Variables in Adobe Analytics: Part 2 – Conversion Variables

This post is part 2 of variables in Adobe Analytics. We will talk about conversion variables which fall under the category of Non Automatic Variables in this post. Conversion variables are of two different types:

1. Events (also called as Success Events)
2. Others OR Usual Conversion Variables

This difference between Events and What I call Usual Conversion Variables is so high that I many people in their usual talk dont take events as part of conversion variables. They take Events and Usual Conversion Variables (UCVs) as two different pieces altogether.

1. Events

As you might have guessed, events are of two different types: 1) Predefined events 2) Custom events

• Predefined events

The variable which captures event is s.events. The different values which s.events can take are as below:

• • prodView
  • scAdd
  • scCheckout
  • scOpen
  • scView
  • scRemove

• • Custom Events

This means you have to define a event for your specific purpose. Custom events let you define your own success metric. These are created to capture any other event aka action on the site. This action can be as simple as registration or login or click on any CTA. Example of use of custom events -is during a registration process which hase 3 steps –  step1, step 2 and step 3. So, you can use event1 for step1, event 2 for step2 and event3 for step3. Actual syntax will look like the following on step 1 of your registration process : s.events = “event1”. Given here are the entitlements to the number of events you can use as per your Analytics Package.

Note that both -predefined and custom events report events as metric.

2. Usual Conversion Variables

As you might have guessed these are of two different types: 1) Predefined 2) Custom

• Predefined

There are six different types under predefined. These are as follows:

1. s.products : Captures whole bunch of different things like product category, product SKU, Qty, Revenue, Incrementor etc. We will not go into syntax at this point of time
2. s.purchaseID
3. s.campaign : Captures campaign from where variables have come
4. s.state
5. s.zip
6. s.transactionID

• Custom

Use “Custom”  for any other specific purpose. These are represented by s.eVar1, s.eVar2 etc. So, now you know what eVars are.

Both, the predefined and custom conversion variables are reported as a dimension.

So at its core, conversion variables (success events and usual) are :

1. Dynamic
2. Normal, Array
3. Both capture categorical values; but under the hood – success events are reported as a metric; while usual conversion variables are reported as a dimension
4. Predefined, Custom
5. Not auto-populated

At this juncture, it makes sense to understand key difference between Events, Traffic Variables & UCVs.

Main Difference between Events and Traffic Variables & Usual Conversion Variables

Notice that in case of predefined events Adobe captures the occurence of different values under s.events . The s.events variable reports the numerical value of the number of times that success event(prodView,scAdd etc) has taken place. In other words – Adobe reports success events as a metric.

However in case of Traffic variables or Usual Conversion Variables it captures the different categorical values which the variable takes. You then add metrics like pageView to that traffic or Conversion variable (ex:PageName is commonly defined as a traffic and conversion variable) that view. In other words – Adobe reports traffic Variables or Usual Conversion variables as a dimension.

This is the main difference between s.events and Traffic variables & Usual Conversion Variables. 

There is another important aspect to conversion variables on “persistence”. But, we can safely ignore the functional use case at the moment, put this piece later and all the different pieces will eventually fit in.