Unspecified Data
Sam O'Neill avatar
Written by Sam O'Neill
Updated over a week ago

Unspecified data is how we refer to ad-clicks and other metrics that AdCurve wasn't able to associate with an individual product ad. 

The data displayed in the unspecified row is a sum total of all the data we have that cannot be associated with a product, and could be from multiple products, orders or visits. 

Unspecified data is usually the result of one of three causes:

  • Ad-Clicks that don't lead to product pages

  • Products and Ads that are not in your shop catalogue

  • Tracking errors 


Ad-Clicks that don't lead to product pages:


Not all ads will necessarily bring the visitor to a product page. If you're running an Adwords Branding campaign to drive traffic to your home-page, text-ads for a product category on your shop, or a display banner for a sale, these ads will bring your visitors to a page that is not a product details page. 

You still have data associated with these visits, but AdCurve is not able to associate them with a particular product ad, so we show this data in Ad Management as "Unspecified".

Some channels such as Google Adwords Branding that only serves generic ads (no specific product ads) will almost always display all the available data as unspecified. However if you are seeing unspecified data for a channel that only serves specified product ads, it means either that the product has been removed from your shop, or that something has gone wrong with the tracking.


Products and Ads that are not in your shop catalogue


You may sometimes have some visits or data for products that have been removed from your shop catalogue, or products or services that you don't advertise with.

If for example you remove a product from your shop, but the date range selected in Ad Management still includes some information for that product from when it was active, AdCurve will try to link that data with the product. It can limit the actions available for the product in Ad Management.

If however AdCurve is not able to associate that data with the product, it will be displayed in the unspecified row.

Some shops may have items like delivery fees, warranties or service costs that can be added to a basket, but are not listed as a product in the shop catalogue. AdCurve cannot associate data for these items with a particular product, and so any available data will also be displayed in the unspecified row.



Tracking Errors


Another cause of unspecified data is where the tracking has failed to link the ad-click with a specific product in your shop. 

AdCurve primarily tracks ad-clicks using a product ID code that is added as a tracking parameter to the end of the product page URL. Some web-servers will sometimes cut this link short, resulting in the visitor still landing correctly on your product page, but without that visit being properly associated with the product in AdCurve. 

As a back-up, AdCurve can also track clicks on specific ads without this tracking parameter using tracking tags inside the AdCurve Tag Manager. If you're using a webshop platform such as Magento or Shopify, this will be automatically installed and configured on each product page in your shop.

If you have a stand-alone shop with a custom installation of AdCurve, incorrect configuration of the tag manager can also cause tracking errors if your shop or product IDs are not set up correctly. If the tag manager is not configured correctly, you would not see any product related metrics, but would see all your data grouped into a single unspecified row.

If you believe you may be having an issue with tag manager configuration on a custom-installation, please contact AdCurve support so that we can provide further assistance.


If you need any further support with Unspecified Data, or if something is missing from our article, please don't hesitate to start a chat with us at any time using the Intercom button in the bottom right of your screen.

Did this answer your question?