I was going to move on to the next step of my journey, replacing more plugins with Dynamic Tag Management features when I came across and article written by Richard Hayes, that I really want you to read, especially if you are a developer and not an analyst or marketer. Read this: What does a … Continue reading What does a Digital Analytics department do?
Category: Opinion
Articles that are less technical and more opinionated
Data Elements vs Data Layer
Have you used a Tag Management system yet? And a Data Layer? Both are good ideas in our business, for a variety of reasons. The one I think is most relevant in this context here is that defining a Data Layer makes a lot of requirements, possibilities, assumptions and limitations explicit. I think in a … Continue reading Data Elements vs Data Layer
TDD for Analytics, please
Let me throw out an idea here. Given that you are a developer, I hope you can a) appreciate the idea and b) help me develop it into something that works. The idea is to use test-driven development for Analytics or maybe for digital marketing tagging in general. Motivation I recently attended a conference in … Continue reading TDD for Analytics, please
Implementation Phase is NOT Key
I published an article on my German-speaking blog last week about the implementation phase and how I think it is more than overrated. Feedback was interesting, so I think it makes sense to summarize it here as well. You - being a developer - might not need to be convinced, but you might want to … Continue reading Implementation Phase is NOT Key
Simplicity is Hard
This article is not about development as much as it is supposed to give you, the developer, a handle on a subject that should be dear to you: simplicity. You're a developer, right? You have seen what happens when things are done as simply as possible: less bugs, easier maintenance — beauty emerges. It's the … Continue reading Simplicity is Hard
2013
2013 draws to a close, for some of you it ends in just a couple of hours. Time to look back and maybe think about what 2014 will be like? Nope, everybody does that. Instead, I'll tell you a bit about who I am and why I am doing this. I started this blog in … Continue reading 2013
s_gi() and Tracking Links
Today we'll discuss one of the big questions of all times: when tracking links or actions, is it necessary to call s_gi()? If you don't know what I'm talking about, go and read the article on Tracking Links & Action while I wait. At the heart of it is this piece of code: <script type="text/javascript"> … Continue reading s_gi() and Tracking Links
“Data Layer” Tips
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
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”!
Versioning Your Tracking
Here comes a good idea: make sure your s_code.js file has a version! There are three parts to this tip: Put the s_code.js file into your revision control system. Make sure the file has a version on the URL. Track the version of the file into Adobe Analytics. Let's go into these one by one. … Continue reading Versioning Your Tracking
