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
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 The general consensus has been that the W3C is outdated and that the EDDL is the future.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
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
Since posting about the EDDL (Event-Driven Data Layer), I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how this works. If you’re a user of Google Tag Manager, you’re likely already familiar. For everyone else, this concept might be a little foreign. For instance, on the surface it doesn’t seem as readable as the W3C. I want … Read more
We’ve talked about how relying on CSS Selectors is unsustainable. We’ve reviewed the most efficient and sustainable way to implement a data layer. It’s worth taking a step back to review why one would implement a data layer in the first place. So many organizations don’t have one and it’s incredibly difficult to scale this. … Read more
Recently, I wrote an appeal to Adobe suggesting they implement first-party support for an event-driven data layer in Adobe Launch. I specifically mentioned an “event-driven, asynchronous data layer”. Let’s just call it the Event-Driven Data Layer (EDDL) to keep it simple. Since the article’s release, I’ve had a number of good conversations on this topic. … Read more
Adobe doesn’t have a recommended way to send/receive a data layer for Adobe Launch and I think they should. I’m not talking about your schema. Send whatever data you want in whatever naming schema makes sense for you or your business. I believe Adobe should take a stance on how the data is sent to Adobe … Read more
So… should you use a data layer? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes. I’ll explain why. This is a simple concept, but I’ve worked with enough experienced analysts who still do not buy into this best practice. I’ve heard every excuse of why someone won’t implement a data layer and as I get older it’s … Read more
As single page apps become more prevalent, you will likely encounter an eCommerce implementation tracked by Google Tag Manager at some point. If you’re using Google Analytics on an eComm site, you should also be leveraging Google’s Enhanced eCommerce feature. For those who have worked with GTM’s data layer, implementation should be relatively straightforward. If … Read more
When I code I Google things. A lot. Sometimes I get so caught up in writing the right code that I forget there is an easier way to test things. Google Tag Manager’s dataLayer object is a little interesting in that it isn’t exactly a true JS object like you would see with the w3c standard for … Read more