Subscription Cortex Conversions

Subscription Cortex is able to keep track of two distinct types of conversions

1. Subscription conversions
2. Order conversions

It's important to understand the differences between each type of conversion and also your billing practices in order to decide what metric you should track for your email reporting. In this article we'll go through the following items:

1. Understanding email attribution
2. Subscription conversions vs order conversions

Understanding Email Attribution

When discussing email revenue, it's important to understand attribution. This is the action of regarding revenue as being caused by an email. In other words the email is responsible for the revenue or subscription sign up. In order for this to be the case you, as the marketer, must determine if it's appropriate to utilize a click attribution or an open attribution. Then we must determine how long of an attribution window to allow. Cortex utilizes a Click + 5 attribution by default. This means that the user clicked the email and then converted within 5 days of clicking an email. Here are some things to take into consideration for your attribution settings.

You may be a click attribution if . . .

• You populate product recommendations in your emails
• You utilize curated images of products in your emails
• You consistently target users based on their past behavior
• Your product is based on individual taste or style

You may be an open attribution if . . .

• Your product is a service
• Your product is not composed of individual items that a user must "like"
• Your product marketing is educational over product focused

Determining your attribution window is a little more difficult. You should take into account both the price of your item and the time that it takes for the average user to make a purchase. Have a discussion with your CSM to determine what the right attribution model is for your business.

Subscription conversions vs order conversions

If you haven't read the "Understanding the Sub Cortex Data Structure" article, now would be a good time to do that, as we will reference specific items discussed in that article.

Once you have determined your attribution model (action + window) you'll be able to understand how a conversion is logged. We'll go through each type of conversion and the steps and data actions that cause a conversion to be attributed.

Subscription conversions

New Subscribers

A subscription conversion is what happens when a lead becomes a customer that signs up for your subscription product. The process of recording an email conversion is as follows:

1. A user/lead receives an email.
2. The user/lead either clicks or opens the email. (depending on the attribution model selected above)
3. The user then completes the subscription sign up process within the attribution window. (as decided upon above)

The data flow looks like this:

Email Captured and entered into users table --> Email is sent to user --> User Clicks or Opens Email --> User Completes Sign Up for Subscription Product --> Entry is added into User_subscriptions table
--> Conversion is logged

The action of the user being entered into the subscription table causes the subscription conversion to be recorded. Both of these events should be timestamped separately, when the action occurs, in order to ensure accurate reporting.

The only data point that affects this conversion is the change from a user being present in ONLY the Users table, to being present in BOTH tables.

Previously churned subscribers

In the event that a user churns and then comes back to becoming an active subscriber, a subscription conversion will be logged. The process of recording a subscription conversion for a churned user is as follows:

1. The user is marked with the Churned flag in the User_subscriptions table.
2. This activates the user to be placed into the Churned stage and subsequently into the acquisition stages.
3. User receives a churned or other acquisition stage email.
4. The user either clicks or opens the email. (depending on the attribution model selected above)
5. The user then reactivates their subscription within the attribution window. (as decided upon above)
6. A conversion is logged.

The data flow looks like this:

User is marked with the Churned flag in the user_subscriptions table --> Email is sent to user --> User Clicks or Opens Email --> User reactivates their subscription --> A new entry is created in the User_subscriptions table with a new start date --> Conversion is logged

It's important to note that the two subscriptions are recorded with two separate records in order to calculate average churn time and average subscription length.

Trial subscribers

In the event that a user signs up for a trial subscription and successfully becomes an active subscriber, a subscription conversion will be logged. The process of recording a subscription conversion for a trial user is as follows:

1. The user is marked with the trial flag in the User_subscriptions table.
2. This tells Cortex that the user is still in the acquisition stages, because they have not become a true subscriber.
3. User receives an acquisition stage email.
4. The user either clicks or opens the email. (depending on the attribution model selected above)
5. The user then becomes a paying subscriber, whether through auto-enrollment or on the action of the user becoming a subscriber within the attribution window. (as decided upon above)
6. A conversion is logged.

The data flow looks like this:

User is marked with the trial flag in the User_subscriptions table --> Email is sent to user --> User Clicks or Opens Email --> User activates their subscription --> Entry is updated in the User_subscriptions table, and the trial flag is set to 0 --> Conversion is logged

Order conversions

An order conversion is based on the orders files that are transferred to Retention Science on a daily basis. It utilizes the same attribution model and window as your subscription conversions unless you've requested it to be different. Order conversions do not differentiate between a subscription order or a one-time purchase. Some questions to ask, in order to help understand order conversions are:

• Does every subscriber get billed on the same day?
• Are subscribers billed based on their sign-up date?
• Do subscribers need to take an action in order to be billed?
• Can subscribers and non-subscribers order items outside of the standard subscription cadence?

The answers to these questions will help you understand how an order conversion is recorded. We'll go through two concrete use cases to illustrate some of the differences.

Subscribers all billed on the same day

In the data structure each subscription charge or order is logged in the orders file. If each order is placed at the same time, an email that is sent within the attribution window and before the billing date will see a large spike in order conversions. This is because every user that takes an action (click/open) on the email during that window will have their order attributed to that email.

The process of recording an order conversion for a subscription boxes where the users are all billed on the same day is as follows:

1. An email is sent to a current subscriber, via retention stages or through promotional marketer send
2. The user either clicks or opens the email (depending on the attribution model selected above)
3. A subscription order is billed within the attribution window
4. An order conversion is logged

The data flow looks like this:

User has an active subscription in the user_subscriptions table --> Email is sent to user --> User Clicks or Opens Email --> User is billed for their active subscription within the attribution window --> Orders table logs an order --> an order conversion is logged

The important thing to note is that the order conversions are all based on when a user is billed for the subscription box. 

Subscribers and/or leads purchase single items

These are items that are not included in the subscription box, but can be added to a cart and purchased outside of the subscription order. If you have these types of items, using order conversions will be beneficial to understand how the triggered stages are performing. It will also allow you to track an increase in AOV which would indicate more add on items and/or upsell products.

The process of recording an order conversion for a non-subscription based item are as follows:

1. An email is sent to a current subscriber or lead, via any Cortex sends - this includes item triggers such as New Arrivals.
2. The user either clicks or opens the email. (depending on the attribution model selected above)
3. An order is placed for a one-time product.
4. An order conversion is logged.

The data flow looks like this:

Email is sent to user or lead --> User Clicks or Opens Email --> User is billed for this one-time item within the attribution window --> Orders table logs an order --> an order conversion is logged

The important thing to note here is it allows marketers to see the efficacy of one-time, "upsell" items, and target strategies around increasing the AOV by marketing add on or one-time purchase items.

If you have additional questions please discuss with your CSM or send an email to help@retentionscience.com.