Understanding People, Events, and Properties within Kissmetrics

The Kissmetrics data model is comprised of three components: people, events, and properties. Understanding these concepts is vital to being able to analyze the data you are collecting. A person is our representation of a user visiting your site. A person can perform events. And properties help describe both events and people.

What are people?

People are the visitors on your sites. A person in Kissmetrics represents the physical person behind the computer that came to view your blog, website or app.

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To understand how people are identified within Kissmetrics, take a look at here.

What are events?

Events are the actions that your users are taking on your site or within your app.

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If you are using JavaScript to track on your site, you will automatically track some events, including:

Event Name

Description

Visited Site

The event will be triggered upon each visit to the site (with up to a 30-minute window of inactivity accounted for before re-firing another Visited Site event)

Search Engine Hit

The event will be triggered upon arriving to the site from a search engine

Ad Campaign Hit

The event will be triggered from any ad campaign tagged with UTM parameters, or any Adwords campaign.

The automatically tracked events are a great start but you will also want to track your own. Some examples are:

Event Name

Description

Signed Up

This event will be triggered when a visitor completes the sign-up

Logged in

The event will be triggered any time a visitor logs into your site or application

Completed check out

This event will be triggered when a visitor completes the checkout process

Subscribed to newsletter

This event will be triggered when a visitor subscribes to your newsletter

What are properties?

Properties are additional bits of information describing your users and their actions. By using properties you are able to segment reports and dive deeper into your data.

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Properties are passed as key-value pairs.

If you are using JavaScript to track on your site, you will automatically track some properties, including:

Property Name

Description

Property Value Example

Customer ID

the customer's unique identifier

abc123=

Campaign Source/medium/name

When a link directing to your site is using UTM parameters

Linkedin

Referrer

The URL that the visitor came from

www.example.com/blog/post1

KM Landing Page

The first page a user visited at the start of a session

www.kissmetricshq.com

KM Returning

Whether the user is new or returning

Returning

KM Device Type

This is the device being used by the user

Computer vs Smartphone vs Tablet

KM Device Category

The type of device the user is operating

Computer vs Mobile

KM Screen Resolution

The size of the user's screen

1280x800

KM Operating System

The operating system of the above device

Mac OS X

KM Operating System Version

The version of the above operating system

Mac OS X 10.11.6

KM Browser

This is the browser that is being used by the user

Safari

KM Browser Version

The browser and version the user is running

Safari 8.1

KM City

The city from where the user is visiting your site

San Francisco

KM Region

The state or region from where the user is visiting your site

California

KM Country

The country from where the user is visiting your site

United States

KM Continent

This is the Continent from where the user is visiting your site

North America

These starter properties are helpful, but you will also want to track your own. Some examples are:

Property Name

Description

Property Value Example

Product Viewed Name

The name of the product the user viewed

Leather Notebook

Promo Code Used

The promo code that was used during checkout

SUMMERSALE

Video Played Name

The name of the video that was watched by the user

Beginners Guide

Example

Now that you understand these concepts separately, let’s see how they all work together.

Janet is a first-time visitor to your e-commerce site. She originally arrived at the site from a post she saw on a fashion blog. While she was on your site, she viewed 2 dresses, added 1 to her shopping cart, created an account and ultimately left without buying anything.

In this scenario, who is the person? What are the events? And what properties should be passed?

Person

Events

Properties

Janet

Visited Site

KM Returning: No

Viewed Product

Product: Red Dress

Viewed Product

Product: White+Gold Dress

Added to Cart

Product: White+Gold Dress

Signed Up

Name: Janet
Email: [email protected]

Next Steps

Once you understand these concepts and which events you will want to track, you will need to set them up. There are a few different methods to do so, you can get started with the Event Manager or the JavaScript Library.