Merchandising Variables: Unexpected Products

Question

I'm using Evar2 for Internal Campaign IDs. It is set up as a Merchandising Evar

Syntax: 'Conversion Variable Syntax' Allocation: 'First' Expiration: 'Purchase' Binding Events: 'Purchase Event', 'Product View Event', and 'Cart Add Event'

In this particular question, there is an internal campaign that links to a product detail page, where a product view is set. Clicking through on the internal campaign results in this:

Events 'prodView'
products '123456'
eVar2 '7890'

Since the 'Product View Event' occurs on this resulting page, and is one of the binding methods, I would expect this SKU to bind to the value of '7890' in eVar2 and remain so until purchase.

When I run a report on this particular entry (7890) in eVar2 and break it down by Products, with Revenue as a metric, I'm seeing other products being purchased.

I'm okay that maybe SKU 7890 wasn't purchased at all, but I would not expect other products to be present there, because they were never bound to that value for eVar2

Thanks

Answer 1

That could be because you have allocation set to 'First' instead of 'Most recent'.
If someone views SKU 7890, but then also views and purchases SKU 1234, the 1234 purchase will be recorded against 7890 in eVar2 (because it was the 'First' value.)

Check if the eVar is being set anywhere else before the product pages, as First and Most recent allocation still applies.
With First, it won't change until expiration. With Most recent it will keep changing each time a new value is set.

The eVar in conversion syntax will apply to all products (when there are multiple in the products string) at any of the binding events. So, if a visitor views one product, then adds another to their cart, the same 'First' eVar will then apply to both products in the cart.