I'd like you to read an article written by Josh West about TMS Best Practices: Get the Data Layer Right, in which he makes a case for having a dedicated mechanism for surfacing data (the "data layer"). Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? I like this quote: Developers are notorious (I speak from experience) for looking … Continue reading “Data Layer” Tips
Author: Jan Exner
German expat living in Switzerland (formerly UK and France). Consultant and member of the Multi-Solutions Group at Adobe, working with the Digital Marketing Suite. Father of 4 girls.
How to track Micro-Sites with Vanity URLs
Let's be constructive again. After telling you to say "no" and indulging in some scifi-geekery, I feel it is time to go back to solid technical advice. Let's look at micro sites with vanity URLs. Analysts usually treat them one of two ways: as a marketing channel — concentrating on how they bring traffic / … Continue reading How to track Micro-Sites with Vanity URLs
The “Star Trek Blue Print” for Web Analytics
I am currently watching all Star Trek episodes. I started with Next Generation, of course (you can now guess my age) and will go through DS9 next. I can already say that TNG is still my favourite part of Star Trek, by far. A lot of episodes could be a blue print for how web … Continue reading The “Star Trek Blue Print” for Web Analytics
Please Say “No”!
It is fair to say that Adobe Analytics offers a lot of choice. Whenever a business user or analyst is looking for specific data or wants to answer a question, there will be more than one way to do it. In fact, there will often be multiple ways of doing it, each with advantages and … Continue reading Please Say “No”!
Adobe Marketing Cloud APIs
I have "mentioned" the Reporting API before, a means of getting information out of Adobe analytics programmatically. There are of course some more APIs that allow you to automate tasks in the context of the Adobe Marketing Cloud. This post shall introduce the most important ones. You can also check out the official introduction on the Developer … Continue reading Adobe Marketing Cloud APIs
How Do I – Track Page Load
Let's begin our irregular series of articles explaining how to do things with a simple one: how do I track page loads? KPI(s) The underlying questions your friendly marketer is asking include: How many Visits and Visitors do I get (to a certain part of my site)? What are the most popular pages on our … Continue reading How Do I – Track Page Load
Redirect Tracking
While we're introducing different options to track, let me tell you about redirect tracking. Before I go into the technical details and explain how to implement it, let me explain what it is and what people use it for. Use Cases Say you want to track exit links, but you don't want to use Javascript … Continue reading Redirect Tracking
Tracking w/o Javascript
Almost all web analytics tools these days are tracking using Javascript in the browser, see the post about Basic Tracking. With Adobe Analytics, you have a couple of other possibilities to get data into the system. My colleague Brent Dykes has written a blog article on How to Get Data In and Out of SiteCatalyst … Continue reading Tracking w/o Javascript
Poll – Relevant Content?
Quick poll - do we provide relevant content? Please feel free to suggest topics in the comments!
Anomaly Detection using the Reporting API
While we're looking at the Reporting API and little-known features, let's use the new anomaly detection that was introduced in February 2013. Like real time reporting, it is currently only available in the Reporting API, giving developers a real edge! What is it? The Reporting API can now calculate upper and lower bounds for the … Continue reading Anomaly Detection using the Reporting API
Web Analytics for Developers 