Introduction to Tracking

Tracking provides Distil with a real-time stream of detailed information about customer interactions with digital platforms, usually websites, and helps answer key questions such as “which marketing channels are driving reservations?”

It tracks interactions such as which pages users visit, which marketing touchpoints they were referred by, and the reservations and purchases they make. This information is crucial for use in marketing personalisation, menu and experience development, customer retention and all other data-driven decision-making. 

By leveraging customer insights, it’s possible to enhance the overall customer experience, increase reservations, and grow revenue.

How It Works

Two small pieces of JavaScript code are added to a website or app. These code snippets send information to Distil whenever a user performs one of the tracked actions (more on this later).

This code sends JSON data packets to Distil. These packets contain information about Customers, Products, Purchase History, Content viewed, and any events configured for tracking. Read more about setting up the Distil Tracking Code here.

Gaining full value from Tracking insights relies on identifying a user to your website, app or store as a specific Customer, and tracking their behaviour in the period leading up to purchase or reservation. Distil is constantly working in the background to identify Customers, and while this is largely automatic, the process can be improved - read more in our article on Identifying Customers.

User Consent

The first part of the Dist tracking code does not collect any personally identifiable information, and is deployed before any cookie consent banner. It uses local storage in a user’s browser to store tokens that are called IF a user subsequently accepts cookies, which is when the second part of the Distil tracking code is deployed.  

We recommend that the cookie consent is respected when deploying the Distil tracking code, and that users should have the option to decline tracking. Note: this does not constitute legal advice. Every Distil customer is responsible for their own installation of the Distil tracking code and their own legal compliance.

Options for Setting Up Tracking

All Distil Tracking uses the JavaScript code described in Tracking Setup: Distil Tracking Code. Distil Tracking can be implemented wherever JavaScript can be used, including websites and apps.

Distil Tracking can be set up in the following ways:

• Using Google Tag Manager (GTM). This may be the preferred option where Google Analytics is already in use.
• Adding the Distil JavaScript tracking code directly to a website or app.

Setting up Distil Tracking requires some technical knowledge, however, everything is documented in this collection of articles: 

• Tracking Setup: Distil Tracking Code
• Tracking: URL Identification Token
• Tracking Setup: Google Tag Manager
• How to use UTMs for Marketing Attribution in Distil

After Tracking has been set up, Tracking appears as a Data Source tab in the Data Panel within Customer Data Studio.

Types of Tracked Events

You can find more detail on the code behind these events in our article on Distil Tracking Code.

Customer

When someone visits your store or app, their anonymous browsing history is captured by Distil. When this visitor identifies themselves explicitly, by either logging in or filling in a form with personal details, Distil links all their previous history as an anonymous visitor to the new identity, and makes this data available within Distil.

Read more about this in our article on Tracking: Identifying Customers.

Product Viewed

Whenever a visitor views a specific product on your website, Distil captures Tracking data for both the visitor and the product being viewed.

Purchase Made

You've made a sale! Distil captures a range of information about the order and also the Customer who made the purchase.

Content Viewed

By tracking the content that your Customers read, you can gain insights into the types of information, articles, blog posts, product descriptions, or guides that resonate with your target audience and drive engagement.

Event Tracking

In addition to the standard event types described above, Distil has the flexibility to track any event that can be triggered by JavaScript code. You can find more detail in our article on Distil Tracking Code.