The DL on Adobe Analytics from a publisher's perspective
Updated February 29, 2016
The DL on Adobe Analytics from a publisher's perspective
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).
Pros
- 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.)
Cons
- 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.
Using Adobe Analytics
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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
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