Can Adobe Analytics track 'Previous click' or 'Previous event'?

[tania_lin]

Hi there,

I am curious to understand which clicks over the site that drive visitors to a certain page of our site,

Is there an way in adobe analytics to get a view of  'previous clicks' before landing on the page?

Thanks!

Tania

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Adobe has a built in functionality called Activity Map.. every time you click on a link (anchor) or a button, it tracks three pieces of information:

• The page you were on when you clicked (using the pageName value of that page)
• The link text that was clicked
• The region in the page

(These values all attach to the page view of the page that the click sent you too, it doesn't have to be on a separate server call... if you have special clicks, the activity map data will attach to those, and it will also attach to exit links - if the link clicked takes you offsite)

Out of the box, the region isn't too useful, it just grabs the closest "id" value from your code, but with a little effort you can break your site into usable regions.

You can also override the link values too if you want...

Frederik Werner wrote a great blog post about using Activity Map better, and though there are many ways to accomplish this, this is a great place to start to see it all in one place:

https://www.fullstackanalyst.io/blog/adobe-analytics/understanding-and-getting-the-most-out-of-activ... 

[tania_lin]

Hi Jdungan,

thanks for much for the prompt reply.

I think activity map is telling me where the users clicked on the page (it is clicks # after the user landed on the page).

I am more curious about what clicks drive the users the the page. it will be clicks outside of the page that direct the users to the page.

Do you know how to get that?

Thanks!

Tania

[Pablo_Childe]

To add to JDungan activity Maps power lies in that it looks at all clicks that the user preform on previous page(s)

So if a user has a 5 page visit and on each page 1-4 you capture a link they have clicked. Then its easy to then segment the user from any one of those clicks. Let me give you an example. Am - Activity Map

Page 1  AM link1

Page 2  AM link2

Page 3  AM link1

Page 4  AM link4

Page 4 user purchases event here is fired.

Lets say you are interested on users that click on Page 1 link and purchase on page 4.

Using a segment where visit has

Activity Map ID 2 on on page click exists

and

Page 4 Purchase event

or you can say...

Show me a segment where visit

Activity map link click Purchase event exists

This will show all previous captured Activity map link clicks.

When talking activity map one caveat. If your coders use same code for multiple buttons or links you may want them to tweak things slight  so each button is uniquely identifiable. Also watch out single page apps that dont fire link clicks.

Also Activity map has a report Region/Link I find helps target more specifically segments so you keep more specific links in mind.

Hope this helps.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Agreed, if you are looking for not just direct clicks (but looking at different clicks through a complete path) this is the way to do it.

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that when I said "use Activity Map" I didn't mean the plugin... All that information is available in Workspace (I almost forget that the plugin exists - I never use it).

If I want to see "clicks that came to page X", I create a segment for "Page X" then I break down by Activity Map regions / links / pages (in whatever context I need)... or if I want to look for specific region clicks coming to my page, I can create a segment specifically for "Activity Map Region equals Y" (like it I want to look specifically at Main Menu links).

Since the Activity Map data is sent on the "page view", the combination of segmenting the page I want and correlating the Activity Map data gives me exactly what you are looking for.... clicks coming to my page. (I also like to use "Activity Map Link Instances" as the metric, as this is more explicitly the "click" metric in this case.)

[tania_lin]

Hi Jdungan,

This is awesome! Though the data look reasonable on my panel, I have a big doubt using this way:

Saying I am on home page, and clicked 'Ice cream' link and then got directed to 'ice cream' page.

When I checked the adobe analytics call firing based on my behaviors:

I have a custom linked fired on the home page, which listing all activity related info: maps, regions, etc..

and I have another call on the 'ice cream' page, which doesn't include any info of activity maps/links/etc.

Then I create a hit level segment- ice cream page. and using your way to pull the clicks:

My doubt is since the activity info is fired with the home page, why using your way can give  me the clicks directed me to the ice cream page  not the clicks happening on the ice cream page?

Thanks!

Tania

[Jennifer_Dungan]

Hmm yeah, if you have "custom link tracking" set up on your clicks, that sort of creates a problem... the Activity Map data would be send along with the s.tl call (and you're right, it wouldn't actually be associated to the page).

I don't have a scenario like this.. I use Activity Map in lieu of having a lot of s.tl calls... If you are using s.tl calls, maybe you need to add something to those calls that indicate the URL that the click is directing them to... then you may have to get a little more creative with your segments (combining Activity Map links, that only occur on a Page View and not a s.tl call) with the special s.tl calls... or something like that?

I may have to think on that one.... 

But definitely having a lot of s.tl calls will make this a lot more challenging.....

[tania_lin]

Agree, it is interesting to know we can use activity map to avoid s.tl.calls.

Do you think if I can get back to the web engineer team to ask them do so? 

Any risk of doing so?

[Jennifer_Dungan]

I think we've all been through that transition before... if you want to control your Regions right out of the gate, this can be significant... but if not, it shouldn't be a big ask...

However, If I were you, just starting out... I would take a little time to get comfortable with areas of your site that don't have clicks on them (maybe in content links, or maybe footers or something that was less critical when you did your initial implementation).

Make sure that you and your team are comfortable with how to pull such reports! The last thing you want to do is have a major shift in your tracking and not know how to use the data.

You can also use the Adobe Debugger plugin to see what kind of data is being collected for your clicks (you will also see this on anything with an s.tl call (it's just that the Activity Map data will be attached to the click and not the following page - but at least you can see the values and make sure they look good).

Also, it should be noted... if you are trying to attach extra specific props/evars/events/etc on a click, you will need to leave the s.tl call... but for normal navigation elements you probably don't have such items.... or nothing that can't be covered by link/region.

You can also start small with your regions.. start with the most important regions of your site and areas that are very easy to identify like elements on every page (header, main nav, footer, left rail, right rail, etc... you know your site better than me and should be able to identify such things...). You can even get your regions set up first, before dropping your s.tl calls to give an added level of comfort as you make the transition.