When monitoring website activity, it's important to understand not only when visitors engage with your content but also when they choose not to complete certain actions. This is where the 'Visitor Bounce Event' comes into play. Salespanel's tracking code offers insights into visitor behavior, including instances when a visitor bounces from a form. Let's explore what this means and how it can inform your marketing strategies.
What is a Visitor Bounce Event?
A Visitor Bounce Event occurs when a lead or potential customer begins to fill out a form on your website but decides to leave before completing the submission. This event is crucial for understanding at which point potential leads are dropping off and what might be causing it.
How Salespanel Detects Bounce Events:
Salespanel is designed to capture a lead's email address as soon as they show intent to submit a form—often while they are transitioning between fields within the form. At least, this is the current default behavior of the tracking. It's completely configuration based on your data governance policies, please read: https://support.salespanel.io/hc/en-us/articles/17176894679065-Configuring-Salespanel-tracking-to-capture-valid-leads-on-form-validations
Now, if the visitor navigates away from the page or closes the tab before submitting the form, Salespanel detects this as a bounce.
Auto capture versus Capture only on submit
Understanding 'Visitor Bounce' event within the context of two different tracking configurations, Auto Capture (Greedy) and Capture Only on Submit, is essential for interpreting user behavior and optimizing form design and lead capture strategy.
Auto Capture (Greedy Mode)
In Greedy Mode, Salespanel is set to automatically capture lead email identifer as soon as the user begins interacting with the form, particularly when the email address field is engaged with. Here’s how the 'Visitor Bounce' event functions under this mode:
- When a Visitor Bounces: Even if the visitor does not complete the form, the email address is captured the moment they interact with the email field.
- Event Tracking: Salespanel logs this interaction as a 'Visitor Bounce' event, providing insights into how far the visitor got in the form before exiting.
- Benefits: This mode is beneficial for marketers who wish to follow up with visitors who showed initial interest but did not complete the form.
Capture Only on Submit
Conversely, the Capture Only on Submit configuration requires the visitor to fully complete and submit the form for their details to be captured. Here's the behavior under this setting:
(Also read: https://support.salespanel.io/hc/en-us/articles/17176894679065-Configuring-Salespanel-tracking-to-capture-valid-leads-on-form-validations)
- When a Visitor Bounces: If a visitor starts to fill out the form but leaves before hitting submit, no email id is captured.
- Event Tracking: A 'Visitor Bounce' event is still logged to indicate a form was engaged with but not completed; however, the identity of the visitor remains unknown.
- Benefits: This setting is ideal for those who prioritize capturing only fully qualified leads and ensuring the highest level of data relevance and compliance.
Both configurations offer unique advantages and can be tailored to different marketing strategies and data governance requirements. Please let us know if you need more help with this.
Activating Form Bounce Tracking in Salespanel
By default, the Salespanel SDK does not track form bounce events. However, you can easily enable this feature to gain insights into when visitors start filling out forms on your site but leave before submitting them. Enabling this functionality allows you to understand user behavior better and optimize your forms for higher conversion rates.
Enabling Form Bounce Tracking
To activate form bounce tracking, you need to add a specific setting to your window.salespanelSettings configuration. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do this:
- Locate the Salespanel Tracking Code: First, ensure that the Salespanel tracking code is installed on your website or landing page. This code is crucial as it tracks all visitors in real-time from various channels such as advertising, newsletters, emails, referral websites, and direct visits.
- Modify the window.salespanelSettings Configuration: To enable form bounce tracking, you'll need to add the "sp_track_form_bounces": true setting to your window.salespanelSettings object. This setting is not enabled by default, so adding it manually is necessary to start capturing form bounce events.
- Add the Setting to Your Existing Configuration: Incorporate the bounce tracking setting into your existing Salespanel configuration block in your site’s HTML. Here is an example of how to do it:
<script>
window.salespanelSettings = {
"sp_automatic_lead_capture": true, // Existing setting
"sp_lead_capture_on_submit": false, // Existing setting
"sp_track_form_bounces": true // Add this line to enable bounce tracking
};
</script>Testing Your Configuration
After updating your settings, it's essential to test the changes to ensure that everything is working correctly:
- Test in Incognito/Private Mode: Open an incognito or private browser window to test the new configuration. This approach ensures that your session starts fresh, without any prior history or cache that might affect the behavior of the tracking code.
- Verify Bounce Tracking: Start filling out a form on your site and then navigate away or close the browser tab before submitting. Check your Salespanel real-time dashboard to see if the bounce event is captured as expected.
Limitations of Form Bounce Tracking in Salespanel
While form bounce tracking can provide valuable insights into user behavior on your website, there are certain limitations and conditions under which this tracking is effective. Understanding these nuances will help you better interpret the data and refine your strategies accordingly.
Requirements for Tracking Form Bounces
- Form Submission Trigger: For Salespanel to accurately track form bounces, your <form> elements must be properly configured to trigger a submit event. This can be achieved either through a form submission via a <button> or <input type="submit"> tagged with keywords that Salespanel recognizes as submission triggers, such as 'Checkout', 'Purchase', or 'Submit'.
Handling of Submission Failures
- Server-Side Failures: If a form submission fails due to server-side issues, Salespanel may not treat this as a bounce if the submit event has been successfully captured. This is because, from the client's perspective, the form submission attempt was made, even if the server later rejects it.
Event Timing and Session Handling
- Abandonment vs. Completion in Sessions: It's important to note that Salespanel tracks each instance of form abandonment in a session, regardless of whether the form is eventually completed later in the same session or in a subsequent session. This means that if a user abandons a form but returns and completes it after a session has ended, the abandonment will still be recorded in addition to the later completion.
By keeping these limitations in mind, you can effectively use Salespanel's form bounce tracking to gain insights while respecting user experience and regulatory requirements.
Please let us know if you need more help with this.