How Tracking Works

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How Tracking Works

Initialization Value (Init)

Init Value, or Initialization Value is a value that is “initialized” when the Squaredance pixel is generated.

Whenever you create a campaign, our system generates pixels, and these pixels will also contain a randomly generated string, the Init Value. And this Init Value will identify which campaign the pixel will belong to. So when the pixel fires, the Init Value will determine which campaign should be attributed.

The location of the init value in the pixel is shown below:

Common Issues revolving the Init Value

A common mistake that may lead to tracking errors is placing a pixel on a page with the wrong Init Value. If the init value of the pixel that is placed does not match the init value of the pixel that is generated & dedicated for the campaign of interest, the pixel will misfire.

Please make sure the init value of the campaign’s pixel is equal to the init value of the pixel on pageTo check if the pixel’s init value is corresponding to correct campaign, you can check the pixels that appear when you edit your campaign’s funnels

Tracking Overview

As a People, Process, and Technology company, we have built a proprietary, event-based tracking and attribution platform that is the heart of our performance marketing solution.

Squaredance pixels are triggered when actions are performed on your website such as when a customer visits your site and adds items to their cart or goes to checkout. The pixel then reports the action taken in terms of an "event" taking place. Using our proprietary pixels allows us to track how customers are interacting with your site and understand their behaviours to determine the friction points in the conversion funnel.

Furthermore, we provide this valuable data on aggregate to our Media Buyers & Affiliates. They, in turn, can use this data to better utilize their spending by limiting targeting to people who are most likely to engage with your content, leading to more conversions. When a customer visits your site and takes action, such as adding an item to their cart or checking out, Squaredance pixels are triggered and report this action. This way, we can track how customers are interacting with your site and understand their behaviours to determine the friction points in the conversion funnel.

Squaredance Tracking vs. Traditional Conversion Pixels

It's 2022, and the era of optimizing campaigns based on 1-dimensional conversion data is over. Much in the same way that you want tracking numbers on your online orders, Media Buyers & Affiliates want to track the full customer journey of the users they deliver your brand. While this may seem invasive, it is a necessary good that not only helps Squaredance

discover optimizations to improve your customer conversion rate, but is also crucial for narrowing audiences and setting competitive bid prices on media platforms. Without this visibility, it is next to impossible to achieve the holy grail of profitable campaigns.

While we understand that the implementation of Squaredance Tracking is slightly more involved, it has been designed from the ground up to be infinitely extensible while supporting best-of-breed tag management standards. This means that post-installation, the Squaredance pixel is compatible with both current-day tracking requirements and any newfangled platforms that emerge down the road. You will no longer need to make frequent and cumbersome changes to appease the needs of individual Media Buyers.

Squaredance Tracking is Secure

By leveraging a technique known as sandboxing, the Squaredance Pixel never allows untrusted code to execute in the same context as your website. All 3rd party tags are confined to these secure and encrypted sandboxes stopping them from interfering with your webpage and ensuring that no undesired data is ever leaked. As it is increasingly difficult to emulate human behaviour across multiple event tags convincingly, the pixel also helps to actively reduce fraud. Slight data deviations surface in the form of outliers and anomalies in the event stream, which can then be traced back to an origin to be blacklisted.

When To Use Pixels

When you are looking to improve campaigns, incorporating pixels into your funnels is crucial. Pixels generate necessary data allowing you to perform critical processes for campaign optimization and tracking. More specifically, the Squaredance pixel should be used if you are looking to:

Track and capture campaign funnel performance metrics in real-time.
Create/provide transparent funnel performance data for media buyers
Reduce fraud and secure data.

Track and Capture Campaign Funnel Performance

The Squaredance Pixel is a handy tool that can be used to create complete transparency in how users interact with your website. This is done through our proprietary system based on “event-based” tracking from which you will be able to see the actions taken by users throughout the entire funnel via our Event V3 pixels. Campaigns using our Hydra Pixels will only track the Click and Purchase data. The events tracked by Event V3 pixels are listed below:

Bounce Rate – the number of users who leave the site without any interaction Session Time & Average Session per page – The amount of time the users spend on your site ViewContent – Users that browsed your product page CompleteRegistration – Users who complete a sign-up on the site AddToCart – Users that have added items to their cart RemoveFromCart – Users that removed items from their cart InitiateCheckout - Users that arrive on the checkout page Decline – Users who get declined when attempting to purchase the product

(All above metrics are optional)

These additional points of data allow us, our Media Buyers and Affiliates to identify customers with stronger purchase intent. It also permits the buyers to narrow spend focusing on the ideal audience for your campaign and delivering insights on where we can make improvements on your offer funnel.

Transparent Funnel Performance for Media Buyers An important stakeholder involved in your campaigns is the Media buyer driving traffic to your products. Oftentimes, their success is highly contingent on the amount of data and insights generated in real-time. When you are looking to provide the media buyers with the necessary data, the Squaredance pixel can help. Our tracking solution will generate real-time data for your campaigns which enables media buyers to evaluate how their targeted customers are moving along your funnel.

Reduce Fraud and Secure Data If you have worries regarding fraud present in your funnel, and looking for a way to actively reduce its presence, our tracking system can help. Emulating human behaviour across multiple events in the funnel is incredibly difficult, and small data deviations will occur when attempts occur. The Squaredance pixel will filter through these deviations and trace back and blacklist the originators committing fraud.

Before setting up a campaign

Before we onboard your campaign and configure the Squaredance pixels are configured, the following steps will need to be completed.

1. The IO & MSA Agreement needs to be signed.

2. Your pages and funnels need to be fully designed

Types of Squaredance Pixels

HYDRA Pixels

Squaredance’s first iteration of its proprietary tracking platform allows us to track user conversions and purchases on an e-commerce page. Our HYDRA pixels can be generated in the following pixel types:

HEAD - Javascript Pixels
BODY - iframe Pixels
POSTBACK - Postback URLs

Depending on the configuration of your eCommerce and tracking solutions, we highly recommend installing our Javascript pixels directly in the HTML of your webpage. If you are using a tracking solution to manage networks and affiliates, you should use an iframe pixel.

HYDRA pixels should only be used on campaigns that only need to track purchases/conversions.

Our postback URLs should only be used as a last resort (If your tracking solution only supports postbacks) as they cannot accommodate and fire publisher or affiliate iframe and javascript pixels.

EVENT (v3.2)

Squaredance’s newest iteration of its proprietary tracking platform allowing you to track distinct events of your e-commerce funnel. Our event pixels are javascript pixels that need to be deployed or added to the HTML of a webpage or via a tag manager like Google Tag Manager.

We currently support a total of 12 different events divided into two types: "Funnel Events" and "Data Events." Each type serves a separate but important purpose:

Funnel Events - Events such as "Lead", "InitiateCheckout", and "AddPaymentDetails" track a user’s activity as they progress through your conversion funnel. In addition to providing funnel positioning, they also record additional metadata such as time on page, scrollbar position, and what buttons have been clicked. These events form the backbone of v3 and provide the most insight into the behaviours and preferences of your potential customers.

Engagement - Pixel event for Presell or Prelanders
Lead - Pixel event for Landing page or Main page
ViewContent
InitiateCheckout
AddPaymentInfo
Purchase
Upsell

Data Events - Events such as "AddToCart" and "Decline" aid in providing a more complete understanding of customer outcomes. These events do not contain any automatic metadata but can instead be configured to record specifically relevant information such as the name and price of an item that was added to the shopping cart. You can then use this information to inform optimization decisions, namely on how to steer users away from unfavourable actions.

CompleteRegistration
AddToCart
RemoveFromCart
Decline

How To Test Your Pixels

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The only way to be sure that your pixels are placed correctly and functioning as intended is to place a test purchase.

Squaredance Pixel Helper Extension

While you can follow along as to whether pixels are firing on the campaign or funnel setup page, it is much easier and highly recommended that you use the Squaredance Pixel Helper extension. This is an extension for the Chrome browser, which allows you to determine in real time: - Whether a pixel has fired and which event pixel it is - Campaign ID - Funnel ID - Partner ID (if testing involves active traffic) - Hit ID to track the test - Errors like misfires, no pixels were detected, multiple hit IDs generating simultaneously

Here is an example of the Pixel Helper showcasing all of the pixels in a funnel firing correctly, from most recently fired to oldest firing in the funnel.

Here is an example of the Pixel Helper expanded, showcasing details about the purchase pixel firing. At the same time, it is warning the brand that there was an issue with multiple pixels firing at once, which may indicate a few possible issues.

*** Please enable use of the Squaredance Pixel Helper extension in an Incognito window, as this is the ideal browser format for testing funnels. See below:

In the Chrome browser, navigate to the menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions > Squaredance Pixel Helper “Details” > toggle “Allow in Incognito” to be ON.

We also strongly recommend that you pin the extension to your menu.

How To Make A Test Purchase

Now that you have the Squaredance Pixel Helper extension installed on your Chrome browser, it’s time to conduct a test purchase. This may be done with a real credit card or 100% discount code created by the brand; regardless, a real purchase must be processed in order to progress to the post-purchase page (ie. order status, thank you, etc).

Step One

Navigate to your campaign setup and scroll down to Test Funnel > click on Manually Test > click on Begin Test > click on Copy Test Link:

Step Two

Please navigate to an Incognito browser and ensure to de-select “block 3rd party cookies”. By doing this, you’re enabling a unique session for your funnel; this is how the pixels will track you as a new user, as they would a new customer. This is why we recommend an Incognito browser; so the session is completely unique and there are no traces of prior activity on your storefront on a typical browser session, which would force you to clear your history and cookies cache every time you test.

From here, paste your link into the browser and enter to begin testing the funnel!

Step Three

Once on the landing page, you are at the beginning of the funnel. You can navigate to the Squaredance logo pinned to your browser menu and check to see that the Lead pixel has fired.

✅ = Pixel is tracking successfully! 🟪 = Successfully tracked notation

❌ = Pixel is NOT tracking!

Step Four

Continue moving through the funnel; you may have only a Lead and Purchase pixel, but you may have also placed multiple other pixels between (ie. ViewContent, InitiateCheckout, AddPaymentInfo) for additional tracking. If you have, check the Pixel Helper to see if those pixels are firing as you follow the prompts to select a product (that is part of your campaign), add it to your cart, and begin the checkout process.

Step Five

Utilize the credit card, test card, or 100% discount code to finalize the test by making a purchase. Once the purchase has processed and you are at the post-purchase page, check to see that the Purchase pixel has fired, both by checking the Pixel Helper and then by checking the draft campaign setup page:

Congratulations! You have successfully conducted a test and found that all of the pixels are functioning! That means the campaign or funnel is ready to be published for partners to use for running traffic to your storefront. You will be prompted to publish your campaign for partner use.

Please note: You will not be able to publish a new campaign without the main funnel (named “main redirector”) being tested and fired properly. When you create new funnels within a campaign, you will have an option to “auto-test” because there are pre-existing pixel placements to support the new funnel; if the “auto-test” fails, then manually testing is the best way to troubleshoot and eventually ensure the new funnel is ready to be published.

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If you are unable to progress to campaign or funnel publication because one or more pixels aren’t firing, please contact our support team.