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Tag: Adobe Analytics

Activity Conversions Use Case

This week, we had a client reach out to us with an interesting use case with one of their Activities in Adobe Target.

The Activity was a test in their cart targeted to visitors who were making their third visit to that location. Adobe Target profiles easily support targeting such an audience but the Analysts needed to only count purchases if they happened during the same session as that third visit.

This video highlights how you can use Adobe Target ‘events’ and data like Profile Attributes as Activity Goals and still have the data in Adobe Analytics via A4T.

Video Transcript

And screenshots of the “Primary Goal Configuration” to automate the flow of this data into Analytics:

Adobe Target Conversion Events in Adobe Analytics Workspace

Adobe Analytics Activity Conversions

MiaProva makes heavy use of Activity Conversions via Adobe Analytics and because of that, we have gotten quite a few questions about scenarios where it might not work given the timing of the clients side calls of Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics.

This post outlines a few test cases that we did to help our customers understand just how helpful this utility is and to encourage the use of this bonus success event from Adobe Target.

For those of you not familiar with Acstivity Conversions, think of it as a success metric or bonus metric that comes directly from Adobe Target and is fed into Adobe Analytics for analysis. The most common use of this bonus metric is using the Adobe Target VEC to track clicks on content. We also have many MiaProva customers that use Adobe Target Profiles combined with Target server calls (mboxes) as a metric as well. Since the Target Profile isn’t in Analytics (yet), this is a cool approach.

The Three Test cases

High level – Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics leverage both client-side and server-side components to bring you A4T. Adobe Target uses a server to server integration to port over Activity Impressions and Activity Conversions.  We validated this across three tests using an Adobe Target conversion metric and all three showed up in Analytics.  This includes a scenario where there is NO Analytics call after the Adobe Target success event.  

Adobe Target Conversion Events in Adobe Analytics Workspace

Test 1 – Adobe Target ‘clicked element’ success event via VEC with Adobe Analytics on next page

First test – A4T with an Adobe Target Clicked Element Conversion event (element was a link to another page on the same site with the same Analytics account in place – so there would be an Adobe Analytics page view call on that page).  Validated that click mbox call was taking place upon click but no analytics call until the second page loaded.

Findings:  Data from Target, Classic Analytics Reports, and Analytics Workspace is PERFECT aligned.  **In Analytics Workspace, you have to change the attribution model to “same touch” otherwise the data will be inflated BIG time.  

Unique VisitorsVisitsWorkplace Activity ImpressionsTarget ImpressionsAnalytics Reports Activity ImpressionWorkspace Activity ConversionsTarget ConversionsAnalytics Reports Activity Conversion
Activity Conversions in Adobe Workspace (Clicked Element Conversion)2628313131252525
Experience A1515171717141414
Experience B1113141414111111

Test 2 – Adobe Target conversion event ‘URL contains’ via VEC and FORM

Second test – Instead of using a Target Click Event, I used Target Conversion “URL contains X”.  This would guarantee an Analytics call would take place.  

Findings:  Data is PERFECT between Target, Analytics Reports, and Analytics Workspace.  

Unique VisitorsVisitsWorkplace Activity ImpressionsTarget ImpressionsAnalytics Reports Activity ImpressionWorkspace Activity ConversionsTarget ConversionsAnalytics Reports Activity Conversion
Activity Conversions in Adobe Workspace (URL Conversion)910292929666
Experience A66111111555
Experience B34181818111

Test 3 – Adobe Target VEC ‘clicked element’ success event with NO subsequent Adobe Analytics call


Third Test – I used a click event that DID NOT lead to a subsequent page load therefore, NO Adobe Analytics Call would take place since click happens after page render and first Analytics call took place.  

Findings:  Data is PERFECT between Target, Analytics Reports, and Analytics Workspace.  It is odd though that the Visit counts were slightly higher than Impressions though.  Conversion data HAS to be server to server and not client-side.  No Analytics call is needed for Target success event Conversion data to be seen in Analytics Workspace.

Unique VisitorsVisitsWorkplace Activity ImpressionsTarget ImpressionsAnalytics Reports Activity ImpressionWorkspace Activity ConversionsTarget ConversionsAnalytics Reports Activity Conversion
Activity Conversions in Adobe Workspace (No Analytics Click Event)6468666666555
Experience A4041424242000
Experience B2427242424555

Take away – Activity Conversions, by way of A4T, can be a great mechanism to get data into Adobe Analytics that normally wouldn’t be there. And because of the server-to-server integration between Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics, the Activity Conversion data WILL be in Analytics no matter if there is an Adobe Analytics call after the success event took place.

A4T – Activity Conversions

The Adobe Analytic’s Product team had a pretty significant product release last week that will be greatly appreciated by the A4T and the MiaProva communities. The issue regarding inflated values for Adobe Target Activity Impressions and more importantly, Adobe Target Activity Conversions has been resolved. This will significantly enhance the value A4T brings to Adobe Target users and help Adobe Target users see the power of Activity Conversions – an Adobe Target Metric in Adobe Analytics.

I suspect some background might help here. In this world of A4T, end-users of Adobe Target could go into Analytics Workspace and classic Analytics Reports and dig into their test results and mine for nuggets of gold. Below is an example of such a report – a Workspace freeform table with the Adobe Target tests being the dimension.

A4T - Adobe Target results in Analytics Workspace
Adobe Target results (A4T) in Adobe Analytics Workspace

Up until last week, the Activity Impression and more importantly, the Activity Conversion counts above were inflated in Workspace and via the API (how MiaProva works:). These values are correct in classic Adobe Analytics Reports and in Adobe Target as seen here:

Adobe Target Activity Conversions Adobe Analytics Reports
Adobe Target in classic Adobe Analytics Reports
Adobe Target A4T Reporting
Adobe Target reporting for an A4T Test

This issue hasn’t been the biggest of deals for A4T users because often end users of Adobe Target don’t configure a legitimate conversion event in Adobe Target or they select an Adobe Analytics metric instead as I have above with Trial Starts [E7]. This update though should help users see the value of using the Activity Conversion – or more specifically a bonus success event from Adobe Target.

Use the Activity Conversion – Adobe Target Metric

Yes, when you select Adobe Analytics as the Reporting Source as seen in the image below, you can simply select an Analytics event or metrics but don’t. Doing so is a waste because you get any and all metrics or events in Analytics Workspace or Classic reports automatically without selecting it here.

Here you are given an opportunity to include an Adobe Target success event which will be incredibly helpful when it comes time to dive into the results. With any A4T test (a test selected with Analytics as the reporting source is an A4T test), you get ONE Adobe Target metric to be part of your test results and that is what is called Activity Conversions in Adobe Analytics Workspace and Adobe Analytics classic reporting.

A4T - Adobe Target success event
Adobe Target metric configuration with A4T Activity

The Target metrics available are:

  • Viewed a page – very helpful when you want a quick way to track impressions of a URL or list of URLs. This can be tricky to configure in Analytics sometimes so helpful to have this here.

  • Viewed an mbox – this is perfect for any time you are using nested mbox or Adobe Target calls in an offer or test. I personally use this one quite a bit if I am evaluating the DOM via Target and need to track specific events or things where the test is running

  • Clicked an element – this one is HUGE and only an option for VEC Activities and not those that Form-based. This metric will allow end-users to quickly and easily track clicks on elements where the test is running. Often Analytics isn’t configured to track clicks on everything on the site and if it was, finding that metric in Analytics could be challenging.

For the “Viewed an mbox” and the “Viewed a page” options above, you have the option of applying Adobe Target Audience Targeting as well. This means any shared Experience Cloud Audiences from AAM or your Adobe Target profiles can be put to work to refine any metric as needed.

A4T Audience Targeting Activity Conversions
Audience Targeting in A4T Target Metric

Activity Conversions and MiaProva

Within MiaProva, we do a pretty cool dance behind the scenes between Adobe Target I/O and Adobe Analytics I/O. We support any and all Activity Types from Adobe Target and we heart those A4T tests as well including the Activity Conversions metric!

In the MiaProva admin section, MiaProva Test Managers standardize reporting for Adobe Target Activites and A4T tests. We’ve defaulted (users can modify though) to prioritizing “Activity Conversions” for A4T metrics to help users take advantage of this bonus metrics.

MiaProva A4T Activity Conversions