Benchmark Privacy and Security
To maintain the highest level of legal compliance and privacy protection, your CSM is prohibited from disclosing the specific competitors in your benchmarks. This safeguard ensures that your data remains confidential, just as the data of our entire user base is protected.
How competitive sets are created
Your Customer Success Manager (CSM) will have a detailed conversation with you to help you understand your specific requirements, goals, and challenges regarding benchmarking. They will gather insights into your current benchmarking practices and use that information to create a customized competitive set. This will enable them to activate a benchmark report that offers a tailored comparison with your competitors.
To create your competitive set, your CSM utilizes a similarity score. This score is derived from factors such as average cart value, number of sessions, and conversion rate. It provides an automatic recommendation of the most similar competitors in your industry.
How competitors' data is calculated
The Benchmarks' data is calculated as an average, with the number of projects used as a weighting factor.
How top performers average is computed
For each metric, the competitors' average is determined by calculating the average of the top 25% maximum values within the competitive set.
How 'Top to low performers' are computed in the line chart
For each value, the top to low performance average metric is calculated as the average of the following:
- The top 25% maximum value within the competitive set.
The bottom 25% minimum value within the competitive set.
By showing the gap between these two intervals, we provide you with a clear understanding of how you position yourself against your competition.
How Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is calculated
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures the rendering time of the largest content element visible within the viewport, occurring before users scroll.
LCP focuses on the speed of delivering the largest content, excluding background images and content displayed outside the viewport (e.g., below the fold), ensuring a consistent user experience. Temporary content, such as loaders or splash screens, is disregarded.
How is your data anonimyzed
The Benchmarks' data is aggregated and anonymized, ensuring the safety of your data. The Benchmarks module enables you to compare your performance and analyze market trends, while maintaining strict confidentiality of sensitive information such as transactional metrics or strategic details.
How traffic sources are created
The traffic sources displayed are based on site URLs that are automatically grouped under main traffic source categories.
Values inside each of the traffic sources
SEA (=paid search)
A source is categorised under SEA if it has one of these values:
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'(?i)(._medium=(search|google|yandex|bing|baidu|yahoo|hao|so\\.com|sogou|lilo\\.org|gmb|qwant|search\\.aol|duckduckgo|ecosia).)'
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'(?i)(.source=(search|google|yandex|bing|baidu|yahoo|hao|so\\.com|sogou|gmb|gmb|lilo\\.org|qwant|search\\.aol|duckduckgo|ecosia).)'
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'(?i)(._medium=(cpc|sea|paid_search).)'
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'(?i)(.(ysclid|gclid|gclsrc|gbraid|msclkid|yclid)=.)'
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'(?i)(.id=sem.)'
SEO (=organic search)
A source is categorized under SEO if it has one of these values:
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'(?i)(.(search|maps\\.|google|yandex|bing|baidu|doubleclick\\.|yahoo|hao|so\\.com|naver\\.|sogou|lilo\\.org|qwant|search\\.aol|duckduckgo|ecosia).)'
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'(?i)(._medium=(seo).)'
Display
A source is categorized under Display if it has one of these values:
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'(?i)(._medium=(brand|display|cpv|cpm|dv360).)'
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'(?i)(.(dclid|wbraid)=.)'
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'(?i)(._source=(display).)'
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'(?i)(.(id=disp|campaign=display).)'
Paid social
A source is categorized under Paid social if it has one of these values:
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'(?i)(._source=(social|facebook|reddit|linkedin|line|telegram|meta|pinterest|whatsapp|instagram|snapchat|messenger|tiktok|tw|twitter).)'
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'(?i)(._medium=(social|facebook|reddit|linkedin|line|telegram|zalo|whatsapp|meta|pinterest|instagram|snapchat|messenger|tiktok|twitter).)'
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'(?i)(.(fbcid|fbclid|ttclid)=.)'
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'(?i)(.(id=inst|:facebook|:instagram)|(socp).)'
A source is categorized under Email if it has one of these values:
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'(?i)(._medium=(eml|crm|email|newsletter|mail).)'
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'(?i)(._source=(email|sfmc).)'
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'(?i)(.newsletter|(id=em).)'
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'(?i)(.(\\.(mail)\\.|mail\\.|email\\.|microsoftonline|outlook).)'
Direct
A source is categorized under Direct if it doesn’t match these values:
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'(?i)(.(_medium|_source)=(search|google|yandex|bing|baidu|yahoo|hao|so\\.com|sogou|lilo\\.org|gmb|qwant|search\\.aol|duckduckgo|ecosia|cpc|sea|paid_search|seo|cpm|dv360|brand|display|cpv|social|facebook|reddit|linkedin|line|telegram|zalo|whatsapp|meta|pinterest|instagram|snapchat|messenger|tiktok|tw|twitter|programmatique|programmatic|criteo|retargeting|eml|crm|email|newsletter|mail|sfmc|youtube|dailymotion|affilie|affiliate|affiliation|awin|referral|referrer|link|partenariat|partner|partenaire|sms|push|qrcode).)'
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'(?i)(.(retargeting|linkshare|newsletter).)'
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'(?i)(.(wbraid|gbraid|gclsrc|msclkid|fbcid|[a-z]+lid)=.)'
Can Benchmarks' metrics be different from the metrics in Google Analytics
When comparing certain metrics, you may notice differences in data between the Benchmarks and Google Analytics. Here are some reasons for these data gaps:
Tag Implementation: The way our tracking tag is implemented might differ from Google Analytics. This can include variations in which pages the tags are called on, the order in which they are executed (even a small delay can cause a discrepancy), and the nature of the tags themselves.
Perimeter Differences: There can be variations in the browsers that our tool and Google Analytics support. For instance, our tool guarantees tag execution on Internet Explorer 11+, while Google Analytics might have different browser compatibility. Additionally, the properties or domains used in Google Analytics and our tool might not align perfectly, including different subdomains or the inclusion/exclusion of staging environments. Filters, bot exclusion rules, and sampling methods may also differ.
Metric Calculation: We tend to have different ways of calculating certain metrics. Here are the most common differences:
- Session duration and time spent on exit pages can be calculated differently between Contentsquare and Google Analytics. Contentsquare captures all interactions on a page, and the session ends based on the timestamp of the last packet of events sent. In contrast, Google Analytics calculates time spent based on custom events set up on the exit page.
- Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of users with only one pageview in Contentsquare, while Google Analytics considers visitors who don't trigger a tracked event on the landing page as bounces.
- Transactions and Revenue : Transactions and revenue can also vary due to factors like currency conversion and the way they are counted. Contentsquare counts the number of visits with a transaction whereas Google Analytics counts the number of transactions. A transaction made in a different currency than the one set up in Contentsquare (€) is not converted. This may lead to revenue fluctuations and differences.
Traffic sources: The traffic sources presented in Contentsquare are derived from a standardized method applicable to all clients, which automatically categorizes site URLs. It's important to note that this approach may result in slight variations from the traffic source grouping and definitions in Google Analytics.
If you need more information about these discrepancies, please don't hesitate to reach out to your CSM for further clarification.