Understanding Visitors and Identified Users (aka People)
Bento tracks two kinds of people on your site: anonymous visitors and identified users. This page explains the difference, how Bento links activity across devices, and what data each profile holds.
Visitors vs. Identified Users
A visitor is anyone who interacts with your site, whether they're anonymous or identified. You can update visitor data through Bento.js, external libraries, or the Bento APIs. When a visitor provides an email address, like when signing up for your newsletter, they become an identified user. Identified users can receive emails, be added to Flows, and are tracked across multiple devices. For example, when someone fills out a form on your site with their email, they transition from a visitor to an identified user.
Identified users are the metric to watch. Visitors are unlimited and don't affect billing.
Multi-Device Tracking
Bento tracks users across all their devices. As users log into your site on different devices, click email links, or fill out forms, Bento automatically links their devices together. Bento also ensures profiles aren't incorrectly merged (e.g. if two people share a computer).
If a user signs up on their phone and later visits from their laptop, Bento knows it's the same person and combines their activity.
User Attributes and Associations
Each user has attributes and associations linked to their profile.
The main user attributes are:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| The visitor's email address | |
| fields | Custom data you can add to a user |
| unsubscribed_at | Date the visitor unsubscribed from your emails |
And the key associations include:
| Association | Description |
|---|---|
| emails | Emails the visitor has received |
| ads | Ads shown to the visitor |
| products | Products the visitor purchased |
| events | Events triggered by the visitor |
| tags | Tags assigned to the visitor |
| flow sessions | Flow sessions triggered by the visitor |
| goals | Goals triggered by the visitor |
| devices | Devices used by the visitor |
From a user's profile you can see all the emails they received, the products they bought, and the goals they completed in one place. Use this data to debug delivery issues, build segments, and personalize campaigns.
If you have questions about visitors or identified users, ask in Discord.