In this hands-on lab, we equip you with new lens into your customers and their behaviors by bringing Adobe Audience Manager segments into Adobe Analytics. You will learn how to combine acquired and owned datasets in Adobe Audience Manager with user behavioral data and existing reporting in Adobe Analytics. We’ll explore data-flow enablement and configuration options, from quick start to customizable setup, then dive into how to get the most value of your audience data in the Adobe Analytics workspace.
You will learn how to:
Throughout this lab we're going to learn about the different types of data that Audience Manager can handle and how to make it available in Adobe Analytics Reporting. However, before going too deep into this, we first need to understand how this data-flow is enabled.
Figure 1: Audience Analytics Data Flow
The very first step that needs to be performed when activating Audience Analytics is to enable the Server-Side Forwarding capability in Adobe Analytics. This is a self-service operation that can be accessed by an organization admin in the Report Suites Manager (in Adobe Analytics). Once performed, the Audience Analytics Destination becomes available in Adobe Audience Manager automatically.
To speed things up, we've already enabled Server Side Forwarding (SSF) for all lab participants.
If you want to double check or understand how to enable SSF on your own, feel free to access the Adobe Analytics Admin by following these steps:
Login to your lab machine with the following credentials:
Open the Google Chrome browser.
In the Bookmarks bar, you should see a lab entry. Click on it or enter: https://bit.ly/summit-744
in the address bar.
Input your lab machine number and click Proceed.
Figure 2: Landing Page
Use the presented credentials to access the Adobe Experience Cloud or use the direct link: experiencecloud.adobe.com.
Heads Up! Each lab machine gives access to a personalized Adobe Experience Cloud setup. Thus always use your own machine credentials when logging into Audience Manager or Analytics.
In Adobe Analytics, goto Admin > Report Suites. Choose the Report Suite(s) for which you want to enable SSF and then click on Edit Settings > General > Server-Side Forwarding.
Figure 3: Access the Report Suite Manager
Carefully read the instructions on how to replace DIL (AAM's data collection code) with the Audience Manager Module for AppMeasurement. Check Enable Server-Side Forwarding and then click Save.
Figure 4: Enable Server-Side Forwarding
Heads Up! Failure to remove DIL before enabling this feature will result in duplicate data and double billing for AAM customers. But this ONLY applies to you if you are migrating from client-side DIL code to server-side forwarding, not if you are implementing for the first time.
Having done the required configurations on the Adobe Analytics side, now is the time to enable audience sharing from Adobe Audience Manager.
Go back to the lab's landing page. If you've navigated away from it in the meantime, check out the instructions on Exercise 1.1, which explains how to access it.
Use the presented credentials to access the Adobe Audience Manager UI.
Figure 5. AAM Login
Your computer is assigned a number between 1 and 100. Find out your number and use it to login:
Heads Up! Each lab machine gives access to an personalized Adobe Experience Cloud setup, thus always use your own machine credentials when logging into Audience Manager or Analytics.
Use the menu on top and navigate to Audience Data > Destinations.
Locate the default Adobe Analytics destination, which was automatically created when Server Side Forwarding was enabled on the Report Suite. Click on the Edit icon to configure it.
Figure 6. Destinations
Figure 7. Adobe Analytics Destination
Expand the Data Export Controls section. Here you can set export labels that match the destination report suite(s).
Note how This destination may enable a combination with PII is selected by default.
Figure 8. Data Export Controls
Heads Up! These settings are powerful: for example, all the segments whose Data Sources have Cannot be tied to PII selected, will not be exported when the corresponding label is checked on the destination (default setting).
When you are done, click Save to go in the next step of the Destination Wizard.
In the next step you explicitly map this destination to your Report Suite(s). Expand the Configuration section, then choose the Report Suite(s) from the left-hand side list and click Add Selected.
Figure 9. Report Suite Mapping
For simplicity, we have created a single report suite in Adobe Analytics. However, in the general case, you will see here all the Report Suites that have been enabled for Server Side-Forwarding and haven’t yet been mapped to a destination.
When you are done, click Save to go in the next step of the Destination Wizard.
In the last step of the wizard, you can choose which segments will be exported to Adobe Analytics.
The two options are:
Figure 10. Segment Mapping
Heads Up! Both options take into consideration the data export controls / labels: For auto-mapping, only segments whose data source’s export controls are not in in conflict with the destination will be included. When choosing manual mapping, segments in conflict will not be available for selection.
In this lesson we introduce key Adobe Audience Manager concepts like traits, segments and destinations. We're also going to identify the various types of data that can be stitched together to form profiles and understand how Audience Manager offers privacy-aware controls when merging or sharing the data.
The Traits are the building blocks for understanding your audience. Your profiles are said to acquire traits when the corresponding Signals for a given trait rule are received by Audience Manager in a tracking call. This is the simplest unit of data collected in Audience Manager. Traits are always collected into profiles.
A few examples that we're going to use in this lab:
To speed things up, we have pre-created for you the traits needed for the first demo. Feel free to navigate and inspect them in the Audience Manager User Interface. You may also create new traits.
Go back to the Audience Manager UI. Remember, you can always access it from the lab's landing page. If you've navigated away from it in the meantime, check out the instructions on Exercise 1.1.
Use the menu on top and navigate to Audience Data > Traits. Use your mouse to focus on the Interested in Sales trait (hover) and click on the Edit button (pencil).
Figure 11. Traits List
In the Trait Edit screen, expand the Trait Expression panel. You can see how the trait rule is built.
Figure 12. Trait Expression
Heads Up! In order to have a consistent experience with the one shown during the demo, do not save any changes on the existing trait rules.
Go to Audience Data > Profile Merge Rules. A merge rule that uses both CRM and anonymous (behavioral) data is also pre-set in your environment.
Click Edit on the right-hand side icon, Device + Authenticated Profile.
Figure 13. Profile Merge Rules
Check the following settings on the Profile Merge Rule:
Figure 14. Profile Merge Rule Setup
Heads Up! Feel free to check the Profile Merge Rule settings, but be aware that any changes will impact your experience during the demo.
Pay attention to Data Export Controls: they apply to merge rules too, restricting segments from being exported to labeled destinations.
Similar to the relationship between signals and traits, Segments are made up from Traits, using Boolean logic. Think of a segment as a query - you want to target consumers that have a specific set of traits, with the ability to stitch together different types of profile data before evaluation (this being controlled by the Profile Merge Rule).
You can segment your audience based on the individual traits:
Segment1 = Trait1 AND Trait2
(Query: all users with Silver membership interested in sales from the audience)Again, we have pre-created for you the segments needed for this demo. Feel free to navigate and check their configuration. You may also create new segments.
Go to Audience Data > Segments. Use your mouse to focus on the Females interested in Sales Segment (hover) and click on the Edit button (pencil).
Figure 15. Segments List
In the Segment Edit screen, check out how the Data Source and the Profile Merge Rule are set for a segment.
Heads Up! Remember that both the Data Source and the Profile Merge Rule have export control options that might restrict your segments from being exported to Adobe Analytics.
Figure 16. Segment Basic Information
Expand the Traits panel. You can see how the segment rule is built.
Figure 17. Segment Traits
Heads Up! In order to have a consistent experience with the one shown during the demo, do not save any changes on the existing segments.
We've built a special demo site for this lab, which is instrumented with Adobe Analytics (via Adobe Launch). All the activity data is collected to your Adobe Analytics and Adobe Audience Manager instances, so you can see the data flow in action.
Go back to the lab's landing page. If you've navigated away from it in the meantime, check out the instructions on Exercise 1.1, which explains how to access it.
Click on Go to We.Shop.
Now, let’s get you qualified for some traits.
On top of the page, you can see the product categories listed. Click on "Sales". In the following page, choose any product you like and add it to your Wishlist 💛
Figure 18. WeShop Sales
Since the Server Side Forwarding happens behind the scenes, you can't easily see how traits and segments are realized based on your interaction. That's why, especially for the Summit Lab sessions, we've build a tool that gives you a unique perspective over this process.
Let's put on our X-Ray Goggles on: introducing the Demo Companion.
https://bit.ly/summit-744
)In the demo companion, select the last event from the left-land side column. Then, click on the Segmentation tab on the right hand side of the page.
Figure 19. The Demo Companion - Segmentation
You can see how you’ve acquired the "Interested in Sales" trait and another one corresponding to your wishlist product’s category. Based on these two traits, you now qualify for the segments with the same name.
Now switch to the Activation tab. Here, the Demo Companion shows the segments that are exported back to Adobe Analytics.
Figure 20. The Demo Companion - Activation
The Pageview & Click beacons carry additional data, stored in Analytics
eVars
(like: currently browsed category, wishlist product’s category/name, etc).
Audience Manager receives the call via Server-Side Forwarding. All tracking-related data is converted to Audience Manager signals, whose keys are prepended with “c_”.
Example:c_browserWidth
,c_browserHeight
,c_pageName
,c_evar#
,c_events
,c_prop
, etc.
There are just a couple exceptions:
- The report Suite name is passed under thed_rs
parameter.
- The VisitorID value is passed underd_mid
.
Let’s now authenticate on the demo site. Click on the My Account link on the right upper corner of the website.
Figure 21. WeShop - Login
Your computer is assigned a number between 1 and 100. Find out your number and use it to login:
On the We.Shop site, navigate to either Men or Women categories. Choose any product you like and add it to your Wishlist 💛
Figure 22. WeShop - Top Categories
Check the Demo Companion. You can see how multiple identities where sent to Adobe Audience Manager when you’ve clicked the category link:
d_mid, AAM
), which is a device IDCROSS_DEVICE
ID of the account you’ve logged in withFigure 23. The Demo Companion - Authenticated Profile
You can also see how the previously loaded Membership trait was now accessible and you were included in the corresponding membership-based segment.
Disclaimer: The membership information was randomly assigned to the test accounts. Complete the entire lab and you’ll be promoted to "Platinum" for free 😄
Here's how this works:
The demo site has the Experience Cloud ID Service installed. This service not only maintains a consistent device identity for the Experience Cloud, but also permits you to declare your own identities (cookie, mobile or cross-device). Links between these identities and the device ID will be maintained automatically.
Adobe Analytics receives all the identities via Context Parameters. It then forwards them to Audience Manager as declared IDs: Eg.: d_cid_ic=
website_auth
%01
my_user_id
, where website_auth
is the Data Source’s integration code.
In turn, Adobe Audience Manager will read the profile of the newly received identity and use its information during segmentation.
Heads Up! This only happens because our Profile Merge Rule explicitly permits to use this identity for our segments.
In this lesson we introduce the Audience Marketplace. Audience Marketplace lets data providers and buyers execute data deals in a self-service manner with minimum effort. It does this by providing specialized features that vary depending on your role as a data buyer or data seller. In fact, you can even be a buyer and a seller at the same time. And, if this couldn’t get any better, Audience Marketplace takes care of contracts, billing, and payments between data providers and sellers.
You can check out the available data feeds using Adobe Audience Finder.
To speed things up, we’ve already subscribed you to a 3rd Party Data Feed and created a Segment that uses Third Party traits. If you want to check them out, here's how to do it:
In the Adobe Audience Manager UI, go to Audience Marketplace > Marketplace. Filter the options by entering popular
in the search box. Click on Popular Data Provider - US.
Figure 24. Audience Marketplace
In the Data Feed screen you can explore the available traits, activate the use-cases you need and see overlap reports (your audience against this particular Data Feed).
Figure 25. Audience Marketplace - Data Feed
Check how you are subscribed for Segments and Overlap and Activation. Activation will enable us to export the segments that use these traits in Adobe Analytics.
In the Demo Companion, click 3rd Party Data and then confirm by clicking Load Data.
Figure 26. The Demo Companion - Load 3rd Party Data
Heads Up! This will simulate an 100% overlap between your device profile and the Popular Data Provider’s audience, in order to give you a consistent experience.
In real-life, the ID sync mechanism will drive the profile overlap
Go to the We.Shop Site homepage and simply refresh the page.
Then check the Demo Companion again. See how you are put in a new segment based off the 3rd party trait.
Figure 27. The Demo Companion - Segment with 3rd Party Traits
Heads Up! To speed things up, we've created the segment named People with income over $124,999 in advance. This segment is using traits from the 3rd Party Data Feed you've just checked earlier.
So far we have been accessing the website from a single device. Let’s see what happens when we visit it from a different device.
For this purpose, you can either open up a new browser (Mozilla Firefox) or, if you will, you can access the demo website from your personal device such as your smartphone or laptop.
Open the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Go to the landing page (https://bit.ly/summit-744
) and open the Demo Site.
Login with the same credentials used earlier:
Go back to the Chrome Browser and check the Demo Companion. See how this new device gets included in the same Segment, based off the 3rd Party Trait acquired by the first device.
Figure 28. The Demo Companion - Cross Device Segmentation
Heads Up! This merge happens because our Profile Merge Rule explicitly allowed it. In privacy-concerned scenarios, you may choose not to use device-level data from other profiles.
This lesson is where the analytics rubber meets the road. It shows the reason that we have gone to the trouble that we have in the previous lessons. In this lesson we will discover some of the key analysis that you can do with the segments that you are bringing from Audience Manager into Adobe Analytics. This will include such cool things as:
As you follow along with the exercises, you will see the power of combining these two powerful Experience Cloud solutions to gain insight into your customer and then to be able to act upon that insight.
Go back to the lab's landing page. If you've navigated away from it in the meantime, check out the instructions on Exercise 1.1, which explains how to access it.
Use the presented credentials to access the Adobe Experience Cloud or use the direct link: experiencecloud.adobe.com.
Your computer is assigned a number between 1 and 100. Find out your number and use it to login:
Heads Up! Each lab machine gives access to a personalized Adobe Experience Cloud setup. Thus always use your own machine credentials when logging into Audience Manager or Analytics.
Once logged in, select the "Tic Tac Toe" menu at the top and click on "Analytics" to launch Adobe Analytics.
Figure 29. Access Adobe Analytics
After logging into Adobe Analytics, click on Workspace from the top navigational menu.
In the Analysis Workspace UI, click on Create New Project. Select Blank Project and click Create.
Figure 30. Create Analytics Workspace Project
In your Workspace, you should see a blank Freeform table. On the left pane, select the Components menu and search for Audiences Name.
Drag Audiences Name into the Freeform table.
Figure 31. Analytics Workspace - Create freeform table
When complete, your freeform table should look like the image seen below.
The Default metric will be occurrences – feel free to use this metric or select a different metric via the Components menu.
Figure 32. Analytics Workspace - Audiences in Freeform table
You'll use the Freeform Table created in the previous exercise to create some segments to use for the next steps of this section.
In your Audiences table, right click on an audience of your choosing and select Create segment from selection.
Figure 33. Analytics Workspace - Create segment
Select a name for your segment and click Save.
Figure 34. Analytics Workspace - Save segment
Repeat this process to create another new segment from an Audience Name.
Create a 3rd segment from two selected audiences.
Finally, create a segment from non-AAM data (for example, visits that lasted at least 5 minutes).
You'll use the Freeform Table created in Exercise 4.1 to create a Flow Visualization.
Within the existing Freeform table, select the Visualizations menu and locate Flow.
Drag the Flow visualization onto the Freeform table, below your Audiences Name visualization.
For the Entry dimension (highlighted below in red), locate the Audiences Name dimension from the Components Menu and drag it in.
Figure 35. Analytics Workspace - Create Flow Visualization
Let's add a couple more touch points. In your Flow Visualization, now drag in the Audiences Name dimension to the "drop zone" on the right-hand side of the visualization. You should see three columns in your Flow visualization for Audience Name.
Finally, drag in the Pages dimension to the right of your Audiences Name column. Your visualization should look like the completed image below.
Figure 36. Analytics Workspace - Flow Visualization
You'll use the Freeform Table created in Exercise 4.1 to create a Venn Visualization.
Within the existing Freeform table, select the Visualizations menu and locate Venn.
Drag the Venn visualization onto the Freeform table, below your Flow Visualization.
For the segments to be compared, navigate to the Segments section of the Components Menu. Drag in the two Audience-based segments you created in Exercise 4.2, as well as the non-Audience segment.
Click Build – your segment should look similar to the image below.
Figure 37. Analytics Workspace - Venn Visualization
Navigate to your left-hand navigational pane and locate the panels menu. Drag a Segment Comparison panel into your Workspace.
For the segments to be compared, navigate to the Segments section of the Components Menu. Drag in the two Audience-based segments you created in Exercise 4.2.
Click Build – your segment should look similar to the image below.
Figure 38. Analytics Workspace - Segment Comparison
Navigate to your left-hand navigational pane and locate the panels menu. Drag a Freeform panel into your Workspace.
Drag the Map visualization onto the new Freeform table
Click on the components menu, and add the Visits metric to the map configuration
Also from the components menu, drag one of the Audience-based segments you created in Exercise 4.2 into your Freeform table.
Click Build – your visualization should look similar to the image below.
Figure 39. Analytics Workspace - Map Visualization
In the resultant Map Visualization, locate a geographical area of analytical significance (ie a major city).
Once you have located a significant area, click on the information icon (see image below) of the segment.
Once the segment info window appears, click the pencil icon to edit the segment.
Figure 40. Analytics Workspace - Map Visualization at Location
Once in the segment UI, locate the Dimensions section from the left—hand navigational menu. Search for Cities and drag that into your segment definition.
Configure the segment definition by adding the name of the city.
In the example below, we've selected Cities equal to Dallas.
Figure 41. Analytics Workspace - Map Visualization at Location (2)
Once you've configured your segment, check the box to Make this an Experience Cloud Audience and click Save.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! You have now brought an AAM segment into Analytics and done some analysis on it (geo analysis in this case). You then combined some significant findings from this into a new segment and have shared it back to AAM so that you can use this "super segment" in your targeted marketing. This "completes the loop" to share Audience data back into the Experience Cloud 🎉
Navigate to your left-hand navigational pane and locate the "panels" menu. Drag a new "Freeform" panel into your Workspace.
Drag a metric of your choice into the Freeform table.
Find a date with relevant data and right click on the row. Select Run Contribution Analysis.
Figure 42. Analytics Workspace - Contribution Analysis
In the Contribution Analysis configuration, ensure that one of your Audience-based segments you created in Exercise 4.2 has been dragged in. Click Run Contribution Analysis.
Your analysis may take up to 3 minutes to complete. Once complete, you should see a resultant visualization similar to the image below.
Figure 43. Analytics Workspace - Run Contribution Analysis
Documentation is available for this feature at https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/analytics/audiences/. It lists out the workflow, some use cases, and includes a FAQ.
Documentation for Analysis Workspace is available at https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/analytics/audiences/.
Additional help videos and tutorials can be found at https://helpx.adobe.com/analytics/kt/index/analytics-videos.html.
Documentation for Audience Manager can be found at https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/aam/.
There are probably two main problems that you would run into when trying to enable Server-Side Forwarding (SSF) in the Analytics Admin Console:
Let's address both issues.
If go to the Analytics Admin Console and the Server-Side Forwarding option is not on the menu, it may be due to one of the following:
If the SSF option is grayed out, so that you cannot select it, your Analytics Report Suite selected is probably not "mapped" to your Experience Cloud Org.
Experience Cloud services (in our case, Audience Analytics for AAM) are associated with an organization instead of an individual Report Suite. To ensure that these services operate correctly, each Analytics Report Suite must be mapped to an organization.
To learn more about the mapping process, check out the Experience Cloud and Core Services Help page.
The Report Suite used in the lab is already mapped to the Adobe Summit Organization. If you want to map a Report Suite of your own or simply check the one used in the lab, follow these steps:
Click Experience Cloud > Administration > Report Suite Mapping. You can also use a Direct URL (https://audience.marketing.adobe.com/rsmapping/ui.html).
Select the report suites that you want to map, choose the Organization and then click Select.
Figure 44: Map Report Suite to an Organization
Click Save mapping.
Once mapped, Data Sources corresponding to each Report Suite are automatically created in Adobe Audience Manager.
After mapping your report suite, it should no longer be grayed out in the interface, and you should be able to select SSF.