Link Excel file to Adobe Analytics

[SukritiDa]

Hi, I need to attach an external file to Adobe Analytics so that I can create a segmentation that doesn't already exist in the data captured in the platform. How can I do that? 

Or could I connect the platform to Tableau? 

Or could I make custom segments in the Adobe to get that information by the cuts I want?

[Jennifer_Dungan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Not sure what type of segmentation you are trying to create, but you should be aware that depending on what you are trying to pull that data such as Visits or Unique visitors could get inflated by attempting to process and combine flattened data with new logic...

Technically the best option to prevent that is to use the the raw data export and use SQL to calculate the UV and V data similar to how Adobe processes it... however, this is a complex process and not something that you can just throw together quickly... if you are looking at Page Views, then it becomes easier, since a Page View is a Page View is a Page View... you shouldn't have issues running logic and adding together.

So from that perspective, if you want to use Excel, then you should look into Report Builder. This is a plugin for Excel that allows you to pull data directly from Adobe and into Excel, then you can use Excel formulas to read from the imported data and place into a formatted sheet with your final designs; you can use Pivot Tables, you can use VBA scripts and Macros to automate and do even fancier logic, etc.

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics-learn/tutorials/exporting/report-builder/get-start...

I believe there is also a Tableau integration, I have not used it.. I know that our Data Engineering Team uses Tableau, but not directly from Adobe.. They are using the Raw Data feeds I mentioned above and processing the data into our Data Lake (along with data from other sources), then using Tableau to visualize it.

However, I found a few items to possibly get you started:
https://www.tableau.com/blog/tableau-and-adobe-analytics-digital-marketing-gets-even-more-awesome-29...

(This however looks pretty old and use Adobe Data Warehouse export... I thought there was a newer API connection)

https://blog.openbridge.com/4-ways-to-get-your-adobe-analytics-data-into-tableau-power-bi-looker-and...

(Also kind of old... 2018)

Here is a third party connector that has a free option.. I would do your research, but see if something like this, or another connector exists:
https://www.daexus.io/products/

Now, for making segments in Adobe itself.. the segment builder is pretty powerful.. there are times I have not been able to get the granularity I need, but 95% of the time I can use the built-in functionality... So, if you share what you are trying to do, maybe we can help you build segments to suit your needs

[SukritiDa]

Thank you, Jennifer. This is extremely helpful. I tried making segments and the overall numbers seem to be matching the totals from the segment numbers so I am using that assumption to verify that they have been created correctly. I will do some more verifications before going forward. 

I wanted to plug excel/other data sets into Adobe but I don't think that is possible in a short period of time. 

This is super helpful though. Thank you!

[Jennifer_Dungan]

OK, yes, if you are trying to stitch in other data sources, Excel is a good way to go you can use functions (like VLookup and Match) to line up items, or create a more complex VBA script that can loop through the items and do more complex data manipulations.

If your data is matching, you should be good

[yuhuisg]

If your Excel data is used to supplement the AA data that has been collected from tracking, then you can consider importing your Excel data using Data Sources: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/import/data-sources/overview.html?lang=en

[Jennifer_Dungan]

This is also a good idea. Then you can use Workspace to build out reports.