Person
A person is the human behind a set of visits and events, recognised across visits so their history reads as one story.
Page-based analytics counts visits and pageviews. People-based analytics groups those visits by the human who made them, so a report can say how many people came, how many came back and how many bought. That is the difference between knowing a channel sent 400 visits and knowing it sent 90 people, of whom 12 became customers.
To group visits, a tool has to recognise a returning visitor. It keeps a random identifier in the browser, often only after the visitor agrees, and links that identifier to an account when the person signs in. The sign-in is what joins visits from different devices into one history.
In MIRA FIVE
The person is the centre of the product. Visitors who consent are followed as people across visits, and identify(userId) on sign-in links their history. People lists everyone, with views for customers, known people and high intent, plus your saved segments. Each person has a page with their identity, devices, first touch, every visit with its events, key pages, goals and traits.
Example
Emil Becker is a customer of the Acme Shop, first seen 11 days ago through an Instagram ad. Emil then clicked the newsletter, came back through Google search and bought for €328. Emil’s page shows those visits in order.