The Bazaarvoice web analytics integration solution measures customer interaction with Bazaarvoice-hosted, user-generated content (UGC). Each time a visitor to your site interacts with UGC or reaches a page on which UGC appears, Bazaarvoice sends information about that interaction to your Google® Analytics account.

Using the analytics reports included in your Google Analytics implementation, you can analyze conversion rates and other success metrics to determine the impact of UGC on your business. The following information is intended for implementation teams who want to integrate Bazaarvoice web analytics data and for marketing and web analysts who wish to maximize the benefits of this feature once implemented.

Analytics integration overview

Web analytics is the principal vehicle by which you can measure the impact of Bazaarvoice UGC on your site experience and business. It involves the collection, analysis, and reporting of data that helps you:

  • Identify the types of users who visit your site
  • Determine the value of the actions performed during those visits

When visitors to your site interact with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC, our analytics integration injects vendor-specific JavaScript tags that relay data to Google Analytics. After setting up segmentation and reporting in Google Analytics, you can compare the actions of visitors who interact with UGC to the actions of visitors who do not.

This approach provides you with the information you need to answer key business questions, such as:

  • How many visitors to my site are viewing and sharing UGC with others?
  • How does visitor interaction with UGC affect my most important business performance metrics?
  • Which types of visitor interactions with UGC are most valuable to my business?
  • Does interaction with UGC differ across my product categories or marketing channels?

  • Do the effects of UGC on my business change as the volume of UGC grows?

  • Are my marketing efforts helping to increase the usage of UGC on my site?

Analytics integration allows you to answer these questions and develop short- and long-term strategies that help you reach your business goals. For example, you can measure the value of UGC interactions on your site by examining how visitors’ interactions with UGC affect your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). As business performance metrics differ greatly by industry, Bazaarvoice recommends that you use the most appropriate method for your particular business.

When determining the impact of UGC on your site, you should consider these metrics:

For e-commerce clients:

  • E-commerce or add-to-cart conversion rate
  • Average order value
  • Revenue per session
  • Cart abandonment rate
  • New and repeat buyer percentages

For non-e-commerce clients:

  • Percent of visits that locate a store or are referred to an online retailer
  • Percent of visits that sign up for email
  • Percent of visits that submit a lead form
  • Percent of visits that request a quote

How does it work?

Each time a visitor interacts with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC, Bazaarvoice executes a JavaScript tag to send information to your web analytics system. This tag identifies the type of interaction that occurred. Then, after you set up segmentation and reporting in Google Analytics, you can view and analyze the performance of your visitors who interacted with UGC versus visitors who did not.

Note: Analytics integration is a conservative measurement strategy and cannot track visitors who read UGC if they do not explicitly interact with content by selecting it. Consequently, analytics integration underestimates the percentage of visitors who use UGC as well as the overall impact of UGC on your site.

The following details are specific to your web analytics provider:

  • Tagging—Indicates a user has selected a Bazaarvoice-hosted link or a tab that contains Bazaarvoice content.
  • Segmentation—Although the segment types that you apply to your reports depend on your provider, they always identify:
    • Visitors who interact with UGC
    • Visitors who reach a page that features Bazaarvoice content but who do not interact with UGC
  • Categorization—Methods for categorizing tag values as human-readable elements, allowing you to view categorizations such as:
    • A visitor who interacted with UGC
    • Product with which the visitor interacted
    • The specific event that occurred

Google Analytics uses the following tagging, segmentation, and categorization methods:

  • Tagging method—Event Tracking
  • Segmentation method—Custom Segments
  • Categorization method—Event Category, Event Action, and Event Label reports

Tagging methods

Custom event-tracking tags capture UGC impressions and visitor interactions with UGC.

Note: You must tag your entire site with web analytics to use analytics integration. Incomplete tagging of a site may not allow you to tie Bazaarvoice interaction back to all your success metrics.

Segmentation methods

A segment is a subset of visitors whose behavior you want to view and analyze. If you want to analyze traffic subsets such as Paid Traffic, Visits with Conversions, and Organic Traffic – or even to compare such subsets side by side in reports – segmentation allows you to isolate and analyze them.

The ability to compare visitors who interact with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC with visitors who do not is a key aspect of analytics integration. This analysis is achieved by setting up custom segments in your Google Analytics account. Ideally, a segment is defined for all visitors who view and interact with UGC and then compared to visitors who view UGC but do not interact with it.

Categorization methods

Categorization refers to making user interactions more human-readable by classifying them into predefined buckets, such as the Bazaarvoice product or type of interaction.

The following parameters are used to provide information to the Google Analytics event tag:

  • Event Category
  • Event Action
  • Event Label

These parameters provide built-in categorization. After interaction-specific information is provided to the parameters, Google Analytics automatically inserts it into the appropriate reports in the UI.

Tracking methods

The Bazaarvoice web analytics integration solution supports three Google Analytics tracking methods: asynchronous, synchronous, and Universal Analytics. Google recommends Universal Analytics.

Asynchronous

Asynchronous tracking is a legacy tracking method supported by Google Analytics, using the ga.js library. To use asynchronous tracking, you add code to your page that generates events when users perform certain actions, such as selecting buttons. The events are queued and pushed to the Google Analytics server by the ga.js library.

Refer to the Introduction to ga.js (Legacy) on the Google Developers knowledge base for more information about asynchronous tracking.

Synchronous

Synchronous tracking is a legacy tracking method supported by Google Analytics, using the ga.js library. To use synchronous tracking, you place JavaScript code at the bottom of your page just before the closing </body> tag. The JavaScript code causes the ga.js library to actively track and transmit analytics to the Google Analytics server in real time.

Refer to the Traditional Syntax documentation on the Google Developers knowledge base for more information about synchronous tracking.

Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics is the current and recommended method for using Google Analytics, using analytics.gs. To use Universal Analytics, you place JavaScript code on your page just before the closing </head> tag. The Universal Analytics code tracks how viewers interact with your page, such as time spent on the page and links selected. The code then transmits this information to the Google Analytics server.

Refer to Adding analytics.js to Your Site on the Google Developers knowledge base for more information about using Universal Analytics in your site.

Create and view reports

Analytics integration allows for the continuing analysis of the impact of visitor interaction with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC on your key metrics. This information is immediately available on demand from Google Analytics. This topic describes how to generate reports that provide access to the information provided to Google Analytics.

Dimensions

These dimensions are used to capture information:

  • Group—Answers the question "With what site content did the visitor interact?" and always contains the value Bazaarvoice.
  • Product—Answers the questions "Where is the user?" or "Which feature is being used?" and contains one of these values:
    • RatingsAndReviews
    • AskAndAnswer
  • Event Name—Answers the question "What specific kind of event is this?" and can include values.

    Event Name Value

    Description

    SubmissionSubmissionFormSubmit

    Select Submit to submit the review submission form.

    ClickSummaryStars

    Select the stars in the summary to jump to the Reviews section.

    HoverHistogram

    Hover over the star rating in the summary to open the histogram.

    ClickReadReviewsButton

    Select Read Reviews in the histogram.

    ClickReviewCount

    Select Review Count in the summary to jump to the Reviews section.

    ClickSummaryQuestionStats

    Select Question Count or Answer Count to jump to the Questions section.

    WriteButton

    Select Write a review in the summary to open the submission form.

    AskButton

    Select Ask a question in the summary to open the submission lightbox.

    PaginateNext

    Move to the next page of UGC.

    PaginatePrev

    Move to the previous page of UGC.

    SortFeatured

    Sort the Review section by Featured.

    SortMostHelpful

    Sort the Review section by Most Helpful.

    SortMostRecent

    Sort the Review section by Most Recent.

    SortNegative

    Sort the Review section by Lowest to Highest Rating.

    SortOldest

    Sort the Review section by Oldest to Newest.

    SortPositive

    Sort the Review section by Highest to Lowest Rating.

    SortRelevancy

    Sort the Review section by Most Relevant.

    SortFeaturedQuestionsFirst

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Featured Questions First.

    SortHelpfulnessAnswersFirst

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Most Helpful Answers.

    SortHelpfulnessAnswersLast

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Least Helpful Answers.

    SortMostAnsweredQuestionsFirst

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Most Answered.

    Sort MostAnsweredQuestionsLast

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Answers Needed.

    SortRecentAnswersFirst

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Newest Answers.

    SortRecentAnswersLast

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Oldest Answers.

    SortRecentQuestionsFirst

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Newest Questions.

    SortRecentQuestionsLast

    Sort the Question and Answer section by Oldest Questions.

    Filter1Star

    Filter by 1 star in the Reviews section.

    Filter2Stars

    Filter by 2 stars in the Reviews section.

    Filter3Stars

    Filter by 3 stars in the Reviews section.

    Filter4Stars

    Filter by 4 stars in the Reviews section.

    Filter5Stars

    Filter by 5 stars in the Reviews section.

    FilterClear1Star

    Clear the 1-star filter in the Reviews section.

    FilterClear2Stars

    Clear the 2-star filter in the Reviews section.

    FilterClear3Stars

    Clear the 3-star filter in the Reviews section.

    FilterClear4Stars

    Clear the 4-star filter in the Reviews section.

    FilterClear5Stars

    Clear the 5-star filter in the Reviews section.

    FilterClearAll

    Clear all active filters in the Reviews section.

    HoverProfile

    Hover over a profile name to open a profile.

    ClickStars

    Select the Stars next to a review.

    ClickUserSubmittedPhoto

    Select a user-submitted photo below a review.

    ClickYesHelpfulVote

    Select to vote a piece of UGC as helpful.

    ClickNoHelpfulVote

    Select to vote a piece of UGC as not helpful.

    ClickReportLink

    Select to report an inappropriate piece of UGC.

Tagging methodology

Depending on whether you use Google Classic or Universal Analytics, Bazaarvoice uses the appropriate function for event tracking to send information to Google Analytics:

  • Google Classic_trackEvent()
  • Universal Analyticsga('send', 'event')

When this tag is sent to Google Analytics, Bazaarvoice populates the following parameters of the appropriate function with information about the UGC impression and the visitor’s interaction with UGC:

  • Event Category—Bazaarvoice uses the following two-dimensional structure to populate the Event Category parameter:
    [Group] [Product]

    For example, if a visitor interacts with reviews on a product page, the following values are sent to the Event Category parameter:

    Bazaarvoice RatingsAndReviews
  • Event Action—Bazaarvoice uses the following three-dimensional structure to populate the Event Action parameter:
    [Group] : [Product] : [Event Name]

    For example, if a visitor sorts the displayed reviews by most helpful, the following values are sent to the Event Action parameter:

    Bazaarvoice : RatingsAndReviews : SortMostHelpful
  • Event Label—Bazaarvoice populates the Event Label parameter with the path name of the page when a visitor is interacting with UGC:
    [URL path name of the page containing UGC]

    For example, the following Event Label is sent to Google Analytics when a user interacts with UGC at http://client.com/product/blue_widget/26078358:

    /product/blue_widget/26078358

Bazaarvoice also sends an event to Google Analytics the first time a page that contains Bazaarvoice code loads for a visitor. This event is sent once for each Bazaarvoice product for each session and helps identify visitors who view pages containing UGC.

Bazaarvoice populates the Event Category, Event Action, and Event Label parameters of the trackEvent() or ga('send', 'event') function when a product like Ratings & Reviews loads for a visitor for the first time during a session. For this tag, Bazaarvoice always sends the following values to the Event Category parameter:

Bazaarvoice Content Loaded

Similarly, Bazaarvoice sends the following dimensions to the Event Action parameter:

[Group] : [Product] : ProductPageView

For example, when a visitor initially loads a product page containing reviews, the following values are sent to the Event Action parameter:

Bazaarvoice : RatingsAndReviews : ProductPageView

Finally, Bazaarvoice populates the Event Label parameter with the path name of the page when a visitor is viewing UGC:

[URL path name of the page containing UGC]

For example, the following Event Label is sent to Google Analytics when a user views UGC at http://client.com/product/blue_widget/26078358:

/product/blue_widget/26078358
Note: The Bazaarvoice Content Loaded tag is essential to identifying whether visitors viewed pages with Bazaarvoice content during their visit. It is triggered the first time a visitor views a page with Bazaarvoice content each session. However, because it uses the Google Analytics non-interaction flag, it will not impact the bounce rate for your site.

Access analytics integration reporting in Google Analytics through the event-tracking reports that reside in the Behavior section.

The Event Category report displays the metrics that correspond to the values captured by these analytics integration dimensions:

  • Group (always contains the value Bazaarvoice)

  • Product

The Event Action report displays the metrics that correspond to the values captured by the following dimensions:

  • Group (always contains the value Bazaarvoice)

  • Product

  • Event Name

Reporting details

To access a report, choose Behavior > Events > Top Events. Next to Primary Dimension, select one of these three dimensions:

  • Event Category—Displays the Bazaarvoice products with which visitors interacted. Select an event category to view the different types of visitor interactions with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC.
  • Event Action—Displays the types of interactions with UGC that visitors performed. Select an event action to view the product page on which an interaction occurred.

  • Event Label—Displays the product page URL that a user was viewing while interacting with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC.

Use the Site Usage and E-commerce tabs for these reports to compare how visitors who interacted with different elements of UGC performed against your site-usage metrics and e-commerce metrics.

Access event-tracking reports

Access analytics integration reporting in Google Analytics through the event-tracking reports in the Behavior section.

The Event Category report displays the metrics that correspond to the values captured by these analytics integration dimensions:

  • Group (always contains the value Bazaarvoice)

  • Product

The Event Action report displays the metrics that correspond to the values captured by the following dimensions:

  • Group (always contains the value Bazaarvoice)

  • Product

  • Event Name

To access a report, choose Behavior > Events > Top Events. Then, next to Primary Dimension, select one of these three dimensions:

  • Event Category—Displays the Bazaarvoice products with which visitors interacted. Select an event category to view the different types of visitor interactions with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC.
  • Event Action—Displays the types of interactions with UGC that visitors perform. Select an event action to view the product page where an interaction occurred.

  • Event Label—Displays the product page URL that a user viewed while interacting with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC.

Use the Site Usage and Ecommerce tabs for these reports to compare how visitors who interacted with different elements of UGC performed against your site-usage metrics and e-commerce metrics.

Create a custom segment

Google Analytics uses custom segments to perform segmentation. Bazaarvoice recommends setting up a pair of custom segments to identify the following types of visitors to your site:

  • Visitors who interacted with (UGC)

  • Visitors who viewed UGC but did not interact with it

Use the following instructions to create custom segments to differentiate between traffic that interacted with Bazaarvoice products and traffic that did not.

Visitors who used Bazaarvoice

  1. Sign in to your Analytics account.
  2. Open the View whose data you want to analyze.
  3. Select AUDIENCE > Overview.
  4. Select + Add Segment.
  5. Select + NEW SEGMENT.
  6. Name the segment Used Bazaarvoice.
  7. In the left panel, select Conditions.
  8. Make sure the Filter is set for Sessions and Include.
  9. Set the first condition as follows:
    1. Event Category (1st)

    2. exactly matches (2nd)

    3. Bazaarvoice Content Loaded (3rd)

  10. Select AND to create another condition.
  11. Set the second condition as follows:

    1. Event Category (1st)

    2. matches regex (2nd)

    3. ^Bazaarvoice (RatingsAndReviews|AskAndAnswer|Profiles)$ (3rd)

  12. Select Save.

Visitors who did not use Bazaarvoice

  1. Sign in to your Analytics account.
  2. Open the View whose data you want to analyze.
  3. Select AUDIENCE > Overview.
  4. Select + Add Segment.
  5. Select + NEW SEGMENT.
  6. Name the segment Did Not Use Bazaarvoice.
  7. In the left panel, select Conditions.
  8. Make sure the Filter is set for Sessions and Include.
  9. Set the condition as follows:

    1. Event Category (1st)

    2. exactly matches (2nd)

    3. Bazaarvoice Content Loaded (3rd)

  10. Select + Add Filter to create second filter.
  11. Make sure the new Filter is set for Sessions and Exclude.
  12. Set the condition as follows:

    1. Event Category (1st)

    2. matches regex (2nd)

    3. ^Bazaarvoice (RatingsAndReviews|AskAndAnswer|Profiles)$ (3rd)

  13. Select Save.

After you save these custom segments in your account, you can apply them to most reports to make side-by-side comparisons between visitors who interacted with UGC and visitors who did not.

Note: You can apply Bazaarvoice custom segments to any report, notably the Audience Overview and e-commerce Overview reports. The e-commerce Overview report is one of the most valuable because it displays KPI impact. Therefore, we recommend you use it on an ongoing basis to analyze your data.

Non-e-commerce clients can apply these custom segments to the Goals Overview report to determine the degree to which the use of UGC affects goal conversion rates. Like the e-commerce Overview report, the Goals Overview report provides great value because it displays KPI impact.

Alternatively, the All Traffic report, which is located in the Acquisition section, lets e-commerce clients and non-e-commerce clients alike analyze the impact of UGC. After you apply the Bazaarvoice custom segments to the All Traffic Channels report, you can toggle easily between the Site Usage, Goal Set, and e-commerce tabs to view the different ways UGC impacts your site.

Finally, you can create a custom report in the Customization section and configure the metrics and dimensions you want before applying the Bazaarvoice custom segments.

Create a custom report

Use the following instructions to create a custom report that analyzes the performance of users who interacted with Bazaarvoice products and users who did not.

Example report: Visitors who used Bazaarvoice versus visitors who did not use Bazaarvoice.

  1. In the top panel, select Customization.

  2. Select + New Custom Report.

  3. Under General Information, in the Title field, enter Bazaarvoice Report.

  4. Under Report Content, enter these values:

    1. Name—Enter Summary.

    2. Type—Select Explorer.

  5. Under Metric Group, add the following metrics:

    • Sessions

    • Users

    • Pageviews

    • Pages / Session

    • Revenue

    • Quantity

    • Average Order Value

    • Per Session Value

  1. Under Dimension Drilldowns, add the Date dimension.

  2. Select Save.

The following image shows an example of a custom report to which Bazaarvoice custom segments have been applied.

Implement analytics integration

You must satisfy these requirements before implementing analytics integration:

  • You must use the ga.js or analytics.js tracking code to support the event-tracking tag where information is sent. The following list shows which tracking codes are supported and unsupported:

    Supported

    • The legacy ga.js code and the newer asynchronous methods
    • Google’s new Universal Analytics (analytics.js)

    Unsupported

    • Google’s legacy Urchin JavaScript code
  • Your Bazaarvoice implementation must be a hosted solution. It cannot be an API-only solution.

Note: An e-commerce-enabled site is not required, but you must already have defined and measured some conversion metrics on your site.

Enable and configure analytics integration

Use the Configuration available in the Bazaarvoice Workbench to set up and enable analytics integration.

  1. Sign in to the Bazaarvoice Portal .
  2. Select Configuration from the Portal menu .
  3. Select an instance.
  4. Select Go to Configuration. The Site Manager appears, listing the available deployment zones and implementations.
  5. Note: You can also add new deployment zones and implementations on this screen.

  6. Under Implementations, use the filter to find the name of the implementation you require.
  7. Select Edit next to the implementation you want to edit.
  8. From the menu on the left side of the page, select Web Analytics under Settings.
  9. Enable and set up integration with Google Analytics

    1. Under Enable web analytics integration (Google Analytics), select Enabled.
    2. Under Tracking method (Google Analytics), select whether the Google Analytics tracking method is Asynchronous, Synchronous or Universal.
    3. Under Tracker object override (Google Analytics), you have the option of entering the name of the Google Analytics tracker object variable. If left blank, then the system assumes the following values for the default tracker object:
      • _gaq (Asynchronous)
      • pageTracker (Synchronous)
      • ga (Universal)
  10. Deploy the changes to the implementation.

Track Google Analytics through Google Tag Manager (GTM)

For clients implementing the Google Analytics Tag through Google Tag Manager (GTM), Bazaarvoice recommends the following settings:

Enable and set up integration with classic Google Analytics

  • Under Enable web analytics integration (Google Analytics), select Enabled.
  • Under Tracking method (Google Analytics), select Synchronous.
  • Under Tracker object override (Google Analytics), enter the following value with your Google Analytics Account ID, replacing the UA value with the identifier present on your pages:
    _gat._createTracker('UA-123456-1')

Enable and set up integration with Universal Analytics

  • Under Enable web analytics integration (Google Analytics), select Enabled.
  • Under Tracking method (Google Analytics), select Universal.
  • Under Tracker object override (Google Analytics), leave the field blank.

Enable integration between GTM and Universal Analytics

Web analytics integration with GTM and Universal Analytics requires the Tracker Name to be static and unnamed. By default, GTM assigns its unique tracker names. For integration between GTM and Universal Analytics to work, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your GTM account.
  2. In the GTM pageview tag, navigate to More settings > Advanced Configuration.
  3. Select the Tracker Name check box.
  4. Leave the Tracker Name field blank.

GTM will leave the tracker name with the default value. Our solution will find the tracker name and send events to it.

Note: When implementing the Google Analytics Tag through GTM, follow all best practices from Google and Bazaarvoice. Be sure to:

Track analytics using GTM data layer

Each time a visitor interacts with Bazaarvoice-hosted UGC, Bazaarvoice executes a JavaScript tag that identifies the type of interaction that occurred. This information is sent to your web analytics system using a custom tracker.

To set up and enable analytics integration using a custom tracker, follow these instructions:

  1. Under Enable web analytics integration (Google Analytics), select Enabled.
  2. Under Tracking method (Google Analytics), select Universal.
  3. Under Tracker object override (Google Analytics), add a custom tracker name. You can use any custom tracker name of your choice (for example, bvTestTracker).
  4. To capture the analytics events, expose the global function by selecting the custom tracker name.
  5. Bazaarvoice passes the event details to the custom tracker as parameters.

Using the custom tracker function, you can track the information about user interaction on your page. The custom tracker sends event details to GTM or a third-party analytics service. Possible parameters for a custom tracker function are as follows:

  • 1st parameter: A constant string, send. You can ignore this parameter.
  • 2nd parameter: A constant string, event. You can ignore this parameter.
  • 3rd parameter: A colon delimited string in the following format:
    [Provider name] : [Display component name] : [Action / Event / Feature interaction]
  • 4th parameter. A string with two possible enumerations:
    • Bazaarvoice Content Loaded: User interaction is a page view or component load event.
    • Bazaarvoice {Display component name}: An Interaction event
  • 5th parameter: A string that represents the page from where the event originated.
  • 6th parameter: A string that represents a value associated with the event, if present. If there is no associated value, it is an undefined event.
  • 7th parameter: A string that represents an object containing a noninteraction key, which tells if the event is an interaction or noninteraction event. If the key value is:
    • False: interaction event
    • True: Noninteraction event

Example custom tracker callback function

       // The function name can be any name as long as it's same as the custom tracker name.
          function bvTestTracker() {
            const [,, category, action, label, value, { nonInteraction: nonInteraction }] = arguments;
              window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
              window.dataLayer.push({ 'event': action, category, label, value, nonInteraction })
            }
        
  1. Using the configuration hub, select Web Analytics under Settings.
  2. Select Enabled under Enable web analytics integration (Google Analytics).
  3. For Tracking method (Google Analytics), select whether the Google Analytics tracking method is Asynchronous, Synchronous or Universal.
  4. For Tracker object override (Google Analytics), enter the name of the Google Analytics tracker object variable. If left blank, then the system assumes the following values for the default tracker object:
    • _gaq (Asynchronous)
    • pageTracker (Synchronous)
    • ga (Universal)
  5. Deploy your implementation changes to production.
  6. Create reports as needed.