the analytical application to INSTALLED_APPS in your project settings.py file. See Installation and configuration for details.

Next you need to add the Spring Metrics template tag to your templates. This step is only needed if you are not using the generic analytical.* tags. If you are, skip to Configuration.

The Spring Metrics tracking code is inserted into templates using a template tag. Load the spring_metrics template tag library and insert the spring_metrics tag. Because every page that you want to track must have the tag, it is useful to add it to your base template. Insert the tag at the bottom of the HTML head:

{% load spring_metrics %}
<html>
<head>
...
{% spring_metrics %}
</head>
...

Configuration¶

Before you can use the Spring Metrics integration, you must first set your website Tracking ID and tag a page for conversion. You can also customize the data that Spring Metrics tracks.

Setting the Tracking ID¶

Every website you track with Spring Metrics gets its own Tracking ID, and the spring_metrics tag will include it in the rendered Javascript code. You can find the Tracking ID in the Site Settings of your Spring Metrics account. Set SPRING_METRICS_TRACKING_ID in the project settings.py file:

SPRING_METRICS_TRACKING_ID = 'XXXXXXXXXX'

If you do not set a Tracking ID, the tracking code will not be rendered.

Tagging conversion¶

In order to make use of Spring Metrics, you must tell it when visitors become customers. This is called conversion. Usually, it marked by the client requesting a specific page, such as the “thank you” page of a webshop checkout. You tag these pages in the Site Settings of your Spring Metrics account.

Alternatively, you can mark conversion pages using the spring_metrics_convert template context variable:

context = RequestContext({'spring_metrics_convert': 'mailinglist signup'})
return some_template.render(context)

Tracking revenue¶

Spring Metrics allows you to track the value of conversions. Using the spring_metrics_revenue template context variable, you can let the spring_metrics tag pass earned revenue to Spring Metrics. You can set the context variable in your view when you render a template containing the tracking code:

context = RequestContext({
    'spring_metrics_convert': 'sale',
    'spring_metrics_revenue': '30.53',
})
return some_template.render(context)

(You would not need to use the spring_metrics_convert variable if you already tagged the page in Spring Metrics.)

Custom data¶

Spring Metrics can also track other data. Interesting examples could be transaction IDs or the e-mail addresses from logged in users. By setting any spring_metrics_X template context variable, Spring Metrics will track a variable named X. For example:

context = RequestContext({
    'spring_metrics_revenue': '30.53',
    'spring_metrics_order_id': '15445',
})
return some_template.render(context)

Some variables should be passed on every page and can be computed from the request object. In such cases you will want to set custom variables in a context processor that you add to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS list in settings.py:

def spring_metrics_global_variables(request):
    try:
        profile = request.user.get_profile()
        return {'spring_metrics_city': profile.address.city}
    except (AttributeError, ObjectDoesNotExist):
        return {}

Just remember that if you set the same context variable in the RequestContext constructor and in a context processor, the latter clobbers the former.

Identifying authenticated users¶

If you have not set the spring_metrics_email property explicitly, the e-mail address of an authenticated user is passed to Spring Metrics automatically. See Identifying authenticated users.

Internal IP addresses¶

Usually you do not want to track clicks from your development or internal IP addresses. By default, if the tags detect that the client comes from any address in the SPRING_METRICS_INTERNAL_IPS setting, the tracking code is commented out. It takes the value of ANALYTICAL_INTERNAL_IPS by default (which in turn is INTERNAL_IPS by default). See Identifying authenticated users for important information about detecting the visitor IP address.

Thanks go to Spring Metrics for their support with the development of this application.