Link Tracking - Adobe Events vs Custom Links

[priyankagupta20]

Dear Team,
What is difference between tracking links with Adobe events (for example event1) and tracking links without adobe event (means using custom links)? please share advantages and disadvantages with examples and when should use adobe events and when should use custom links for tracking of links in adobe analytics with examples.

Please guide.

[rameshpennam · Accepted solution]

@priyankagupta20 

Hope this information helps you to decide.

Adobe Events for Link Tracking:

Advantages:

• Granularity: Allows for detailed categorization of link clicks based on specific events.
• Flexibility: Can be used to track various link types and actions beyond simple clicks (e.g., downloads, form submissions).
• Rich Data: Can capture additional data points along with the link click (e.g., product information, user behavior).

Disadvantages:

• Implementation Complexity: Requires more coding and configuration compared to custom links.
• Potential for Errors: Incorrect event setup can lead to inaccurate data.

When to Use:

• When you need to track specific actions or interactions beyond simple link clicks.
• When you want to categorize links into different groups based on their purpose or context.
• When you need to capture additional data related to the link click.

Example: Tracking a "Download Whitepaper" button with the event "download_whitepaper" to capture the whitepaper title, download date, and user information.

Custom Links:

Advantages:

• Simplicity: Easy to implement without extensive coding.
• Basic Tracking: Provides fundamental link click data for analysis.

Disadvantages:

• Limited Information: Offers less granular data compared to events.
• Less Flexibility: Difficult to track complex link interactions or additional data points.

When to Use:

• When tracking simple link clicks without requiring detailed categorization or additional data.
• When you have a limited development resources or need a quick implementation.

Example: Tracking a "Learn More" button on a product page using a custom link to understand click-through rates.

Key Differences

Feature Adobe Events Custom Links

Granularity	High	Low
Flexibility	High	Low
Implementation Complexity	High	Low
Data Captured	Rich	Basic

Conclusion:

Choose Adobe Events for detailed tracking and analysis of link interactions. Use custom links for basic link click data when simplicity is prioritized.

[bjoern__koth]

HI @priyankagupta20 

success events are basically the milestones a user achieves on the website which are dedicated counters for this specific event.

Adobe comes with a bunch of out of the box standard events for instance for ecommerce shopping cart events, but also the custom event1 as you have mentioned.

What event1 stands for, is completely up to you and can be configured in the admin section for each report suite.

Now, custom page view and link tracking is the way how you get these custom events into the system at all. Meaning, you cannot get a custom event1 into the Analytics tool without including it into a tracking call.

BUT you are not obliged to send an event in a tracking call at all. As mentioned above, custom events are internal counters for a specific action a user has performed and make your life a lot easier when it comes to reporting, if you can just use this specific event and do not need to filter for string values in whatever other data you have tracked alongside with the tracking call.

Example:

Imagine a website that has a newsletter form. Now, you can create a custom link tracking call with payload that contains e.g., the name of the button in the link name.

But to make this information usable, you must filter in your dashboard's "Custom Link" to find the actual number of how often this event was tracked.

If you had a dedicated event for your e.g., newsletter sign-up, you can just use this event without additional filtering.

Hope this makes it a little clearer