Users and sessions are defined differently in different platforms such as Google Analytics. This article describes how Dynamic Yield defines users and sessions.
Users
A visitor who enters a site that contains the Dynamic Yield script is given a unique DYID. The DYID is stored in cookies, session storage, and local storage of the browser.
Users are people who are identified on your site by logging in, subscribing to a newsletter, or otherwise providing their email.
A user is assigned a new DYID if one of the following happens:
- The user uses a different browser or a different device.
- They delete their cookies, cache, and local storage of the browser. Clearing the cookies and cache alone will not help, because it will be restored by the local storage will as soon as they visit another site with the Dynamic Yield script.
- They enter the site using incognito mode. If multiple incognito windows are opened at the same time, the user will get the same DYID as that assigned to the first incognito instance.
Users can also identify themselves using an event (login, subscribe to newsletter) that includes the user ID (such as email). In Audience Explorer and Audience Report, identified users are considered a single user, even if they visit on different browsers or different devices (in other words, they might have multiple DYIDs).
Sessions
A session begins when a user enters a domain with the Dynamic Yield script. When measuring session stickiness and frequency, a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity on your site, or if the user deletes their browser’s cookies and cache. When attributing conversions to a particular session, the session ends if the browser (all tabs) is closed, after 2 hours of inactivity on your site, or if the user deletes their browser’s cookies and cache.
Note: In Dynamic Yield, as opposed to Google Analytics, a new session does not automatically start at midnight. This ensures that late-night site visitors are tracked more accurately.
However, for session stickiness and frequency settings, sessions begin when a user enters a site with the Dynamic Yield script, and end when the browser is closed or after two hours.
Impressions
Impressions are the serving of a variation (or the control group). Meaning, once a variation is served, an "impression" is fired. It doesn't necessarily means that the user actually viewed it (e.g. if the variation is at the footer, below the fold, and the user did not scroll).
This metric is also used to calculate CTR, which is the total number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions. Note that CTR is not Unique CTR (i.e. if a user was served with the variation 3 times and clicked it twice, the CTR will be 66.7%).