How to find repeat visits from one device in Metrica
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This article does not find repeat visits from one device in Yandex Metrica. The checked guides have no report that groups visits by device. They do have another rule. A further click on the ad, inside a visit that is still open, does not become a new visit.
Why that pulls Direct clicks apart from Metrica visits is covered in why Direct clicks do not match Metrica visits. Here is the visit rule itself, and two things that are easy to mistake for a device.
Three clicks, one visit
A visit is a sequence of actions by one visitor on one counter: page views, external transitions, file downloads and goal calls. It ends when there is no activity. The default timeout is 30 minutes. The first transition from an ad system, Direct for example, is always its own visit. While it continues, further clicks on the ad do not become new visits. That is the Metrica glossary.
Say the ad was pressed at 12:00, 12:10 and 12:20. The pause is shorter than 30 minutes, and there was enough activity not to close the visit. Metrica has one visit, not three. The numbers are a worked example. They show the visit boundary, not the frequency of your campaigns.
Looking for the “repeat” as a second visit row inside this window is useless: the second and third clicks did not open a row. If you need the comparison with Direct’s click count, it is in the article on clicks and visits. Here it is enough not to count three presses as three devices.
The outline in a recording is an operating system, not an identity card
In a Webvisor recording the device outline distinguishes Android and iOS. That is the operating-system family in the player, not an identifier of the handset and not a list of repeat visits. Pause marks, goal marks and link-click marks do not add a name to that outline. How to read the recording itself is covered in how to look for bots in Webvisor.
The guide calls ClientId a random anonymous browser identifier and the most accurate identifier for offline data. That is a browser, not a device, and the checked pages do not describe it as a repeat-visits report. This article does not promise a grouping “all visits of this ClientId”. That step is not in the facts.
A repeat on one banner is something Direct may remove
Direct’s example of accidental invalid traffic is repeated unintentional clicks on one banner. That is a Direct filter decision, not a device report in Metrica. What Direct has classed as invalid is removed from the reports and not charged. What else lands in that bin is covered in invalid clicks.
The bins are easy to mix. Three clicks inside thirty minutes can be one visit by a living person. A repeat on a banner that Direct has already classed as accidental is not sitting in spend. Neither one signs a device.
A ban on a repeat entry, if one is set on the site, applies to an address on that site. The conditions for setting it are not in the public facts, and it is not a Metrica report by device. If the check gets no answer, the visit is let through. It does not count money.
What you can do with the facts that exist:
Count repeats on the ad inside 30 minutes as one visit, not as a pack of devices.
Do not take an Android or iOS outline in Webvisor for an identifier of the handset.
Do not look for ClientId in a repeat-visits report. That report is not in the facts.
Do not carry a repeat on one banner, already removed by Direct, into a device list.