Conversion Tracking Playbook – Details, episodes & analysis

Today, we're diving deep into the world of checkout extensibility, a hot topic that's been reshaping Shopify's checkout process for increased security. We'll explore how these changes impact tracking and what's necessary for a seamless transition. We will walk you through three critical takeaways: understanding the differences between checkout and thank-you page extensibility, the implications of Shopify's removal of checkout liquid, and moving your tracking scripts into Shopify's new web pixel system.

Enriching customer data is becoming more critical for retail and eCommerce brands to help better personalize marketing messaging. Learn how personas are creating using a variety of data sources matching to customer keys, how millions of customers are analyzed across thousands of dimensions, and the benefits to key marketing channels.  

In this episode Brad Redding and Jon Cairo have Elevar Alum and now CRO lead at Cotopaxi, Kirby Crook, to talk all things CRO. We talk CRO brand vs agency differences, how Cotopaxi leverages 3 core customer feedback mechanisms throughout the year to drive insights across the business, tools and personalization, and we go through 2 Guess The Test examples from experiments that Kirby has executed with Cotopaxi. 

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We release new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization.
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Links Referenced:

Elevar Summit

Dynamic Yield

Mouseflow

Qualtrics

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And if you're new to Elevar, Elevar automates server-side conversion tracking for Shopify. Check us out!

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Previous episodes you might like:

100K/spend day myths with Nigel Thomas

Signal Loss -- what it is and how it impacts marketers

Deep dive with Simo Ahava on intersection of technical marketers

Client vs server-side cookies and server-side tracking 101

How to double conversion rate in 100 days with Ben Zettler

How to blend attribution + conversion tracking + data warehousing for insights with Austin Harrison from Northbeam

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) and Co-Founder & CEO of Rockerbox, Ron Jacobson (Connect on LinkedIn), go deep into the world off OTT, CTV, podcast, and other data & attribution lessons that brands like Rothys, FIGS, and other Rockerbox customers are solving for. Plus you'll learn what to think about when starting to move marketing budgets outside of Facebook and Google. 

Show Notes:
(01:30) - Rockerbox 101
(03:20) - What do in-house data teams look like
(08:50) - What happens beyond measuring Facebook and Google
(15:00) - Expect data to be taken away
(17:50) - OTT insights to action
(23:00) - What can go wrong
(28:10) - Only the paranoid survive
(32:10) - Do UTMs work for just FB and Google

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Links Referenced:

https://www.getelevar.com/

https://www.rockerbox.com/

Google Sheets Starter Pack from Rockerbox

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) shares 10 thoughts on the announcement of Universal Analytics sunsetting July 2023 and the world of GA4 taking over in Google Analytics for all businesses. 

Thoughts include:

• When brands will start to really use GA4 as their primary analytics tool
• Features of GA4 which make it better than Universal Analytics
• GDPR and privacy thoughts on this move
• Self-hosted GA4 (?)
• Data warehousing
• Impact on third party trackers
• Training

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Links Referenced:

https://www.getelevar.com/

https://www.getelevar.com/how-to/launch-google-analytics-4-shopify/

https://blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/prepare-for-future-with-google-analytics-4/

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) and Matt Bahr (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) from EnquireLabs go deep into the data weeds on blending survey data with analytics data, where customer survey data fits in attribution analysis, and real life examples of brands that have extracted unique insights from survey data to shift marketing messaging that led to unanticipated growth.

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Links Referenced:

https://www.getelevar.com/

https://enquirelabs.com/

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) talks about why there was a rush to use Offline Conversion API for Facebook, what other Offline Conversions to consider from Shopify channels, the potential future of purchase behavior happening outside of normal flow, and why you should consider sending these conversions to marketing channels via server-side APIs.

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Show Notes:

This is quick episode on:

- Offline conversions API for Facebook post iOS
- Defining offline conversions in Shopify channel reports
- Why some brands may want these conversions that happen outside of the online store sent to each channel

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Links Referenced:

https://www.getelevar.com/

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) and Austin Harrison (Connect on LinkedIn) from Northbeam discuss why demand is so high for attribution solutions, what decisions brands are making from these datasets to scale top of funnel, and how to blend the use of conversion tracking + attribution + data warehouse solutions.   

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Show Notes:
(01:30) - Attribution 101
(05:30) - What data dependencies does attribution software have
(09:30) - Why is demand so high for attribution software
(15:00) - Decision making for $40 million brand
(19:00) - Do you still need native pixel tracking?
(26:08) - Attribution software vs data warehousing
(29:20) - Consulting on how to take action

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Links Referenced:

https://www.getelevar.com/

https://www.northbeam.io/

https://enquirelabs.com/

https://www.daasity.com/

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) and Elevar's Jon Cairo share the 10 most common tracking issues we see (and fix) on headless Shopify websites. Plus you'll learn how you can prevent these issues on your own headless website and what we see in the future of Shopify's Hydrogen framework.

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Show Notes:
(02:30) - What are challenges specific to Google Analytics tracking
(13:00) - What are challenges with Facebook and other marketing channels
(20:20) - Benefits we hear from Elevar customers why they're going headless
(29:20) - How to manage headless analytics implementations
(35:45) - Predictions on future of headless, Hydrogen, etc

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Links:
https://www.getelevar.com/
https://www.getelevar.com/analytics/shopify-headless-analytics/
https://packdigital.com/
https://getshogun.com/frontend
https://nacelle.com/
https://hydrogen.shopify.dev/

Brad Redding (Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter) discusses the benefits, challenges, and responsibilities of owning and managing your own Google Tag Manager Server-Side container. Plus learn about server-side tracking alternatives to GTM.  

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We release 2 new episodes every week that go deep into the world of tracking, analytics, and conversion optimization. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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Show Notes:
(00:30) - Difference of web vs server-side container
(03:45) - Benefits to server-side containers
(10:40) - Your responsibilities of owning a server-side container
(15:30) - 4 alternatives to GTM server-side container (for server-side tracking)
(18:00) - Pro's and Con's

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Links:
https://www.getelevar.com/

https://www.getelevar.com/guides/server-side-tagging/overview/