Analytics digitalData vs the Satellite object. Pros and Cons? | Community
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v91332370
v91332370
Level 2
March 30, 2018

Analytics digitalData vs the Satellite object. Pros and Cons?

  • March 30, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 14122 views

Hi, could someone please clarify the pros and cons of setting up Adobe's DTM with data elements listening for changes in your 'digitalData' data layer object versus using the _satellite.track('my-event') direct calls ?

It seems like both Adobe Analytics and DTM have their own data layers with their own separate events unlike Google Analytics and GTM where everything is pushed to the same single object. Is that correct?

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    2 replies

    aseelund
    aseelund
    Level 3
    April 2, 2018

    digitalData is a posed as a web standard data object, providing data about the page, server environment, and user details, or event data that occurs client side.

    The satellite object is part of the adobe analytics/dtm internal mechanism.

    use DTM to reference your digitalData object (via data elements) and avoid using direct _satellite calls where possible.

    DTM provides the functionality of satellite in a user interface.

      v91332370
      v91332370Author
      Level 2
      April 13, 2018

      Thanks aseelund, if understand your reply correctly it is better to track events in the digitalData and then listen to them in DTM because you make use of the web standard; correct?

      In what cases would you use the _satellite.track('my-event') ?

      jantzen_b
      Adobe Employee
      jantzen_bAdobe Employee
      Adobe Employee
      April 16, 2018

      _satellite.track is used to trigger a direct call rule in DTM or Launch. Direct call rules should only be used when you are unable to use the DTM/Launch interface to trigger the rule. Using direct call rules relies on your development team to implement page code for each action you wish to track. Using the normal events that happen on the page and using DTM/Launch to listen for those events is best practice regardless of which tag management solution you are using.

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