Reporting & Analytics

datavertigo
Participant

Are right-clicks counted as clicks?

When a user right-clicks on a link and opens in a new window or tab, how is that measured in Hubspot?

  • What gets populated in the original source for the contact?
  • Are each opened window/tab counted toward the same session? 
  • This may not impact CTAs since they each have UTM parameters, but what about in-line links or other links on the page, especially navigation?

I could not find any language in the documentation I was finding about how right-clicking is measured. The Events API does not mention it as an example of a custom event. CTA performance didn't mention it. Cookies do a good job explaining CTA tracking, and maybe a little about the session overall, but not how pathways or conversions are attributed to right-clicking.

 

I will likely have more questions depending on the answers to these, but I appreciate being able to start the discussion!

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4 Replies 4
datavertigo
Participant

Are right-clicks counted as clicks?

There are implications for how clicks and right-clicks are being measured, why it's important, and how it impacts designers, UX managers, client expectations, and agency insights.

 

When analyzing the performance of content within Hubspot, no conclusions can be drawn about the design components of that asset with respect to clicks or click-through rates, unless that component is the only thing on that asset with that particular link. In other words, if you have more than one component (e.g. a link, a linked image, navigation) on an asset (e.g. a webpage, landing page) that links to the same thing, and a user clicks on either one, you don't actually know which thing they clicked on to get to that page; all you know is that they went from one asset to the next. This extends to include any and all links in the footer and navigation of a page. It reinforces the need to follow best practices for Landing Pages not having navigation, as well as only changing one thing for Conversion Rate Optimization or A/B Testing. 

 

For example: let's say you build a webpage template for a page that links to your Contact page, About page, and say a high-converting landing page, and that's in some sort of banner running along the bottom of the content. Then you use that same template for several pages you've built. In the content of the page you link to the contact page a couple of times, you reference the landing page once in the copy, and the about page is linked on an image...the reporting won't show you what actually brought that user to those pages. You will see they came from the asset (page) in question, but you will not see which component (link, image) they clicked on (unless it's a CTA). 

 

When an agency has to spend time and resources defending and reporting on design assets, that's a very important note to make to the client, especially when they are expecting results and paying the invoices. So the agency will see performance, make assumptions, and apply those designs and templates across multiple campaigns and now someone there is having to overanalyze everything, when really the issue is that they don't know exactly what is working or not working because all you see is one step to the next, not how they get there.

 

So take this reality and apply it to users who right-click. Again, we can't measure or know who is right-clicking and who is left-clicking.

 

As an agency, you create these massive strategic documents about the buyer's journey. And if you're paying attention to the data and analytics and mapping that journey to a funnel of sorts, and you do this for each campaign or major initiative, and you have teams of designers having to report upon and defend design decisions to the client, and you have performance metrics to hit...wouldn't it be important to know the flow that users take from asset to asset? 

 

Let's say you build a massive pillar page and it costs the client a good portion of their budget. That pillar page links to dozens of resources throughout the website. We don't know, but let's just pretend that half of the users are right-clicking the links on the page. They now have 5 tabs open, all linking out from that pillar page. Hubspot tracks that flow from the pillar to those pages. Now the user consumes the content on three of the tabs, but doesn't convert. All five pages are now bounced, and performance for those pages go down, even though that user never consumed the content. You have another user that looks at the content from the fifth tab that user opened and converts. Think about this at scale. You have no idea what content a user is consuming before they decide to convert if they are right-clicking. Maybe one of those pages was offputting, but you can't know which one killed the potential. Or maybe a page that converts is only converting because another page is being visited beforehand, but you can't see that either. You have no idea how parts of that strategy are performing because pages are being registered as viewed even if the user actually never sees the content. 

 

My point is that the documentation and the reality of how these things are measured for reporting is clear, but the methods that agencies use to interpret that data is flawed in very important ways; how the data is presented in Hubspot is misleading for design and UX experts. This is an issue for small or medium-sized businesses that don't have a great volume of users consuming their content and efficiency matters greatly. This is an issue for enterprises who make decisions at scale, and these assumptions now impact a large majority of assets and campaigns. 

 

Does it matter? Just food for thought.

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karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Are right-clicks counted as clicks?

Hi @datavertigo,

 

I would be very surprised if a page opened through right click > open new tab/window would be treated any differently by HubSpot website traffic tracking than a regular left click. The type of click isn't recorded, only the result: the actual view of the page that the link is directing to. That's due to how the HubSpot tracking code works: The code loads with the page.

 

For sessions, there wouldn't be any difference either, as far as I know, unless the link is opened in a private tab or window.

 

Regarding the original source, again right or left click wouldn't make a difference. HubSpot will store the utm parameters on the contact record, if the contact has accepted website cookies and fills out a form.

 

Hope this helps!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

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datavertigo
Participant

Are right-clicks counted as clicks?

So perhaps my main questions are around UX and CRO decisions. How is the performance of non-CTA links, buttons and navigation measured? 

 

For example, let's say a card-style, related-products module is used that links to individual product pages. If 100 people visit a particular page with this module on it, and 9 people right-click the suggested products and 1 person left-clicks, then would I see a 10% CTR on that module or 1%? Maybe the reporting shows the user went from one page to the other, but it doesn't tell me by what means unless the click is measured on the element clicked. Or am I off base?

 

If you're saying that, regardless if a user clicks or right-clicks, that both are logged as clicks, then there is no issue. But I can't find anywhere in the Hubspot docs that right-clicks are logged at all.

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karstenkoehler
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Are right-clicks counted as clicks?

Hi @datavertigo,

 

A standalone right click (not followed by any action such as "Open in new tab") wouldn't be registered at all by the HubSpot tracking code. Once a tab or window is opened however, it's all the same to the HubSpot tracking code. A page view is a page view.

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.