Adobe Analytics Connector Setup Guide

[#1]

This article describes how to set up the Adobe Analytics connector in your Customer Data Hub account.

In this article:

Table of Contents Placeholder

Introduction

The Adobe Analytics Connector in the Tealium Customer Data Hub uses Adobe's Data Insertion API to send analytics data server-side, in place of using the JavaScript beacon on a web page or mobile app. This reduces the amount of data transmitted from the client-side, and also offers the advantage of being able to pass audience and visitor data from EventStream or AudienceStream to Adobe Analytics.

Connector Actions

Action Name	AudienceStream	EventStream
Send Analytics Event	✓	✓

Connector Configuration

Use the following steps in the interface to configure the Adobe Analytics connector:

1. Go to the Connector marketplace and add the Adobe Analytics connector.
   Read the Connector Overview article for general instructions on how to add a connector.
   
2. In the Title field, enter a title for the connector.
3. In the Data Insertion Domain field, enter the domain for your Adobe Analytics data collection servers. For example, namespace.122.2o7.net.
4. In the Report Suite ID field, enter your Report Suite ID.
   This is the Report Suite used to submit the data. To send data to multiple destinations use a comma-separated list of report suites.
   

   This value can also be set with a data mapping.

5. In the Notes field, enter any relevant notes about this connector.
6. Click Next.
   You are now on the Actions tab.
7. From the Actions drop-down list, select "Send Analytics Event" from the drop-down list and configure the following parameters:

   Group	Description
   Event Parameters	See "General Attributes" below
   Auto-mapping of Lifecycle Event Attributes for Mobile Data-sources	Check this checkbox to automatically map values from the Event Parameters section to Adobe data elements. Auto mapping only applies to Mobile EventStream App Lifecycle only. For more information see Adobe Analytics Connector Lifecycle Mappings
   Context Data	Specify keys using the dot format. For example "my.a". Multiple key-value pairs can be specified.
   eVars	Specify the event eVars by mapping an attribute to a number. For example: Map event_count to 1 for eVar1. Valid range is 1 through 100, 250 for Premium Accounts
   Hierarchy	A hierarchy string. Select from 1 through 5.
   List	A list of values that are passed into a variable, then reported as individual line items for reporting Select from 1 through 3. Requires Array type in data layer. Tealium will format the data correctly to be passed along
   Properties	Analytics property name. Specify the name by mapping an attribute to a number. For example: Map lifetime_value to 1 for prop1.
   Events	Specify a list of events, or a comma-separated custom value. see Adobe Analytics Configure Events Implementation
   Event Mapping	Map a potential value contained in the Events Array (configured above) to the Adobe Analytics Custom Event name. For example, registration to event3 would replace "registration" with "event3" in the event payload.
   Event Values	Specify values for Counter, Numeric, and Currency events. To specify an event, use a number. As an example, 1 will be sent over as event1.
   Products	Specify product attributes (Id, Category, Quantity, Price) All arrays must be equal-sized and order-aligned For additional information, see Adobe Analytics Product Implementation
   Product eVars	Specify product eVars values. All arrays must be equal-sized to those in the Product section. Empty values will be ignored. Specify eVar mappings with a number. As an example, 1 will be mapped to eVar1.
   Product Events	Specify product event values. All arrays must be equal-sized to those in the Product section. Empty values will be ignored. Specify event mappings with a number. As an example, 1will be mapped to event1.

8. Click Save.
9. Save and Publish your changes.

General Attributes

For a full reference of all attributes, including details on exactly what each field should contain, see Adobe's API documentation and the Visitor & Experience Cloud IDs section of this article.

Report Suite IDs

• Specify a report suite ID, which will override any value previously entered in the Connector Configuration UI. If you do not need to override that value, you can leave this field blank. You can use either a data layer variable, or a "Custom Value". If you wish to send data to multiple report suites, you may use a comma-separated list.
• This will overwrite the value defined in the Configuration Tab
• Specifies the report suites where you want to submit data. Contained in the URL
• If specifying Data Layer attributes, use simple attribute types per row. We will format the data correctly to be passed along

Map From	Map To	Notes	Sample Connector Output
Customer Data Hub attribute containing a persistent visitor ID, e.g. tealium_visitor_id	visitorID*	Ensure that this is a visitor-level persistent value. Example: Tealium Visitor ID	<visitorID>01619ea9a91a001af7e29b75797104079005c07101008M</visitorID>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing a page name/title	pageName	String value	<pageName>Homepage</pageName>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the current URL (e.g. built-in "Current URL" attribute)	pageURL	String value	<pageURL>http://www.tealium.com</pageURL>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the Adobe Experience Cloud ID	marketingCloudVisitorID*	Usually retrieved via the Visitor API JavaScript tag. Implemented in iQ Tag Management.	<marketingCloudVisitorID></marketingCloudVisitorID>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the link name	linkName	String value. Example: tealium_event	<linkName>Buy Now</linkName>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the URL of the link clicked	linkURL	String value	<linkURL>https://www.tealium.com/products/widgets/buynow\</linkURL>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the order ID	purchaseID	String value. E-commerce Order ID	<purchaseID>ORD12345</purchaseID>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the document referrer	referrer	Recommend using built-in "Referring URL" attribute.	<referrer>https://www.tealium.com/shop\</referrer>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the timestamp from the time the event occurred	timestamp	Optional. Unix epoch seconds or ISO-8601 format. Do not map if your report suite is not explicitly configures to accepts timestamped hits. For more information, see the Timestamp Implementation Guide.	<timestamp>1519207951063</timestamp>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the IP address of the visitor	ipaddress	To use this optional attribute, you must have enabled the Visitor IP attribute in your account. Contact your account manager if you need this feature.	<ipaddress>127.0.0.1</ipaddress>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the user agent of the browser/device	userAgent	Recommend using the built-in User Agent attribute in Customer Data Hub	<userAgent>Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_13_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.167 Safari/537.36</userAgent>
Customer Data Hub attribute containing the transaction ID for a custom event (not order ID)	transactionID	This is not the same as purchaseID. See the Adobe Analytics documentation for details.	<transactionID>CMPSUMMER18</transactionID>

Link Type

This field is used for link tracking, and allows setting of a Link Type.

Map From	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any attribute from the drop-down list or enter custom value	Link type: "d" - Download Link "e" - Exit Link "o" - Custom (other) Link	Sends a Link Type to Adobe Analytics only if the attribute selected has a value*	Map: (Custom Value): "true" to "o"	<linkType>o</linkType>

If the attribute selected has a value of null, undefined or "" (empty string), the Link Type will not be set on the outgoing request.

Context Data

Context Data may be used as a more user-friendly alternative to props and eVars. You can map any event attribute or visitor attribute to Context Data variables in Adobe Analytics. Context Data variables may have any name, but is is an Adobe best practice is to prefix all variables with a unique key, such as your company name. Some variables are reserved and may only be used for predetermined functionality, such as Lifecycle Metrics; these variables are prefixed with " a.".

Map From	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any attribute from dropdown, or enter custom value	companyname.someproperty	Maps a defined Customer Data Hub attribute to a Context Data attribute	Map: (Customer Data Hub Attribute) Campaign Name to "tealium.productColor"	<contextData><tealium.productColor>Red</tealium.productColor></contextData>

Analytics eVars

This field is used to map Customer Data Hub attributes to eVars. eVars must be specified using the word "eVar" (not case-sensitive), plus the number of the eVar, e.g. "eVar11". Valid range is 1 through 250.

Map From	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any attribute from dropdown, or enter custom value	eVarX, where X is an integer in the range 1 - 250	Maps a defined Customer Data Hub attribute to an eVar in your analytics reports	Map: (Customer Data Hub Attribute) Campaign Name to "eVar75"	<eVar75>Summer2018</eVar75>

Analytics Property Name (s.props)

This field is used to map Customer Data Hub attributes to props. Props must be specified using the word prop, plus the number of the prop, e.g. "prop4". Valid range is 1 through 75. List props are supported, but these require prior configuration in your Adobe Analytics Report Suite admin interface.

Map From	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any attribute from dropdown, or enter custom value	propX, where X is an integer in the range 1 - 75	Maps a defined Customer Data Hub attribute to an prop in your analytics reports	Map: (Customer Data Hub Attribute) Link Name to "prop4"	<prop4>Buy Now</prop4>

Events (s.events)

Events allow you to measure how frequently a particular event is occurring on your website or in your app. The events variable is a comma-separated string listing all the events that should be counted for a particular analytics event. Both predefined events and custom events are sent in the same string.

In the Adobe Analytics connector, the following two methods are used to specify events:

1. Map an array value containing a list of event names that has been populated elsewhere (e.g. an extension in iQ Tag Management, an Enrichment, or directly in your data layer).
   

   Map From	Data Type	Example Input	Sample Connector Output
   Customer Data Hub attribute representing a list of events	Array	["event1", "event5", "event9"]	<events>event1,event5,event9</events>

2. Specify an array of string values which map to specific event numbers, and specify the event number mappings in the "Custom Event Mapping" section as follows:
   

   Map From	Map To	Example Event Array	Example Input	Sample Connector Output
   Custom text value containing a string to look up in the Events array	Name of event to trigger, e.g. event8	["newsletter_registration", "homepage_viewed"]	"newsletter_registration"	<events>event8</events> (because string "newsletter_registration" appeared in the events array)

Event Value Mapping

This field allows numerical values to be assigned to events. This field is not correlated to the "Custom Event Mapping" field; that is, if "event2" is specified in the "Custom Event Mapping" and is also specified as a "Value" event, it would be included in the event variable twice - once with no value, and once with.

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Example Input	Sample Connector Output
Attribute representing a numerical value	Number	eventX, where X is the number of the event	Map "9" to "event5"	<events>event5=9</events>

Event Serialization

Configure event serialization by mapping an attribute that contains the event ID to a number that specifies the event. For example, mapping "ABC123" to "2" sends "event2=ABC123".

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Example Input	Sample Connector Output
Attribute representing an event ID	String	The event number	Map "ABC123" to "1", Map "ABC123" to "2"	<events>event1=ABC123,event2:ABC123</events>

Products

The Products variable is used wherever it is necessary to capture e-commerce information about one or more products on a particular page (Category, Product ID, Price, Quantity).

Only Customer Data Hub attributes with Array data types may be used to populate the Products variable. All arrays must be equal in length (i.e. if there are 5 products on the page, Product ID, Quantity, Price, and Category must all be 5 elements in length).

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Example Input Data	Sample Connector Output
Customer Data Hub attribute representing Product Category	Array	Products Category	["Shoes", "Shirts"]	<products>Shoes;;;,Shirts;;;</products>
Customer Data Hub attribute representing Product ID	Array	Products ID	["ABC123", "EFG234"]	<products>;ABC123;;,;EFG234;;</products>
Customer Data Hub attribute representing Quantity	Array	Products Quantity	["1", "2"]	<products>;;1;,;;2;;</products>
Customer Data Hub attribute representing Price	Array	Products Price	["149.99", "79.80"]	<products>;;;149.99,;;;79.80</products>

Product Event Value Mapping

This field allows a custom conversion event to be assigned to each product in the Products variable, and a numerical value to be assigned to each event.

If a "simple" variable is mapped (singular value, or custom text value), then the same value is applied to all products in the list. If a list (array) value is mapped, then the array must have the same length as the rest of the product arrays, and each item in the array will have a different value (according to its position in the array).

For these examples, assume the following product arrays are present as event attributes:

Product Category: ["Footwear", "Apparel"] Product ID: ["Running Shoes", "T-Shirt"] Quantity: ["1", "1"] Price: ["99.99", "49.99"]

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Example Input Value	Sample Connector Output
Custom text value containing a numerical value	String	Name of event to trigger, e.g. event8	"9.99" (custom value)	<events>event8</events><products>Footwear;Running Shoes;1;99.99;event8=9.99,Apparel;T-Shirt;1;49.99;event8=9.99</products>
Customer Data Hub attribute representing array of numerical data	Array	Name of event to trigger, e.g. event12	["1.99", "4.99"]	<events>event8</events><products>Footwear;Running Shoes;1;99.99;event12=1.99,Apparel;T-Shirt;1;49.99;event12=4.99</products>

Product Merchandising eVars

This field allows eVars to be assigned to each product in the Products variable.

These work in the same way as the "Product Event Value Mapping" field, detailed above.

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Example Input Value	Sample Connector Output
Custom text value containing an eVar value	String	Name of eVar to trigger, e.g. eVar4	"my_custom_value"	<products>Footwear;Running Shoes;1;99.99;event8=9.99;eVar4=my_custom_value,Apparel;T-Shirt;1;49.99;event8=9.99;eVar4=my_custom_value</products>
Customer Data Hub attribute representing array of eVar values (e.g. Product Color)	Array	Name of eVar to trigger, e.g. eVar6	["red", "green"]	<products>Footwear;Running Shoes;1;99.99;event8=9.99;eVar6=red,Apparel;T-Shirt;1;49.99;event8=9.99;eVar6=green</products>

Hierarchy Data

Page Hierarchy helps to classify a page within your site/app's navigation structure. There are five (5) available slots: hier1 - hier5. The only supported Customer Data Hub attribute type that can be used as a hierarchy var is an Array.

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any attribute from dropdown, or enter custom value	Array	hier1 - hier5 (drop-down selection)	Maps a defined Customer Data Hub attribute in Array format to a specified hierarchy var in Adobe Analytics	Map: (Customer Data Hub Attribute) Page Classification to "hier1"	<hier1>Article</hier1>

List Data

List Variables are delimited strings containing multiple values, and are often used for attribution purposes. A maximum of 3 list variables is available for each Report Suite. The only supported Customer Data Hub attribute type that can be used as a list var is an Array.

Map From	Data Type	Map To	Description	Example	Sample Connector Output
Select any array attribute from dropdown	Array	list1, list2, list3 (dropdown selection)	Maps a defined Customer Data Hub attribute in Array format to a specified list var in Adobe Analytics	Map: (Customer Data Hub Attribute) Referrer List to "list1"	<list1>google.com</list1>

Visitor and Experience Cloud IDs

See the Adobe Analytics documentation on Visitor IDs, and the order of preference in the event that multiple IDs are provided.

Use Case 1: No prior Adobe Analytics implementation

If this will be a brand new Adobe Analytics implementation, 100% server-side, you may use your own unique visitor ID, and pass it to the visitorID attribute in the connector. You will need to decide what constitutes a suitable visitor ID, within the constraints set out by Adobe.

Use Case 2: Migrating from existing Adobe Analytics client-side JavaScript

If you are migrating from a JavaScript-based Adobe Analytics tag to the server-side connector, you will need to keep a consistent visitor ID to avoid "losing" visitors when/if you migrate fully. You will also need to migrate the visitor IDs if you are implementing the Adobe Analytics Customer Data Hub connector as a secondary collection mechanism (where you are still using the JavaScript tag on your web pages or in your apps as the primary collection mechanism).

Use the following steps to migrate from existing Adobe Analytics client-side JavaScript, as described in this use case:

1. Follow these instructions to configure the Adobe Experience Cloud ID tag and set up the tag in iQ Tag Management.
2. In this step, you will store the Adobe visitor IDs in a first-party cookie. This will ensure that the value is transmitted to the Customer Data Hub on each hit, without needing to re-request the value for the duration of the session.
   • In iQ Tag Management, go to the Data Layer tab, and create two (2) new First Party Cookie variables called utag_main_adobe_mcid and utag_main_aa_vid .
     

     You may rename these variables if you wish, but be sure to retain the "utag_main_" prefix, which will save cookie space by stacking into the utag_main cookie. If you rename the variables, you will need to also update the JavaScript snippet below

   • Create a new JavaScript Code extension, scoped to the Adobe Experience Cloud ID Service tag, and paste in the following code:
     

     if (typeof vAPI !== "undefined") {
       vAPI.getInstance(u.data.adobe_org_id,
     	function (visitor) {
     	  var mcID = visitor.getMarketingCloudVisitorID(),
     	  analyticsID = visitor.getAnalyticsVisitorID(),
     	  sessionExpiry = ";exp-session";
     	  // store Adobe IDs for the session duration
     	  if (!mcID) {
     	    // something went wrong - the visitor IDs could not be retrieved
     	    utag.DB("MCID could not be returned");
     	  } else {
     	    utag.loader.SC("utag_main",{"adobe_mcid" : mcID + sessionExpiry, "aa_vid" : analyticsID + sessionExpiry});
     	    // optionally, trigger an empty utag.link call to trigger sending the cookie values to UDH
     	    // if utag.track call is omitted (default), values will be sent on the next utag.link or utag.view call anyway
     	    // utag.track is used to avoid calling other 3rd party tags; only the collect tag should respond
     	    // utag.track("adobe_vid_updated", {});
     	  }
            },
       u.clearEmptyKeys(u.data.config), u.data.customer_ids);
     }

     This creates a callback to the Adobe Visitor ID service which will be called when the visitor ID(s) have been successfully retrieved from Adobe's servers, and stores the Visitor ID and Experience Cloud ID in Tealium's own first-party cookie (utag_main). The cookie will expire at the end of the session in case the Visitor ID gets updated in future. If you wish to make the cookie persistent (non-expiring), you could set sessionExpiry to "" in the above code.

   • Add a condition to the JavaScript extension "utag_main_adobe_mcid is not defined AND utag_main_aa_vid is not defined". This prevents the code from running again during this session.

3. Configure the Customer Data Hub for AudienceStream and EventStream.
   AudienceStream Configuration
   If you have AudienceStream, you may store the Adobe Visitor ID and Experience Cloud ID as visitor-level string attributes. Do not store them as Visitor ID attributes. For any actions triggered by an audience event, you may then map the new attribute to visitorID and marketingCloudVisitorID in the connector configuration.
   
   EventStream Configuration
   If you only have EventStream, you do not have the ability to store visitor ID variables, which is why we stored the value in a cookie. If you have already published your iQ Tag Management configuration from the previous step to Prod, you will find the new utag_main_adobe_mcid and utag_main_aa_vid values already present in your Event Attributes.
   
   If you have not published to Prod, you may manually add the event attributes, using the First Party Cookie string attribute type. Once you have defined these attributes, you may now choose them in the Adobe Analytics connector and map them to marketingCloudVisitorID and visitorID , respectively.

Debugging Common Issues

• To test the connector, we recommend using the Trace tool. While running a trace, look for the "HTTP Request Body" field, which will show the formatted XML that was sent to Adobe. You can compare the XML output to the "Sample Connector Output" fields in the above tables to verify the output.

• Look for any errors in the response code being returned from Adobe. Anything other than HTTP Response Status: 200/Successful indicates that there was an error with the request.

• The full URL structure for the Data Insertion API follows the format http://namespace.112.2o7.net/b/ss//6. Note that the double forward slash is intentional and valid (in the JavaScript Adobe Analytics implementation, the Report Suite ID would reside here). /6 indicates that an XML payload is being transmitted, and the reportSuite value is sent as part of the XML payload. This is the value you will see when running a Trace session.

  You do not need to enter the full URL value into the connector configuration; Tealium auto-generates the URL based on the Data Insertion Domain value. You will only see the full URL when running a Trace session.

• For your specific implementation, you may have a different value for the Data Insertion Domain (e.g. sc.omtrdc.net), but the namespace should always precede the domain (e.g. namespace.sc.omtrdc.net), except where you have your own first-party tracking domain (e.g. smetrics.acme.com).