Tracking conversion from marketing website to application using Google Analytics - google-analytics

Question

I have:
- a marketing website: http://www.example.com (www)
- a web application: http://app.example.com (app)
(classic scheme in SaaS)
I want to visualize the X signups happening in (app) from Y visits on (www).
My question:
How do you configure your Google Analytics code + account (filters, ...etc) to achieve this?
Right now, this is my configuration:
- Same tracking code on (www) and (app) as described here.
- A master Google account with no filter
The problem: it combines (www) visits and (app) visits into the same report.
=> I have the right number of signups but a wrong conversion rate
(I would like to count the people who have only visited (www) and never (app))
I also created a profile that only counts the (www) visits and excludes the (app) visits. The problem is: this profile also excludes the signup events sent from (app). Therefore, I don't see any signup in this profile.
Do you have any implementation to solve this?
Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

You will want to set a session level variable on the app that tracks one of 2 states:
Returning logged in visitor
First time logged in visitor (i.e. just completed the signup process)
Then you should be able to set up a profile that includes all sessions apart from returning logged in users. This will give you visits to the marketing site + visits to the app where the user didn't signup + visits to the site where the user signed up.
You can then create a conversion rate signups/total sessions to get your conversion rate.

Answer 2

For such a requirement you can utilize a URL destination goal with funnel visualisation. For example, when a user signups at your app http://app.example.com , let /thankyou , be the name of the page that is displayed. Then set up a goal in your profile, with /thankyou as the destination url. Now setup a funnel for this goal, with the required page in your marketing site http://www.example.com as the first step and the linked page in your app site as the second step.
Now the funnel will be page in marketing site --> page in app site --> signup completion page and in the report under Converson > Goals > Funnel Visualisation , you can see the number of users entering each step and then how many proceed from there to next step or exit. So you can know :
1, How many users entered marketing site
2, How many users went to app site and how many exited
3, How many from app site, went to signup and how many exited at this stage.
You can also check the reverse goal path report to see a similar data and other possible paths.
NOTE : If you want to setup a goal and funnel with full url including domain name and page name, then use this advanced filter to extract full urls and setup the goal accordingly

Answer 3

Hard to answer without knowing the actual urls for the app and www. Assuming there's a sign-up page on each site, then you have your conversion funnel set up to track both pages. Don't click the required box. Then in the Funnel Visualizing report you'll see who signed up coming from the app-url and who from www-url, which perhaps you can already see?
http://www.boxcarmarketing.com/images/uploads/funnel-visualization-eg.png
(I can't post the image b/c I don't have a rep score on Stackoverflow.)
Above link is a screenshot from a client's analytics. The /user/register is signups from the wwww and /user/register/2 is via the app. I recommend a clearer naming convention. And the conversion rate is screwy in this example but you get the idea.
If it's not a page (separate urls to see via the funnel), then track clicking the sign up button as an event and use the label field to note if it's a click from the app or www.
Or if you need something really complex depending on the structure of the site, you could create custom variables to identify visitors who've signed up via the app vs. those who's signed up via the website. Then you can do custom profiles to look at each group's path through the site.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1144420?hl=en