What is the best way, using SiteCatalyst, to track where a user abandoned a single-page form?

[mark_flanagan]

I have a business unit that wants to know where in the form the user abandoned. I thought at first that Adobe's Form Analysis Plugin was the way to go but they responded that it doesn't work well and doesn't provide much business value.

[ty_gavin]

Hi Mark, We do have a simple form abandonment tracking snippet of code we can provide. This is an Extension in Javascript form. It allows you to specify specific forms to track and you can report on "the last form field that had focus before the user clicked away from the page." Please contact your AM to get the code for this. Let us know if this is what you are looking for and we can make it a formal post of this code in the Community. To Adobe's response.. The data may show that it seems random or it's not clear what to do with the fact that field 12 has the same last-field-focus rate as field 5. So there may be better strategies for increasing conversion. One approach is to A/B test out a few forms and then just use a Funnel report to see which form has the highest "make it to the next step" rate. Another idea is to build in "utag.link" tracking calls into your form logic to report errors. For example, in your form validation logic, send a tracking request for each error message you display. utag.link( { form_name : "registration", event_name : "form-error", form_field : "phone number", form_error_message : "Bogus phone number entered" } ); (You would then map these values to s.props and eVars of course.)

[mark_flanagan]

Thanks Ty. I would be interested in seeing the Javascript Extension that tracks abandonment. Not sure who my AM is - who could I contact to figure that out? A/B testing multiple forms sounds like a good option as well. Depending upon the business's reaction, we might pursue it. Finally, if I understand you correctly, utag.link option appears to be something that would track users who were erroring out rather than abandoning. Right?

[ty_gavin]

Correct. This is a different approach. You would then segment on certain errors to see if: "Those who see this error are less likely to make it through the registration process." If you find that those who see the "fake phone number" error are less likely to complete the form, you would consider removing this field or removing this as a required field. I'll see if I can have your Account Manager contact you. :-)

[mark_flanagan]

Thanks!

[jonathan_kay]

Hi Mark I tend to pass different variables each time the form is submitted so I can measure form attempts in micro detail - a different approach to yours which I would use 'as well as'. Basically: - each form submission generates a new server call with a unique pageName value; eg including "...attempt_1", 2 n etc - pass the number of errors in to a variable - pass the fields throwing errors in to a variable; eg "title", "email" etc - set up pathing etc on the above, pass to eVars, Props and Events as appriopriate etc So I can see that people tried a form on average 3 times, the average numbers of errors was 2 and the most common error fields were 'email' and 'dob' and combinations thereof. Be wary about field data tracking if the page isn't submitted and the user hasn't opted-in / out? Are you passing to any system all field data, personal data, data that you're are not allowed to process etc?

[psurch]

Is it possible to get this script? I am trying to do the same thing. I have captured errors and successes but client still would like to know last field they filled out before ditching the page. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[kathleen_jo]

Great question @psurch. 

@mark_flanagan and @jonathan_kay do you feel like sharing some of your code with @psurch? Maybe, kind of, sort of? :-)

[ebenitez19]

I would also like this script for form abandonment. Can we add it as an extention in the marketplace?