expected variance in actual vs expected traffic of Adobe Target activities when analyzed in Analytics

[nogupta1791]

We work on lot of AB test activities and use Analytics as the reporting source. There are times when we compare the expected vs actual test traffic in Analytics dashboard. Most of the time we see a variation of 10% in expected vs actual test traffic. Is it expected? What is the variance limit?

For example, if 5K users visited ABC page from July 1 to July 31, we expect that an experiment running on ABC page for all visitors during the same period should have 5K users as well.

[pradnya_balvir · Accepted solution]

Hi @nogupta1791 ,

If the data in Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target isn't matching, it's likely due to discrepancies in how the data is collected, the report suite used in each platform, or issues with the integration between the two systems, such as the order of execution where Target might not be firing before Analytics, causing mismatched visitor IDs; always double-check that the correct report suite is selected in both platforms and verify that the data stitching between Analytics and Target is functioning properly by examining the relevant parameters in the browser network tab

Key points to investigate:

• Report Suite Mismatch:

  Ensure the same report suite is selected in both Analytics reports and Target activity settings. 
• Data Stitching:

  Check if the visitor ID (mboxMCSDID in Target and sdid in Analytics) is being passed correctly between platforms by analyzing network requests in the browser developer tools. 
• Execution Order:

  Verify that Target's JavaScript code is loaded and executes before the Analytics tracking code to ensure accurate data capture. 
• Audience Segmentation:

  If using custom audiences in Target, make sure they are correctly synced with Analytics segments. 
• Data Latency:

  Remember that Analytics data might have a slight delay compared to Target, so consider the timeframe when comparing data.