Discover Deeper Customer Insights with Adobe Customer Journey Analytics' Event Depth Feature

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Introduction

Event Depth is a new standard dimension component introduced to Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) in May 2025. It gives CJA practitioners new ways to measure and better understand how events are positioned within bounded experience sessions. The Event Depth dimension enables detailed tracking and analysis of where specific events occur in the sequential flow of user interactions within a session. By revealing the precise positioning of events within the sequence of customer event interactions, this dimension empowers analysts to make clear distinctions between sessions demonstrating high levels of engagement and those showing minimal interaction patterns against collected events activity. Through this enhanced visibility into user behavior, analysts can effectively identify opportunities for optimization and leverage data-informed insights to make strategic improvements to the overall customer journey.

Figure 1: Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) Event Depth Dimension Example (Events, Bounces [session with only one event], Session Starts, Session Ends)

What is Event Depth?

Event Depth (component ID= adobe_event_depth) assigns a sequential number to each event-based interaction within a user session, tracking all events from start to finish in a bounded session. Event Depth sequentially counts each event within a CJA session, regardless of the event type. Here's how it works in a example commerce journey:

• A visitor lands on your homepage (Event Depth = 1, session start)

• Uses the search function (Event Depth = 2)

• Views a product details page (Event Depth = 3)

• Adds item to cart (Event Depth = 4)

• Proceeds to checkout (Event Depth = 5)

• Completes purchase (Event Depth = 6, session end)

This numbering system assigns each interaction a unique sequential integer value that precisely indicates its chronological position within the user session. By maintaining an ordered record of every event's placement in the interaction sequence, this systematic approach enables CJA analysts to conduct detailed analysis of user behavior patterns. The sequential values provide clear visibility into how users progress through their journey, making it possible to identify common pathways, analyze engagement depth patterns, and understand the typical progression of interactions that lead to desired outcomes.

The diagram below illustrates how Event Depth increments with each user interaction within a single session. Starting from the session start beginning (Event Depth = 1), each subsequent interaction increases the Event Depth by 1. The final session end Event Depth value equals the total number of events in the session (Event Depth = 6), providing a clear measure of engagement depth.

Figure 2: Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) Event Depth Sequence Showing the Relationship Between Session Start and Session End

Lineage of Event Depth

Event Depth in CJA is the modern equivalent of Adobe Analytics' Hit Depth dimension, adapted for today's cross platform customer journey analysis. While Hit Depth in Adobe Analytics (AA) counts hits during digital experience visits at collection time with fixed sessions, Event Depth in CJA tracks all types of events both digital and offline across multiple platforms within a session determined at report time. This is particularly powerful as CJA sessions can be dynamically recalculated when new events are ingested, requiring possible re-computation of Event Depth values, unlike AA where sessions are fixed once ingested. This evolution reflects CJA's approach to customer journey analysis, expanding beyond mobile and web hits to encompass all platform and channel events. The key advancement lies in CJA's ability to track sequential event positioning across a broader range of touchpoints while maintaining the same effective incremental counting method that made Hit Depth valuable for understanding digital engagement patterns.

Event Depth Key Benefits

The Event Depth dimension offers several advancements for organizations seeking to enhance their understanding of customer behavior and optimize customer experiences. By providing precise sequential tracking of user interactions within sessions, this feature enables analysts to derive valuable insights that can directly impact business outcomes. Here are the key benefits of implementing Event Depth analysis:

• Analyze user engagement patterns by tracking when specific event interactions occur within sessions

• Identify optimal conversion paths by examining the typical event depth of successful transactions

• Segment data based on interaction depth for more focused analysis

• Compare behavior patterns across different customer segments

• Monitor drop-off points by analyzing where users typically exit their sessions in the event sequence

• Evaluate the effectiveness of navigation paths by studying event depth progression

• Optimize content placement and user experiences based on typical interaction patterns and sequence depth

• Identify potential user friction points by analyzing unusual event depth patterns

Figure 3: Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) Event Depth Dimension Example (Product Views, Cart Additions, Orders)

Event Depth Use Cases

Let's explore some practical applications of Event Depth in your analysis in further detail:

1. Conversion Event Depth Analysis

Analyze the specific event depths at which conversions most frequently take place within user sessions. This detailed examination helps determine whether customers are following unnecessarily lengthy or complex paths before reaching their desired conversion points. By understanding these patterns, you can identify opportunities to streamline the conversion journey and remove potential obstacles that may be causing users to take longer routes than optimal to complete their intended actions.

2. Content Engagement Event Depth Analysis

Gain deeper insights into user engagement patterns by analyzing the event depth of specific content interactions. This analysis reveals how thoroughly users explore and interact with your content assets throughout their session journey. By examining the sequential positioning of content engagement events, you can better understand which content elements successfully capture and maintain user interest, as well as identify where users may disengage or require additional engagement opportunities. This detailed view of content interaction patterns enables more strategic content placement and content management decisions based on actual user behavior data.

3. Search Behavior Event Depth Analysis

Track and analyze the frequency and positioning of search events within user sessions to understand search behavior patterns and optimize your search functionality. By examining when and how often users initiate searches during their journey, you can identify whether searches occur early in sessions (indicating immediate information seeking), or later (suggesting potential navigation difficulties). This detailed analysis of search event depth patterns enables you to refine search algorithms, improve result relevance, and enhance the overall search experience based on actual user interaction patterns.

4. Funnel Drop-off Event Depth Analysis

Study where in the event sequence users most commonly abandon key conversion funnels. By analyzing the event depth of drop-off points, you can identify specific stages in the journey where users encounter friction or lose interest. This insight allows you to implement targeted improvements at critical points in the conversion process, such as simplifying complex steps, adding supportive content, or introducing retention mechanisms at key abandonment points to improve overall funnel completion rates.

5. Feature Adoption Event Depth Analysis

Examine how deeply into their sessions users typically progress before engaging with specific product features or functionality. This analysis helps product teams understand the discovery patterns of key features and assess their accessibility within the user journey. By knowing at what event depth users typically interact with certain features, you can optimize feature placement, improve feature discovery through better UI/UX design, and develop more effective onboarding flows that introduce capabilities at the most opportune moments in the user journey.

Working with Event Depth in Analysis Workspace

To begin using Event Depth in your CJA analysis, first ensure the dimension is enabled in your Data View component settings. Once enabled:

1. Open a new or existing project in CJA Analysis Workspace

2. Locate Event Depth in the Components panel under Dimensions

3. Drag Event Depth into your freeform table

4. Add metrics like Events, Sessions, or Conversions to analyze patterns

Figure 4: Customer Journey Analytics (CJA) Event Depth Component Selection

You can enhance your CJA analysis with Event Depth by:

• Creating segments based on Event Depth to focus on specific event interaction patterns

• Using Event Depth in calculated metrics to measure engagement effectiveness

• Combining Event Depth with contextual dimensions such as Marketing Channel or Device Type to uncover richer insights

• Use Event Depth in combination with Time Spent metrics to understand both depth and time duration of engagement

• Create segments for different ranges of Event Depth to categorize sessions by engagement level

• Compare Event Depth patterns across different customer segments to identify varying engagement behaviors

• Use the Event Depth dimension to break down any journey node in Journey Canvas

• Create custom alerts for unusual Event Depth patterns that might indicate technical issues

• Use Event Depth to identify optimal points for personalized content delivery

Conclusion

Event Depth marks a meaningful standard component advancement in CJA capabilities, giving organizations clearer visibility into event-based user session engagement patterns. This standard dimension component helps analysts better understand how users navigate touchpoints, interact with content, and progress through their customer journey. When used strategically, teams can uncover insights that reveal opportunities to optimize experiences, improve conversion funnels, enhance user interactions, and create better paths to increase user satisfaction across all platform touchpoints.

Begin leveraging Event Depth in your CJA analysis now. This dimension uncovers fresh insights from your customer journey data through detailed behavioral analysis. By adding Event Depth to your toolkit, you'll make more informed decisions to enhance user experiences, optimize conversion paths, and drive stronger business outcomes across all your platform properties.