[Mentor Michelle DePonte] Adobe Analytics Community Mentorship Program 2024

[seanrobinson]

Hello Team,

Welcome to the Adobe Analytics Community Mentorship Program 2024! This is the featured Community Discussion thread for your Adobe Analytics Community Mentor, Michelle DePonte (aka @M_shell), who will be here to guide and support you and your peers with your Adobe Analytics questions as you prepare for the Adobe Analytics Business Practitioner Professional Certification (Exam ID: AD0-E212), through to the end of the program. 

Meet your Mentor:

Aspirants mapped to Mentor, Michelle, @M_shell

1. xingu
2. Shweta04 
3. Mahesh_Gunaje
4. SahilLa1
5. TuhinaDasChoudhury
6. AarushiSl 
7. Monishasargunan
8. KaiWa
9. AbhinavSr3

How to participate 

1. Aspirants’ goal is to clear their Adobe Analytics Certification during the duration of the program: July 24th, 2024 – September 4th, 2024.
2. Aspirants: Post your Questions in this thread to connect with Mentor, Michelle, @M_shell and your fellow Aspirant peers.  *You are all preparing for the same Certification, so feel free to use this space to share what you’re learning and collaborate! 

Suggested Next Steps for Aspirants:

• Update your Community Profile photo with your latest headshot so that you can stand out to your Mentor and Peer Aspirants.
• "Like" this thread to confirm your participation in the program
• Introduce yourself to Michelle and your Aspirant peers by Replying to this Thread! Break the ice by introducing yourself (location, org/ company, etc.) and your experience with/ interest in Adobe Analytics  
• Post your Questions to this thread as you begin learning more about the Adobe Analytics Business Practitioner Professional Certification (Exam ID: AD0-E212)
• Test your Analytics knowledge by browsing through the Adobe Analytics Community Questions and taking your best shot at answering some Qs!
• Remember that every post / like / comment you make in your contextual thread and in the Analytics Community throughout the duration of the program helps increase your chance to be recognized by your Mentor and win exclusive Adobe swag, so bring your best efforts!

Quick links 

• Program Link
• Certifications Link

[AarushiSl]

Hello everyone,

I am Aarushi Slathia. I am a recent Data Science Masters graduate from Indiana University Bloomington and am also working currently as a Data Scientist with a non-profit organisation: Project 990 Inc. I am currently in the process of looking for a full-time opportunity in the field of Data Science, working towards upskilling my data analytics skills and trying to gain as much experience as I can. 

I am here to start my journey with Adobe Analytics and I hope to learn new skills and gain good experience during this process.

[Shweta04]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Shweta Singh. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn Adobe Analytics and am eager to dive deep into its features and capabilities. I believe that with Community support and mentorship, I can quickly grasp the intricacies of Adobe Analytics.

Thank you @seanrobinson @M_shell for your support, and I’m excited to embark on this learning adventure together.

[Xingu13]

Hi everyone, 

My name is Xin and I work in the marketing analytics with a focus on web. I'm thrilled to learn more about Adobe Analytics as my org recently started the implementation on Adobe Analytics. I've been a long time user for Google Analytics, but it is my first time to learn about the exciting features and flexibilities with Adobe Analytics. I'm looking to learn from the communities and also understand the best practices within the adobe ecosystem. Thank you! 

[TuhinaDasChoudhury]

Hi everyone, 

I am Tuhina. I have been working in digital marketing since 5 years and have fundamental knowledge of Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics. Excited to be a part of this program and hoping to learn from you all.

[M_shell]

Hi everyone,
I'm Michelle, and i'm excited to be your mentor for this cohort! Appreciate your introduction posts so far - it's great to hear about the diverse experiences and perspectives you each bring to this mentorship program. A little about me: I've been working in Marketing Analytics for about 4 years now, and i'm passionate about implementing analytics and finding ways to turn data into actionable insights. I believe that collaboration and shared learning are key to success. I look forward to learning from you all and sharing my insights as we progress through this program. 

Overview of Study Materials:
As we work towards our Business Practitioner Professional certification, there are four main sections we’ll be focusing on, along with their overall emphasis on the final exam. Here's a breakdown of what we'll be covering (click on 'Spoiler' to expand each section for details):

Section 1: Business analysis (34%)

Spoiler

- Given a business need/question, identify an appropriate reporting strategy to perform an analysis
- Analyze data to answer business questions
- Identify conversion funnels (as a concept to understand business analysis)
- Consult the Solution Design Reference (SDR) to determine what data is available in reports
- Analyze report data to summarize and draw conclusions
- Recognize outliers and anomalies in reports

Section 2: Reporting and dashboarding for projects (38%)

Spoiler

- Consider the advantages of using specific visualizations based on a given scenario
- Compare fallout and flow visualization
- Apply the process to schedule and share Projects for different users and/or groups
- Apply the process to look up and combine dimensions, metrics, date ranges, and segments
- Apply the process to create a visualization
- Given a scenario, determine the appropriate item to use
- Report on marketing campaign performance

   Section 3: Segmentation and calculated metrics (19%)

Spoiler

- Determine how to develop and configure basic segments using best practices
- Apply the process to share segments with others in the organization
- Apply segments to Projects and Components
- Apply the process to generate basic calculated and/or segmented metrics

Section 4: General tool knowledge and troubleshooting (9%)  

Spoiler

- Understand different types of dimensions and parameters existing in Adobe Analytics (evars, props, and events)
- Determine how to export data from Adobe Analytics

Setup Your Adobe Credential Management System Account: 

Using your Adobe ID, create and log in to your Adobe Credential Management System account to schedule and take your exam. 

It is necessary to have an Adobe Credential Management System Account for three reasons:

• This is where you can view your certifications, exam history, exam scores, and additional information.
• You must be logged in to the Adobe Credential Management System in order to create and log in to your Examity account. That is where you will schedule, pay for, and take your test.
• You must be logged in to the Adobe Credential Management System to take practice tests on the Adobe Certification Exam Prep Portal.

Government ID required: You MUST use a government-issued photo ID as your valid form of ID; soft copies or digital IDs are not allowed. 

Adobe ID account name: Your Adobe ID account name MUST match your name on your government ID. 

Assessment Tools: **Now onto the fun stuff!** 

After you've got a good grasp of what topics the exam will cover (see "Overview of Study Materials" above), feel free to start assessing your knowledge with the following and post any questions or links to other threads that you found helpful around any topics:

• This prep guide provides the foundational knowledge we need, covering key topics. It's a great resource for those looking to deepen their understanding. I highly recommend going through the Sample Questions and Practice Exam (available toward the end of the modules) to assess your understanding/retention of material, as well as gain familiarity with the format of questions.
• I utilized this resource for test practice at the time (a few months ago, before the prep guide was available), and would still recommend going through these additional Sample Questions to help you identify what areas you may need to focus more attention.

Next Steps:

If you made it this far, congrats! We'll go through each section that will be covered on the exam (see "Overview of Study Materials" above) and concurrently discuss any questions you may have along the way in this thread. I encourage everyone to actively participate in using this forum to share your experiences and ask questions. Let's make the most of this opportunity by engaging fully and supporting each other throughout the process!

[Xingu13]

Hey Michelle, Thanks for sharing the setup for Adobe Credential account. Does anyone know what is the best way to update the legal first name and last name? the system doesn't seem to allow me to update the name unfortunately.

[M_shell]

Hi @Xingu13 , based on Adobe's how to get certified section here (expand Step 1: Create your account), it looks like you need to send an email to certif@adobe.com (at least 72 hours before your scheduled exam) to request a legal name change. Be prepared to provide a government-issued photo ID to verify your legal name. 

[Xingu13]

Thank you! Yes confirming that I was able to update my name on the Adobe Credential system by emailing certif@adobe.com for update. They did ask for a government id, and update it for me very quickly! 

[M_shell]

Hi, as mentioned in my previous post, we'll attack this by sections, starting with Section 1: Business Analysis - which covers 34% of the exam ~ this is the second largest chunk of questions, so please pay attention and share any questions/findings related to this section by replying to this post! (use the 'reply button' on this post below; see example screenshot) 

NOTE: For Google Analytics Users (click to expand 'Spoiler')

Spoiler

I noticed some of you also have experience with Google Analytics. Something that helped my understanding early on was this documentation that helps to align concepts from Google Analytics (GA) to Adobe Analytics (AA)!

Section 1: Business Analysis (34%)

Following Section one in the Prep Guide, I have a few callouts to share: 

• Data Workbench - "Data Workbench is WAS part of Adobe Analytics" This feature is no longer available, due to end-of-life as of 12/31/2023. But let's try to understand it's functionality at a minimum, just in case it's on the exam. Preface: I have never personally used Data Workbench, so i'm going to lean into this helpful community post, which sounds like the origin story of Adobe CJA Workspace, where you can ingest different data sources and report on using advanced analysis techniques to predict and monitor customer trends. 
• Solution Design Reference (SDR) - I noticed this topic isn't covered in the Prep Guide; however, I remember running into maybe one or two questions around SDRs on the exam. Checkout this overview of an SDR and how Adobe approaches creating an SDR
• Dimensions - There are a ton of standard/out-of-the-box dimension variables from Adobe unfortunately; I would try to focus on the commonly used dimensions for business analytics reporting such as Marketing Channels - especially from an "administrator" point of view (e.g. the person that defines and sets up the processing rules, as well as Time Spent on Page (highly recommend understanding both Dimensions AND Metrics used to calculate time spent on page!))
• Tracking Code - In addition to having a general understanding of Tracking Code, I recommend understanding their implementation of a  tracking query parameter and how their configuration can potentially clash with Marketing Channels due to processing rules linked above
• Anomaly Detection - I found this supplemental documentation helpful to better understand the statistical models available in Workspace
• Visualizations - I want to stress how important it is to understand all visualization types listed here! If I had more time to study, I would've used blank note cards and written down each visualization type to help memorize them...because I don't use all of them on a regular basis to be honest and I remember a lot of questions were around specific visualization types!
• Reports & Analytics - Sigh. This has also been sunset by Adobe earlier this year. I rarely used it because the "new landing page" was the default starting point in Adobe Analytics (AA) by the time I started using AA. From my understanding, Reports & Analytics used to be the default reporting starting point and many of the features were duplicative of Workspace. I mention it because it's still listed on the exam overview; but has been sunset and isn't mentioned in the latest Prep Guide so I wouldn't worry too much about this. 
• Conversion Funnel - My last tip for this post is to stress that the minimum experience for passing this exam is to have a basic understanding of digital marketing, which entails a familiarity with conversion funnels. A lot of the questions I remember facing were scenario-based and in the context of marketing conversion funnels. It's okay if you're not comfortable with this yet - there are many resources on the Internet, like this one: https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/how-to-optimize-your-ecommerce-conversion-funnel 
  
  All right, please go through the Prep Guide - Section 1 module and my notes above, then let me know if you have any questions or found anything helpful to share with the group by replying to this post!

[Xingu13]

I have been revisiting the 'tracking code' and 'marketing channels' section, and I have questions on the recommended approach with this section with Google UTM structure. Since all the external traffic comes in with the utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, do most people pass these values as evars for analysis? or do you set them to tracking code as well? Thanks!

[M_shell]

Great question @Xingu13! Either of those options would work for analysis in Workspace, but it mostly comes down to how the organization wants to implement the campaign variable and Tracking Code dimension.

Option 1 - "pass these values as evars for analysis"

Send each utm query string into a separate eVar. This method is more simple to implement overall, but requires the use of extra eVars.

Option 2 - "set them to tracking code"

Send all utm query strings into the Tracking Code dimension as concatenated values. You can then use Classification rules to create additional dimensions that focus on each utm parameter. This method has a more complex learning curve, but does not use any extra eVars.

Check out this link for a detailed breakdown of each option.. Let me know if you need any further explanation. Thanks!

[M_shell]

This post covers the whopping majority (38%) of questions expected on the exam from Section 2: Reporting and Dashboarding for Projects. My advice is to be strategic in your study approach when the scope is broad, like this one! Try to focus on the topics in Sections 1 - 2 that carry the most weight. They're most likely to appear on the exam, and you'll be cool, calm, and collected when it happens :]

Section 2: Reporting and Dashboarding for Projects (38%)

Objectives:

• Consider the advantages of using specific visualizations based on a given scenario
• Compare fallout and flow visualization
• Apply the process to schedule and share Projects for different users and/or groups
• Apply the process to look up and combine dimensions, metrics, date ranges, and segments
• Apply the process to create a visualization
• Given a scenario, determine the appropriate item to use
• Report on marketing campaign performance

Topics to focus on:

Adobe Analytics Workspace 

• Before diving into the Workspace components (e.g. dimensions, metrics, calculated metrics, sharing projects, date ranges, etc), recommend starting high-level with an Analytics Workspace overview 
• Then go into the Workspace components to understand how and when to use ALL of the different visualizations, with a slightly heavier focus on the Fallout and Flow visualizations
• Finally, be sure to have a strong understanding of Adobe variables and how to use these standard/out-of-the-box components when building reports in Adobe Analytics: 
  • Dimensions
  • Metrics
  • Calculated Metrics
    • Example: Build a "Pages Views per Visits" metric 

Sharing Projects

• Note the Prep Guide module incorrectly references and links to Adobe Customer Journey Analytics instead of stating as "Adobe Analytics". These are two different Adobe analytics reporting tools and we should only be referencing Adobe Analytics for this exam - see correct link here
• There are mainly two options for sharing projects via Workspace -
  • Share a specific project role - this option allows you to share projects with a group of users that have been defined as a User Group via Adobe Admin Console
  • Share a link to a project - this shared link requires the recipient to log into their Adobe Analytics account and have access to the report suite via Adobe Admin Console. If the recipient does not have an Adobe Analytics account, they may be able to view as read-only if your Adobe Analytics administrator has not disabled the "no login required" option.
• Note the different default permissions for recipients to access shared projects in the Prep Guide module

Schedule Projects

• Note the Prep Guide module provides an incorrect link; use this link to the correct documentation for Scheduling Projects

Attribution in Adobe Analytics

• Attribution overview
• Attribution FAQ - Highly recommend
• Understand the Attribution Model and Best Practices
• Understand the Lookback Window
• Bonus: I remember seeing questions on the exam (I took it a few months ago) specific to Attribution visualizations

Feel free to let reply to this post for any questions or updates you'd like to share so far. You. Got. This!!! 

[M_shell]

Section 3: Segmentation and Calculated Metrics (19%)

• Determine how to develop and configure basic segments using best practices
• Apply the process to share segments with others in the organization
• Apply segments to Projects and Components
• Apply the process to generate basic calculated and/or segmented metrics

Have you heard of the phrase, "eat the frog"? Meaning the 'frog' is your most vital task and if you have two frogs, eat the 'ugliest' one first. Section 3 has two frogs: Segmentation and Calculated Metrics. I think Segmentation in Adobe Analytics is a complex beast, so let's eat that frog first!

Think of Adobe Analytic's segmentation container logic like sorting mail in a post office:

• Hit = sorting at the hit level means Adobe will evaluate each piece of mail separately - for example, every action on a website, like a page view or button click, is an individual piece of mail. If using page views as a metric, Adobe only returns page view hits that matched the condition set in this container.
• Visit = consider a visit level to be like a bundle of mail delivered at once to a single address, so all the letters or packages delivered together represent one visit. All the hits (page views, clicks, etc) within one session are grouped into a visit. As a result, Adobe returns all the pages viewed across the entire visit, where the condition is true.
• Visitor = the visitor level is like sorting mail by recipient over time. No matter how many deliveries they receive, it's all tracked back to one person. This level focuses on everything a single visitor does over multiple visits, tracking their behavior across sessions. For example, if at least one page view meets the criteria during visit 1, then all pages viewed by the visitor across multiple visits are returned.

To expand on the Prep Guide, i've added notes in bullet points for topics on segmentation and calculated metrics below: 

• Segment Builder
  • Default container type is "Hit"
  • Use AND/OR operators between nested containers,
  • Use THEN operator to define sequential segments
• Generate segments from a Fallout visualization
• Segment Comparison (Segment IQ)
• Share Segments
  • Segment functionality differs between admin and non-admin user roles
• Publish segments to Experience Cloud
• Calculated Metrics overview
  • Build a calculated metric
  • Helpful How-To Videos for calculated metrics!
• Focus on Advanced Functions
• Don't forget:
  • Basic Functions
  • Adobe out-of-the-box Calculated Metrics

[Xingu13]

I also have a question on grouping values from a dimension, and the best way to approach it. For example, if I want to group European countries "United Kingdom", "France", "Italy", "Portugal" etc into "EMEA region", should I use Segment to create these? When i try to create segment, it seems like it doesn't allow regex with a lot of drop down selections and I have to select them one by one, is there any more convenient way to combine values of a dimension? Thanks! 

[M_shell]

Hi @Xingu13, my understanding is that you want to easily group multiple dimension items - segments are great for this! You can try creating a segment using the comparison operator = "equals any of" and use a comma (,) to separate each value in the input field. It will return exact matches for each value, up to 500 items. 

Here is a link for additional segment comparison operators you can use that are similar to regex operations: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/components/segmentation/segment-reference/seg-o...

Hope this helps! 

[Xingu13]

ah interesting. Thanks Michelle for sharing. I'll try that out for my configuration tomorrow!

[M_shell]

Hi xingu; Shweta04; Mahesh_Gunaje; SahilLa1; TuhinaDasChoudhury; AarushiSl; Monishasargunan; KaiWa; AbhinavSr3

Please fill out this form by August 25, 2024 to apply for a 50% off voucher for the certification exam! The Adobe team will be using this to determine eligibility, and will be selecting candidates based on participation in this program.

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Section 4: General tool knowledge and troubleshooting (9%)

• Understand different types of dimensions and parameters existing in Adobe Analytics (evars, props, and events)
• Determine how to export data from Adobe Analytics

Let's wrap up with the final sections in the Prep Guide:

1. Please go through 'Section 4: General tool knowledge and troubleshooting'. In addition, it may also be useful to review Classifications
2. Then I highly recommend setting aside time to go through the section 'Review Sample Questions' This simulates the real exam, so you can start familiarizing yourself with the testing environment and format of questions. Don't worry, you can re-take the test as many times as you want; but the questions posed will not change. After you submit your answers, you'll be presented with a breakdown of your results and time duration (remember: the real exam will be timed and limited to only 100 minutes). IMO, the feedback provided here is not helpful (it shows 'blank' text), but will map the resulting score to the four sections we've been covering these past few weeks together. This is a great way to gauge your understanding of the material and see where you might need to focus a bit more. Try to do this practice exam like you would for the real exam - block out a couple of hours, find a quiet space, and treat it seriously. Hopefully, this will help build your confidence and ensure you're well-prepared. Let me know if you need any tips on how to structure your study time. 

Good Luck on your exam! Trust your preparation, stay calm, and give it your best.