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Introduction

Conductor’s custom analytics integrations are a page- and domain-level integration for Conductor with your corresponding web analytics profile. With this SFTP-based integration, organizations can use Conductor to:

• Manage and measure the performance of their content for their most important pages.
• Identify and improve poor-performing content.
• Identify and protect existing high-performing content.
• Prove ROI and show the importance of organic search to the rest of the organization.

This document gives you the technical background and instructions for integrating analytics with Conductor. After completing these instructions, you will have the following four reports set up for your custom analytics:

• Two domain-level reports at weekly and monthly frequencies.
• Two page-level reports at weekly and monthly frequencies.

Once you have created these files, you can send them via SFTP to Conductor using the instructions below.

Data takes up to two (2) weeks to appear in Conductor after the reports are set up. If you do not see your data after two weeks, please contact Conductor Support.

Technical Information

Requirements

• Your team is responsible for creating the .csv files containing your analytics data and for ensuring they are sent to Conductor at the specified weekly and monthly times.
• Your team must be able to retrieve domain-level analytics data segmented by marketing channel (such as the Organic and Paid channels).
• Your team must be able to retrieve organic page-level analytics data. If you are unable to retrieve this data, there will be limitations to the analytics data available in Conductor.
• Your team may use any platform or tool that can send data through SFTP.

Contact Support if you have any questions.

Accepted Metrics

Your integration must include Sessions or Visits as a metric in each of the four .csv files you send.

Beyond Sessions or Visits, each .csv file can contain analytics data from up to nine other metrics—such as Bounces, Page Views, Conversion Events, or Revenue—for a total of up to ten metrics. The metrics you choose must be the same for all four files.

Note that calculated and unique metrics are not accepted at this time:

• Calculated metrics are any metric that includes the word Average or Rate or a metric that uses a formula. Because these metrics represent formulas rather than concrete values, Conductor cannot import them.
• Unique metrics, such as Unique Visitors or Unique Buyers, are unique to the date range you select for the report. For example, a visitor initiates a session on a page in Week 1 and in Week 2. When looking at Week 1 and Week 2 individually, the visitor counts as a Unique Visitor once in each week. However, when looking at Week 1 through Week 2, Visitor A counts as a Unique Visitor only once for both weeks.

File Descriptions

A total of four .csv files must be set up for delivery at the following frequencies and dimensions:

• Weekly domain-level. This .csv file contains your domain-level analytics data. This data must be segmented by organic and paid channels and reflects the domain-level data received during a weekly period.
• Monthly domain-level. This .csv file contains your domain-level analytics data. This data must be segmented by organic and paid channels and reflects the domain-level data received during a monthly period.
• Weekly page-level. This .csv file contains your page-level analytics data. This data must only refer to organic, weekly page-level data associated with pages on your domain.
• Monthly page-level. This .csv file contains your page-level analytics data. This data must only refer to organic, monthly page-level data associated with pages on your domain.

The contents of each of the files listed above are described in the File Content Descriptions section below.

Integration Process

Required User Setup

To send files to Conductor through SFTP, the person configuring the file transfer will need a Conductor username and password. If this person does not already have a Conductor username and password, a current Conductor Admin user can add them using the instructions found in the User Setup Knowledge Base article. Once added, this person will need to log into the platform to create a password.

Create the integration and get your Alias 

To configure a custom integration, you'll need to create it in Conductor and then get a unique identifier called an Alias. An integration cannot be configured without an Alias.

The Alias is simply a unique identifier Conductor will generate specifically for your organization to use for configuring a new integration. Note that if you plan on creating multiple integrations, you may need multiple Aliases for each integration you plan to configure, depending on your analytics configuration.

To get your Alias (or Aliases):

1. Click here ↗️ or follow the path Settings > Web Analytics in Conductor. 
2. Click Add a New Integration.
3. From the form, select Custom Analytics.
   
4. Click Create Custom Integration.
5. Complete the following fields in the integration configuration screen:
   
   1. Add an Integration Display Name.
      
   2. Choose one or more Related Search Engines to associate your data with.
      
   3. Click Save and Complete (You can configure the rest of the integration later.) You are returned to the Web Analytics screen.
6. You can find your Alias in the list of integrations here.
   

File Format and Naming Convention

This integration uses a flat file to send analytics data via SFTP from your analytics provider to Conductor. To accommodate this feature, files must be in the .csv format with the following naming convention:

Report[Period Start Date in YYYYMMDD]-[Period End Date in YYYYMMDD].csv

As an example for a monthly file name for November 2023:

Report20231101-20231130.csv

• Understandably, the Period Start Date and Period End Date will be different based on whether the report is “Weekly” or “Monthly”
• Weekly date ranges in Conductor occur from Sunday to Saturday. For example, if sending a weekly .csv file for the first week of May 2017, the Period Start Date is “20170430” and Period End Date is “20170506”.
• Monthly date ranges in Conductor occur from the first day of the month through the last day of the month. For example, if sending a monthly .csv file for the month of April, the Period Start Date is “20170401” and Period End Date is “20170430”.
• You may note that the result of creating these files will lead to identically named page files and identically named domain files. Conductor can identify the appropriate files as long as they are sent to the expected directories through your SFTP process. Just be sure the correct file is assigned to the appropriate directory.

Accessing Conductor’s SFTP Server

Your team can use any method to send Conductor data through SFTP. Use the following details to send access Conductor’s SFTP server and send the necessary files:

• Host
  Enter either of the following strings (do not include the quotation marks):
  
  • “analytics-sftp.conductor.com" for non-EU data residency
  • “analytics-sftp.eu.conductor.com" for EU data residency
• Port: 22
• Username: [the Conductor username—an email address—of the user configuring this integration]
• Password: [The Conductor password of the user configuring this integration]
• Destinations
  Each of the four files you send will have its own destination—all in the same SFTP Home Directory. You'll see the available SFTP Home Directories available to you after authorizing your credentials. If you have access to multiple SFTP Home Directories, contact Support to determine the correct directory for the analytics integration you are configuring.
  
  For each of the files, the destination within the SFTP Home Directory will include: 

• • The Alias associated with the integration.
  • The report type associated with the file:
    • WEEKLY_PAGE
    • WEEKLY_DOMAIN
    • MONTHLY_PAGE
    • MONTHLY_DOMAIN

You should be able to identify the full destinations for each file using the following structure:

[SFTP Home Directory]/[Alias for the integration]/[Report type]

For example, the directory structure you might use for each report destination will look like the following:

• mycompany-s999m/custom-analytics-1234abc/WEEKLY_PAGE
• mycompany-s999m/custom-analytics-1234abc/WEEKLY_DOMAIN
• mycompany-s999m/custom-analytics-1234abc/MONTHLY_PAGE
• mycompany-s999m/custom-analytics-1234abc/MONTHLY_DOMAIN

File Content Descriptions

Weekly Domain-Level File

This file must:

• Contain your domain’s domain-level analytics data.
• Segment data by organic and paid marketing channel.
• Include data in a weekly range, where the week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday.
• Include data in columns as described below:
  
  • Column A – Marketing Channel
    The first column in the file must be titled “Marketing Channel” in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect the names of the marketing channels that drive traffic to your domain.
    
    This column must include the following two values:
    
    • Natural Search Activity: This is your organic traffic channel.
    • Paid Search: This is your paid traffic channel.
    • Total: This is the aggregate values for traffic from all the marketing channels you include in this file.
      
      You can include other values in this column if you segment by other channels. However, the two values above are the only required channels.
  • Column B – Visits or Sessions
    The second column in the file must be titled “Visits” or “Sessions” (depending on how you name this metric in your analytics) in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect your Visit or Sessions values for the given marketing channel listed in the first column. Values must be whole integers.
  • Columns C-K – Other Metrics
    The third column, and any other higher columns in the file, can be titled however you title the metrics each column represents. Values in this column below the first row reflect the other metrics you want to integrate into Conductor. Values must be whole integers and must be accepted metrics, as described in the Accepted Metrics section above.

Example Image

Important Notes About this File

• Must be sent weekly no later than Sunday at 12 P.M. Eastern Time.
• Must be saved as a .csv file.
• Must be named following the naming conventions described above.
• Must contain a Column A titled “Marketing Channel”.
• Rows in Column A must include “Total”, “Paid Search”, and “Natural Search Activity”. Any other rows are optional.
• Column B must be titled either “Visits” or “Sessions”.
• The remaining cells in Column B must reference whole integer data from a Sunday through Saturday weekly range of time.
• You can include up to nine other metrics in the remaining columns and must follow the same conditions as Column B. Any other metrics chosen must also appear in each .csv file for this integration.

Monthly Domain-Level File

This file must:

• Contain your domain’s domain-level analytics data.
• Segment data by organic and paid marketing channel.
• Include data in a monthly range, from the first of the month to the last day of the month, regardless of the day of week those days fall on.
• Include data in columns as described below:
  • Column A – Marketing Channel
    The first column in the file must be titled “Marketing Channel” in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect the names of the marketing channels that drive traffic to your domain.
    
    This column must include the following two values:
    • Natural Search Activity: This is your organic traffic channel.
    • Paid Search: This is your paid traffic channel.
    • Total: This is the aggregate values for traffic from all the marketing channels you include in this file.
      
      You can include other values in this column if you segment by other channels. However, the two values above are the only required channels.
  • Column B – Visits or Sessions
    The second column in the file must be titled “Visits” or “Sessions” (depending on how you name this metric in your analytics) in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect your Visit or Sessions values for the given marketing channel listed in the first column. Values must be whole integers.
  • Columns C-K – Other Metrics
    The third column, and any other higher columns in the file, can be titled however you title the metrics each column represents. Values in this column below the first row reflect the other metrics you want to integrate into Conductor. Values must be whole integers and must be accepted metrics, as described in the Accepted Metrics section above.

Example Image

Important Notes About this File

• Must be sent monthly on the first day of each month at 12 P.M. Eastern Time.
• Must be saved as a .csv file.
• Must be named following the naming conventions described above.
• Must contain a Column A titled “Marketing Channel”.
• Rows in Column A must include “Total”, “Paid Search”, and “Natural Search Activity”. Any other Rows are optional.
• Column B must be titled either “Visits” or “Sessions”.
• The remaining cells in Column B must reference whole integer data from a monthly range of time beginning on the first of the month and ending on the last day of the month.
• You can include up to nine other metrics in the remaining columns and must follow the same conditions as Column B. Any other metrics chosen must also appear in each .csv file for this integration.

Weekly Page-Level File

This file must:

• Contain your domain’s page-level analytics data.
• Include data in a weekly range, where the week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday.
• Include data in columns as described below:
  
  • Column A – URL
    Values in this column below the first row reflect the list of webpages that received organic traffic during the time period the file includes data for. Values must have a complete URL structure including a protocol and must belong to your hostname domain. There is no limit to the number of URLs you can include in the file. However, Conductor imports data for only the top 10,000 organic traffic-driving pages (based on the data in Column B).
  • Column B – Visits or Sessions
    The second column in the file must be titled “Visits” or “Sessions” (depending on how you name this metric in your analytics) in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect your Visit or Sessions values for the Organic channel. Values must be whole integers.
  • Columns C-K – Other Metrics
    The third column, and any other higher columns in the file, can be titled however you title the metrics each column represents. Values in this column below the first row reflect the other metrics you want to integrate into Conductor. Values must be whole integers and must be accepted metrics, as described in the Accepted Metrics section above.

Example Image

Important Notes About this File

• Must be sent weekly no later than Sunday at 12 P.M. Eastern Time.
• Must be saved as a .csv file.
• Must be named following the naming conventions described above.
• Must contain a Column A titled “URL”
• Rows in Column A must include the exact URL strings for pages on your site that received organic traffic during the weekly date range associate with the file.
• Pages in Column A must have a protocol and must belong to the same hostname as the domain in Conductor. URL Strings cannot contain space characters.
• Column B must be titled either “Visits” or “Sessions”.
• The remaining cells in Column B must reference whole integer data from a Sunday through Saturday weekly range of time.
• You can include up to nine other metrics in the remaining columns and must follow the same conditions as Column B. Any other metrics chosen must also appear in each .csv file for this integration.

Monthly Page-Level File

This file must:

• Contain your domain’s page-level analytics data.
• Include data in a monthly range, from the first of the month to the last day of the month, regardless of the day of week those days fall on.
• Include data in columns as described below:
  
  • Column A – URL
    Values in this column below the first row reflect the list of webpages that received organic traffic during the time period the file includes data for. Values must have a complete URL structure including a protocol and must belong to your hostname domain. There is no limit to the number of URLs you can include in the file. However, Conductor imports data for only the top 10,000 organic traffic-driving pages (based on the data in Column B).
  • Column B – Visits or Sessions
    The second column in the file must be titled “Visits” or “Sessions” (depending on how you name this metric in your analytics) in the topmost row. Values in this column below the first row reflect your Visit or Sessions values for the Organic channel. Values must be whole integers.
  • Columns C-K – Other Metrics
    The third column, and any other higher columns in the file, can be titled however you title the metrics each column represents. Values in this column below the first row reflect the other metrics you want to integrate into Conductor. Values must be whole integers and must be accepted metrics, as described in the Accepted Metrics section above.

Example Image

Important Notes About this File

• Must be sent on the first day of each month by 12 P.M. Eastern Time.
• Must be saved as a .csv file.
• Must be named following the naming conventions described above.
• Must contain a Column A titled “URL”.
• Rows in Column A must include the exact URL strings for pages on your site that received organic traffic during the monthly date range associate with the file.
• Pages in Column A must have a protocol and must belong to the same hostname as the domain in Conductor. URL Strings cannot contain space characters.
• Column B must be titled either “Visits” or “Sessions”.
• The remaining cells in Column B must reference whole integer data from a monthly range of time beginning on the first of the month and ending on the last day of the month.
• You can include up to nine other metrics in the remaining columns and must follow the same conditions as Column B. Any other metrics chosen must also appear in each .csv file for this integration.

Troubleshooting

If you are seeing errors, discrepancies, or otherwise unexpected behavior with the integration process or with the data coming through a completed integration, please refer to the following troubleshooting tasks. If—after reviewing these tasks—you cannot resolve the issues you are experiencing, please reach out to Conductor's Support team.

File Formatting

• Issue: Files are not saved in the correct .csv format, causing data import errors.
• Solution: Ensure that all files are saved in the .csv format before sending them to Conductor.

File Naming Conventions

• Issue: Files are named incorrectly, deviating from the required naming convention.
• Solution: Ensure that file names follow the specified format:
  Alias_Dimension_ReportingFrequency_DateRange.extension format.

Missing or Incomplete Data

• Issue: Some required columns or data points are missing or incomplete in the .csv files.
• Solution: Review the data and make sure all required columns (e.g., Marketing Channel, URL, Visits/Sessions) are present and filled with appropriate data.

Disallowed Metrics

• Issue: The integration includes calculated or unique metrics, which are not accepted by the Conductor.
• Solution: Ensure that all metrics included in the .csv files are accepted metrics, as specified in the guide.

Date Ranges

• Issue: The date ranges in the file names do not match the actual data in the files.
• Solution: Ensure that the date ranges in the file names and the data in the files are aligned.

Data Delivery Timing

• Issue: Files are not sent to Conductor on the specified weekly and monthly timeframes.
• Solution: Set up a reminder system to ensure that the files are sent through SFTP (or to contentintegrations@conductor.com if using email) on the correct days and times.

URL and Domain Mismatch

• Issue: URLs in the page-level files do not belong to the specified domain in Conductor.
• Solution: Verify that all URLs provided in the page-level files belong to the same domain as specified in the Conductor integration.

Data Limitations

• Issue: The number of URLs or metrics exceeds the maximum allowed by the Conductor.
• Solution: Ensure that the total number of metrics (including Visits/Sessions) does not exceed ten.

Metric Names

• Issue: The metric names in the .csv files do not match the expected metric names in Conductor.
• Solution: Check that the metric names in the .csv files match the expected names in Conductor, such as "Visits" or "Sessions."

Data Processing Delay

• Issue: Data does not appear in Conductor within two weeks after you integrate.
• Solution: If the data takes longer than two weeks to appear, contact Conductor Support for assistance and to check for any potential data processing issues.