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According to the "Instances on Merchandising Variables" help document (Adobe Help), three things must be present to capture an instance against a merchandising variable:

  1. A binding event is set
  2. The Products variable is set
  3. The Merchandising Evar has a value

We've been instructed by Adobe to use an incrementing dummy product value (prodmerch#) in the product string, along with an event (event48 'Merchandising Instances), to capture instances against any Merchandising Evar. I've also seen this in use on other retail sites. However, there is no binding event present.

In this particular case, we are trying to count clickthroughs upon internal campaigns (event71). Internal campaigns are captured into Evar2, and typically result in a product listing page (before the prodView event). After a clicking upon an internal campaign, the resulting page is tagged as:

s.events = event71,event48
s.products = ;productmerch123
eVar2 = 123456

My question is this.

Since I want the Evar to bind to an actual SKU (not a dummy SKU), how can I meet all three criteria when using Conversion Variable Syntax?

Kookbot
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  • You say you want to change the SKU to the actual... so uh, what is stopping you here? Just change the `s.products` var to match the page's SKU. – MisterPhilip Feb 13 '15 at 07:04
  • Page is prior to a product view. That is why we are using Conversion Variable Syntax – Kookbot Feb 13 '15 at 07:07
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    The point of a merchandising eVar is that it will bind to **all** products (SKUs) that have the specified binding events. Assigning a dummy SKU on the first page is just to keep Nones from showing up in your reports. If you *really* wanna keep that "hack" out of the picture, then write logic to pop your other variables/events on the prodView page. – CrayonViolent Feb 13 '15 at 21:48
  • Also, I wonder why you even care about the instances metric.. IMO the real solution is to just not use the instances metric at all. – CrayonViolent Feb 13 '15 at 21:57
  • The goal of this question is to accomplish the incrementing of an event other than Orders, Revenue, Units for a Merchandising Variable. According to this post [Adam Greco](http://adam.webanalyticsdemystified.com/2014/08/04/advanced-conversion-syntax-merchandising/), the allocation switch for a Merchandising Variable is only useful for a 'tie-breaker' when the same product is bound later. When it comes to counting Events, he too suggests a 'fake' product. In his explanation, all three of the above do _not_ need to be met. – Kookbot Feb 13 '15 at 22:01
  • I found something enlightening in my Internal Search solution. I set: `s.events = event1,event48' `s.products = ;productmerch123` `eVar1 = my search term` In Admin config I have Event1 as a binding event for Evar1 (also set to First allocation) So, if Evar1 is bound to the fake product on the Search Results page, how is it that it _later_ allocates revenue to the real SKU purchased? – Kookbot Feb 13 '15 at 22:13
  • _I wonder why you even care about the instances metric_ We are trying to count 'Clickthroughs' against our Internal Campaigns, which also set 'Impressions' – Kookbot Feb 13 '15 at 22:18
  • Exactly. I expected that I would wind up using cookies and Product Syntax by populating the Vars/Events on the PDP. – Kookbot Feb 13 '15 at 22:20
  • *[..]how is it that it later allocates revenue to the real SKU purchased?* - Because that is what a merch eVar does. As mentioned, merch eVars attrib to **all** skus that have the specified binding events. That's the whole point of a merch evar vs. regular evar. The *allocation* of the merch eVar works same way as reg eVar, e.g. pop it with "foo" but then later pop it with "bar". If you have it set to most recent, only "bar" is going to show up in your reports. So merch eVars have that, and then in addition to that, it has the binding events for products. So it's two diff kinds of allocation – CrayonViolent Feb 13 '15 at 23:21
  • *We are trying to count 'Clickthroughs'* - Okay but if you are popping e71 along with your campaign code, can't you use e71 as the metric instead of instances? I'm not trying to undermine your efforts.. it's just that in my experience, the instances metric is rarely useful because it has too many quirks and caveats surrounding it (e.g. as you can see for yourself right now) and often leads to misleading numbers. I just see most people pretend that metric doesn't exist. – CrayonViolent Feb 13 '15 at 23:22
  • In any case.. I (re)read Adam Greco's post, and I'm having trouble understanding what your issue actually is.. your question: "*Since I want the Evar to bind to an actual SKU (not a dummy SKU), how can I meet all three criteria when using Conversion Variable Syntax?*" - The answer to this is, you can't. Only workaround is as mentioned, wait to pop your stuff on the prodView. But that's not ideal because if a visitor leaves before going to a prodView, you lose that data. So here's the real question I have for you.. why don't you want to just use a dummy product sku? – CrayonViolent Feb 14 '15 at 00:18
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/70888/discussion-between-kookbot-and-crayon-violent). – Kookbot Feb 14 '15 at 01:06

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