Introduction

This article will take you through the process of onboarding when you get started with Marin.

Onboarding

This phase of onboarding covers steps necessary for managing campaigns and setting up reporting in Marin:

• Marin Client Account Setup - The Publisher Account Linking Wizard

Integration Configuration

This phase of an On-boarding covers steps necessary for tracking conversions and revenue:

• URL Builder Setup and URL Tagging - See The Marin URL Builder for specific steps for configuring URL Builder.
• URL Validation - Confirm that URLs meet requirements for keyword/creative level tracking. See Validate URLs for specifics on what to look out for.
• Setup Tracking ID Parser - See Setup Tracking ID Parser for specific steps for configuring the Tracking ID Parser.
• Setup Conversion Types - See Setting Up Conversion Types for specific steps for configuring Conversion Types

Data Integrity & Acceptance

One of the most critical steps during the onboarding process is ensuring your data is accurate; since performance and optimization decisions are based on these data points to be successful. Data Integrity is a combination of Quality Assurance (QA) and Data Validation.

Quality Assurance

This step is to confirm that tracking data is coming in as expected for each conversion type. We need to confirm that clicks and conversions can be attributed to a test tracking ID. If it’s not coming in as expected then we don’t move onto validation – we’re still in development and should be working under the assumption that we may request further changes to the site at this stage.

Confirm that revenue integration is working as expected:

• Validate URLs - See How to identify keywords with missing URLs or tracking for specific steps for identifying potential issues with URLs.

Data Validation

Once we confirm that the integration is working as expected we need to make sure that the data is coming in as expected across the board for a predetermined amount of time. This assumes that the code is in good and working shape so we can confirm that conversion data is coming in as expected across all campaigns or even down to the individual landing page level. During data validation we may find that some pages may not have click capture code in place but it should be a matter of pointing out gaps and not going back to the drawing board and reviewing the code.

There are many critical differences in the way different systems track web data and those differences drive dramatically different results. We have listed a number of these differences below:

• Last paid click vs. last click, first click, etc.
• Date of click vs. date of conversion.
• Many per click vs. one per click
• Order de-duping logic
• Scope of attributed channels.
• Time zone

For more details see Differences Between Tracking Methodologies.

See additional checklists for determining quality assurance.

Data Acceptance

Once your data has been thoroughly reviewed and is in line with your expectations, Marin will ask for you to confirm data acceptance before we transition to the Client Service Team.