I need to design a robust tracking plan for Mixpanel to accurately measure the conversion rate of a funnel from a landing page view to a server-side sign-up event.
Here is the user flow and technical context:
- 1.
Entry Point: Users land on a page, for example, /landing. This page is part of an A/B test, so users will be routed to either Variant A (/landing/a) or Variant B (/landing/b).
- 2.
Client-Side Event: When the landing page loads, a “Viewed Landing Page” event should be tracked from the user’s browser (client-side).
- 3.
Action: The user fills out a sign-up form and submits it.
- 4.
Server-Side Event: The form submission is processed by our server. If the sign-up is successful, our backend triggers a “Signed Up” event. This event is tracked from the server, not the browser.
The Core Challenge:
The “Viewed Landing Page” event is client-side and is initially associated with an anonymous user. The “Signed Up” event is server-side. I need to ensure that Mixpanel can correctly attribute the server-side “Signed Up” event to the same user who performed the client-side “Viewed Landing Page” event, creating a seamless user journey for funnel analysis.
Please provide a detailed, step-by-step guide that answers the following questions:
- 1.
User Identification Strategy: What is the best practice for managing user identity in this flow? Explain how to handle the distinct_id from the anonymous client-side session and correctly link it to the user after they sign up. Should I use mixpanel.alias(), mixpanel.identify(), or both? And when?
- 2.
A/B Test Tracking: How should I structure the events and properties to effectively track the performance of Variant A versus Variant B? Is it better to use two different event names (e.g., “Viewed Landing Page A”) or one event name (“Viewed Landing Page”) with a property (e.g., "Experiment Variant": "A")?
- 3.
Client-Side Implementation Plan:
What specific Mixpanel event should be tracked when the landing page loads?
What properties must this event include to capture the A/B test information?
How do I get the client’s distinct_id and pass it to my server during the sign-up form submission?
- 4.
Server-Side Implementation Plan:
When the server receives the sign-up request (along with the distinct_id from the client), what is the sequence of Mixpanel calls it should make?
Please detail how to fire the “Signed Up” event using the server-side library, ensuring it’s linked to the correct user.
- 5.
Building the Funnel in Mixpanel:
Once this tracking is implemented, how do I configure a Funnel report in the Mixpanel UI?
How can I use the report’s “breakdown” feature to directly compare the conversion rates of Variant A and Variant B in a single view?
The final output should be a complete guide that a developer could follow to implement this tracking correctly from end to end. kapa.ai
