User Defined Variables

The Urchin tracking code (both urchin.js or ga.js) collects standard information about a visitor and the pages he/she is viewing. However, this is often not enough. You may run into a situation where you'd like to collect information that is specific to your website, making your Urchin reports much more useful. This is accomplished with a user defined variable.

NOTE: User Defined Variables are only available when using the UTM tracking method. Also, a user defined value is persistent across visits. So, if a visitor visits a site and has a user defined value set, that value will persist into any future visits, even if the value is not explicitly set in any others.

Setting a User Defined Variable

User Defined Variables can be set anywhere on the page by calling the appropriate function:

urchin.js
_utmSetVar('value');

ga.js
pageTracker._setVar('value');

How to use a User Defined Variable

The User Defined Variables allows you to create another segment in your reports. So, essentially, you'd want to populate it with a value on which you want to segment in your Urchin reports. A user defined value may be set for any custom information you'd like to save about a visitor or visit. Traditional uses are:

• Saving a visitor's username
• Differentiating a member from an unregistered user
• Tracking a specific type of user to your site
• The list is virtually endless!

Seeing the User Defined Variable in Reports

To see metrics based on unique user defined values, navigate to the "User Defined" report at Marketing Optimization >> Visitor Segment Performance >> User-defined. This report will show Visits, Pages/Visit, Goals/Visit, Trans/Visit, and $/Visit metrics for each User Defined Value reported.

You may also segment any dimension by the User Defined Variable by clicking the red dot next to a dimension and selecting Cross Segment Performance >> User Defined.