Author Archives: Jim Gordon

The Modern Digital Analytics Existential Crisis

This article title isn’t clickbait but instead a thought exercise. It’s something I’ve been trying to mentally reconcile for quite a while without much direction. In fact, I started mulling over this right around the time I posted about bot traffic. Our industry will never go away. There will always be jobs… so why is… Read More »

Adobe Analytics & CJA in Google Tag Manager (via Web SDK)

Ever want to know how to implement AA & CJA in GTM via WebSDK? Okay, that’s a lot of abbreviations. Maybe this time in English – do you wanna send data to Adobe from Google Tag Manager? Yes? Wonderful! Let’s go through the steps to do that. Step 1: Create a Schema You should be… Read More »

Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) Dictionary

Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) introduces a lot of new stuff that can be tricky for folks to wrap their head around (including myself). When you look at Adobe’s documentation and presentations, they’re very buttoned up and often use industry jargon. This makes sense – it’s an enterprise selling to enterprises. Unfortunately, that’s not how my… Read More »

Data Layers and Server-Side Tag Management

There is a lot going on in analytics right now – much of it catalyzed by browser privacy changes. These changes can be scary! We’re now in a world that’s considering server-side tracking. As a front-end guy, that’s super intimidating. I have about 10 blog posts that are half-written. One talks about the state of… Read More »

The Adobe Client Data Layer (ACDL)

It’s been a while since I started writing about the Event-Driven Data Layer (EDDL). Since then, I’ve had a lot of really incredible discussions with practitioners around its usage and best practices. The general consensus has been that the W3C is outdated and that the EDDL is the future. Now admittedly, it’s also the past.… Read More »

Dream Team: EDDL and HTML5 Data Attributes

Over a year ago (after the 2019 Adobe Summit) I offered to chat with anyone on the phone about data layers (that offer still stands, by the way). One such conversation was with my friend Yehoshua Coren, who you may know better as Analytics Ninja. He spent a good chunk of the call trying to… Read More »

Adobe Launch Property Inheritance

There are a lot of companies out there who operate many sites using a similar framework (or template). One good example is from my favorite airline Delta, who owns Virgin Atlantic. You can see both of these websites run on the same template. From an implementation standpoint, I want rules I create on Delta to… Read More »

Top Event-Driven Data Layer Mistakes

After implementing dozens of Event-Driven Data Layers (EDDLs), I want to share some of my experiences. I want to be clear that while a data layer is critically important to a sustainable implementation, it doesn’t just fix everything. Like any development initiative, a data layer can even create frustration. I’m not going to talk about… Read More »

COVID-19, Analytics, and You: An Incomplete List of Considerations

Before I dive into this – I just want to say that I hope all of you and your family are staying safe. This post isn’t intended to ignore the suffering that’s going on. Among everything else in this world, people are what’s important. We’re fortunate enough to work in an industry that allows flexibility… Read More »