Analytics apps

Analytics apps let you track Optimizely experiments in an external analytics tool. With the flip of a switch, Optimizely Web Experimentation can append experiment data to analytics tracking code, so you can see the impact of your experiments in your analytics tool.

By default, all of your project’s apps are turned off. See Enable integrations in Optimizely.

When you enable an app, you let Optimizely send data to the integrated platform. Depending on the integrated platform's specific capabilities, analytics apps let you:

• Get a direct view of how Optimizely experiments affect the metrics you track in your analytics platform, like visit duration and bounce rate
• See analytics data and record visitor actions for each variation in your experiment (or experience in a campaign)
• Filter your analytics reporting by visitors who were successfully included in an Optimizely experiment (and exclude visitors who weren't included)
• Create custom reports based on Optimizely Web Experimentation events

Compare data between Optimizely and your analytics platform

Optimizely Web Experimentation and your analytics platform capture information differently. Optimizely and common analytics platforms are each optimized to provide different pieces of information. As a result, you may see discrepancies in your data between the two platforms, even if they’re integrated.

For instance, if you’re tracking clicks on a “View Now” button and the same unique visitor clicks it 10 times, Optimizely Web Experimentation will only count that as one conversion. The reason Optimizely Web Experimentation counts visitors this way is because it analyzes data from the perspective of a unique visitor’s behavior. Your analytics platform, on the other hand, may count that as 10 conversions. This is because Optimizely Web Experimentation and your analytics platform need to dissect data differently for their respective purposes.

Integrating Optimizely Web Experimentation with your analytics platform will help you view your experiment data within the context of the analytics you already collect. This will give you a much greater insight into whether the numbers are trending in the same direction.

If you don't see your variation names in your analytics reporting, check your privacy settings. Disabling the Mask descriptive names setting lets Optimizely Web Experimentation pass variation names to your analytics platform, though it will also make your variation names available in your source code.