How a result is counted
A result is only as good as the rule that counts it. Moonbrush writes the rule down before a campaign launches and counts the same way every night.
When an inquiry counts
Section titled “When an inquiry counts”- Only on visible acceptance. An inquiry counts only when the client’s own form system visibly accepts the submission. Pressing the button is not enough.
- Once per session. Each form counts at most once per browser session.
- Refusals are named. When the form system refuses a submission, the refusal is recorded as a named non-result with its reason, not dropped.
- Unknowns are faults, not zeros. Anything the counter does not recognize becomes a named setup fault, so a broken install shows up as a fault rather than as a quiet week.
What is set aside
Section titled “What is set aside”- Test traffic is marked and counted separately from real traffic.
- Automation browsers are excluded, and the share of automated traffic is counted each night.
- Excluded rows are counted, never deleted. Anyone can see how many were set aside and why.
“Did it from our ads”
Section titled ““Did it from our ads””This is the one number an Outcome leads with. It counts browsers that arrived on the client’s site through an ad link and then completed the Outcome, attributed to the latest arrival from the same browser carrying the same audience-group code, within a fixed click window.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Came through | Arrived on the client’s site through an ad link |
| Did it from our ads | Came through, then completed the Outcome within the window |
| Did it on their site | Completed the Outcome on the site, whatever brought them there |
A person who was sent in a list but shows no click is never counted as doing it from the ads. People who saw an ad without clicking are not counted.
This is a counting rule, not an estimate of effect. Rules that assign a result to the latest ad share the limits of last-touch attribution (Berman, 2018), which is why reports call it response. See research note 7.
A result marks a person, it never adds one
Section titled “A result marks a person, it never adds one”Results attach to people already in the graph, by deterministic matching. A result never adds a person to the graph, and nothing is matched by IP address or device. See Identity resolution.
Fixed before launch
Section titled “Fixed before launch”Before launch, the Outcome sets what counts, how a result is attributed, and its target: how many, by when, at what cost each. That target is the bar the campaign is judged against. Fixing the rules before the data exist applies the principle behind preregistering a study (Nosek et al., 2018).