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The DL on Adobe Analytics from a publisher's perspective
Updated February 29, 2016

The DL on Adobe Analytics from a publisher's perspective

Katy Norris | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Analytics

We use Adobe Analytics for our editorial website, TakePart.com to measure and optimize traffic and conversions (page views, petition signatures, newsletter signups, social shares).
  • Their calculated metric builder allows you to incorporate segments, which is extremely powerful.
  • The ability to set custom metrics for each report.
  • Robust and automated report scheduling.
  • Can include reportlets with different time periods into one dashboard (aka can set them at the reportlet level not dashboard level.)
  • Tricky usability. You really have to spend time in it before you can use it effectively.
  • Props vs. evars make sense to analysts and power users but are complicated to explain to everyday users.
  • The fact that you can't use "Time on Site" and conversion metrics in the same report makes life difficult (for time on site you must use the prop version of the variable and for conversion metrics, you must use the evar). This is a huge problem for editorial websites where 'time on site' IS a conversion metric. This is a major advantage of GoogleAnalytics over Adobe Analytics for publishers and a constant pain point for me.
  • Has helped us ID what users are the most interested in on the site.
  • Has helped us correctly categorize our marketing channels and optimize them.
Adobe was installed before I arrived but we've kept it because of how customizable it is.
Adobe Analytics is better suited for e-commerce vs. publishing due to the issues I mentioned. However, it is extremely robust and customizable if you have a lot of custom metrics and evars you need tracked.

Using Adobe Analytics

Not as intuitive as with Google Analytics. There are a lots of gotchas. Tool is best suited for analysts, not casual users. If you know what you're doing, it can be extremely powerful.

The usability is getting better, for example, with their drag and drop calculated metrics builder and segment builder, but there is a steep learning curve overall to really know what you're getting with your reports.
ProsCons
Like to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Feel confident using
Unnecessarily complex
Difficult to use
Slow to learn
Cumbersome
Lots to learn
  • Segmentation tool post-redesign
  • Adding metrics to a report
  • Calculated metrics builder
  • Transparency of allocation attribution for prop vs evar reports is difficult. For example, our users will add a conversion metric like "share" to prop reports, not realizing that props give attribution to all stories the user touched in their visit, vs giving 100% credit to the story listed (as the evar does). I have basically hidden our prop reports in the menu structure to keep them from doing that. But then they'll add "time on site" to the Page Name (evar) report, which will also be wrong because you can't use time on site with evars, only props. No matter how many times I reiterate, it's counterintuitive, so they'll continue making that mistake.
Yes, but I don't use it