ACDL (Adobe Client Data Layer) Events Approaches for Page Loads

| Last Updated July 13, 2023 - by Softcrylic under digital analytics

There are two school of thoughts when it comes to designing data layer events for load of the pages and user interactions:

ACDL (Adobe Client Data Layer) Events Approaches for page loads

In either case, the concept of user interaction events remains same. The idea is to have specific event for each user interaction type, e.g., “registration-start”, “registration-complete”, “add-to-cart”, etc. And then you build rules to listen to these events and fire analytics tags.

The interesting part is designing the page load events. Depending on the approach you pick from above, would decide how your implementation is going to look like. Below is a quick overview of how your implementation would differ based on the approach you pick:

Rules	Approach 1	Approach 2
		Approach 2. A	Approach 2. B
1. PDP Page	event: ACDL event “page-load” condition: if (page == “pdp”) action: set product vars	event: ACDL event “pdp-load” No Condition action 1: set product vars + global vars action 2: send beacon	event: ACDL event “pdp-load” No Condition action: set product vars
2. Search Page	event: ACDL event “page-load” condition: if (page == “search”) action: set Search vars	event: ACDL event “search-page” No Condition action 1: set search vars + global vars action 2: send beacon	event: ACDL event “search-page” No Condition action: set search vars
3. All Pages	event: ACDL event “page-load” No Condition action 1: set Global vars action 2: send beacon	event: ACDL event “all-pages” No Condition action 1: set gloabl vars action 2: send beacon	event: ACDL event “all-pages” or “pdp-load” or “search-page” No Condition action 1: set gloabl vars action 2: send beacon

Pros and Cons of Each Approach

Approaches	Pros	Cons
Approach 1	Simple and Clean set-up. One rule is to handle all the global vars. Debugging is a lot easier.	Need to put conditions within each rule.
Approach 2.A	Need not put conditions within the rules.	Handling so many events can be quite challenging. Since global vars are set in each rule, maintaining, and adding/editing a new global var would be time consuming and hence prone to bugs.
Approach 2.B	Need not put conditions within the rules. One rule is to handle all the global vars.	Handling so many events can be quite challenging. Need to add all the page events in the global page load rule. High chances of running into timing issues.

Approach 1 seems to be a clear winner because of its robustness and easier to maintain nature. Approach 1 is what Softcrylic recommends adopting regardless of your data collection methodology – appMeasurement or Web SDK.

Authors

Sai Santosh

Sai Santosh Ghanathe is a Senior Consultant on our Digital Analytics team. He has expertise with both Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics. Sai is a certified Adobe Analytics Developer.

Rajdeep Singh

Rajdeep Singh works as a Digital Analytics Manager at Softcrylic. He has over 7 years of experience in Digital Analytics Design, Implementation, and Analysis. Rajdeep utilizes his vast experience to help his clients solve complex data problems using digital analytics.