Activity Map Dimension Not Matching other Dimensions

[czmudzin]

If I measure our homepage visitors by activity map vs. page, why do I get 2 vastly different results? Does activity map only fire in a call under certain conditions?

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Activity Map works by listening for an item on the page to be clicked; determining if it's a navigation asset (which by the default behaviour means it's looking for anchors only, but you can extend this to buttons), grabbing three key pieces of information (link text, link region, and page name where the link was found), then holding onto those values until the next page view or hit (i.e. link click or exit event, etc) is sent.

So the first page of a user journey (or potentially navigation within the site where the developers used JS to turn a non-navigation asset like a Div into a "navigation" asset which Adobe doesn't recognize) cannot have an Activity Map value.

For example:

• (user enters the site on the home page)
• Home Page
  • Page View for page "home" is sent
  • Activity Map Link does not exist
  • Activity Map Region does not exist
  • Activity Map Page does not exist
• (user clicks on link to "Section 1" page)
• Section 1
  • Page View for page "section 1" is sent
  • Activity Map Link should say "section 1" or "go to section one" (whatever text the user clicked, or you overwrote the value to)
  • Activity Map Region by default will be the nearest id for the link (or again, if a specific region has been set that), so maybe it will be "menu-234" or "main-menu", etc
  • Activity Map Page will be the page name from the page where the link was clicked, so "home"

Page Name "home" is very different from Activity Map Page "home"... the first is page that is loaded... the second is the page where the link was clicked.

1. So when I want to pull out what people are clicking on my home page, I use a segment of:

HIT

    pageName equals home

Then I look at the Activity Map links / regions by Activity Map Link Instance metric

2. If I want to see what pages the "home" page is driving, then I use a segment of:

HIT

    Activity Map Page equals home

And I then break this out by Pages, and also I can look at what regions or links are driving people to my pages (particularly when there may be multiple ways to drive users to the page (main menu, footer, container blocks on the page, etc)

3. And finally, if I want to see the engagement on a specific region, like my main menu, I f create a segment like:

HIT

    Activity Map Region equals main-menu

And I will break this down by Activity Map Link / Activity Map Link Instances; or I will look at Activity Map Page / Activity Map Link Instances (I could also use the Activity Map Page Instances here, but since the three fields work in parallel, I usually just stick to one of them for consistent naming in my reports) to understand where the main menu (or other regions) are being used and what the engagement pattern is like.

[czmudzin]

Thank you! I assumed this was listening for an event but wasn't sure. Thanks for clarifying on how to validate. Very helpful!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

You're welcome. Activity Map is one of those tracking features that can take a bit to wrap your head around.. since the information that is sent actually belongs to the previous page (in most instances anyway... clicks and exits technically you're still on the page when that data is sent).

But the primary idea behind Activity Map is that it reduces server calls.. rather than the old school way of creating click tracking on every element; Activity Map collects the information and passes it on the next page view, so no specific click tracking and no added server calls.

[czmudzin]

@Jennifer_Dungan If we have a custom click event that fires when a link/button is clicked, will it work properly in conjunction with the activity map dimensions?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I have a few custom clicks myself... Activity Map data will (or should) attach itself to your s.tl() call (again assuming that Adobe recognizes that the item clicked should have Activity Map data). However, I will also see the Activity Map data again on the following page. For me, I then just have to be mindful of what elements have click tracking, and account for that using segments to prevent double counting an interaction.... 

You can see the Activity Map data on your calls, either looking at your Network panel, using the Adobe Experience Debugger, or even using Omnibug. The best way to understand how and if it's working in your scenario is to test it and see what is happening.