Use a Tag Manager

23 Feb 2015 » Launch

Back in the old days, the only way to add Web analytics code to a website, was through manual coding. If you were using Adobe Analytics, you would need to add two pieces of code into the website: the s_code and the on-page code. The s_code is a JavaScript file with common code for Adobe Analytics (SiteCatalyst) and the on-page code contains the page-specific data.

I am sure many of you are familiar with these lines of code:

s.pageName = "Football";
s.channel = "Sports";
s.events = "event1";
s.prop1 = "News";
s.eVar1 = "Not logged-in";
var s_code = s.t();
if (s_code) document.write(s_code);

While this does not seem to be a great problem, my experience with many customers shows that this traditional solution is far from ideal. Typical issues that I have found are:

  • Web developers have usually little or no knowledge of Adobe Analytics code. The moment you mention “eVar” or “prop”, they completely disconnect from the conversation until they clearly understand what these words mean. Do not get me wrong, I have been a developer myself, I have nothing against developers, but I know that it is very difficult to find a web developer that understands Adobe Analytics.
  • Changes take a very long time to be published. Even the minimum code change (just adding an eVar, for example), can take weeks, if not months, before it is live. The main reason is that, any new feature must be added to a scrum backlog, a change request…
  • Disconnect between IT and marketing. These two departments tend to have very different goals. As a consequence, what is of great importance for a web analyst, might be considered low priority by the scrum master.

If you search for more reasons, you will find many more.

So, what is the solution? Use a tag management solution, like Adobe Dynamic Tag Management Launch. This is not the silver bullet that will solve all your problems, but it will help move forward more easily. Do not even think on developing your own solution: it will take you years before you have a solution that matches the worst commercial solution.

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