Traffic variables in Adobe Analytics are used to capture traffic and pathing data. There are 5 predefined traffic variables including page name, server, site sections, hierarchies, and 404 error page. Additionally, there are 75 custom traffic variables that can be defined and used to track values specific to a company's needs, such as internal search terms. Traffic variables function as counters and are not persistent, meaning they do not track values across visits. Reports available for traffic variables include paths, fallout, next page flow, and correlation breakdowns.

1. Traffic Variables
Adobe Analytics
Arunkumar Sundaram
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunkumartry

2. Variables in Adobe Analytics
There are 4 types of variables in AA
1. Traffic
2. Conversion
3. Configuration
4. Automatic
Traffic Variables are used to capture traffic and pathing data in Adobe
Analytics.
They function as counters.

3. Variables in Adobe Analytics
• Traffic Variables (s.prop)
›› Basic value counters; page specific
›› Common Uses; segmentation, internal search, etc.
• Conversion Variables (s.eVar)
›› Persistent variables; set in virtual cookie
›› Track what affected conversion
• Events (s.events)
›› Counts instances of various conversion events (success on your site)
• Configuration Variables & Automatic Variables
›› May change how data is collected, may collect http header data, etc.

4. Automatic
Conversion
Configuration
Traffic • The web beacon carries
all variables and values
• This is captured using
Digital Pulse Debugger

5. Traffic Variables
Predefined (5)
Page Name
Server
Site Sections
Hierarchies
(maximum of 5)
404 Error Page
Custom (75)
s.prop1
s.prop2
s.prop3
---
---
s.prop75
Expect in
ACE exam
“It just stores what you send”
• 5 traffic variables are
predefined (named)
• The remaining 75 are custom
which can be defined per our
needs

6. How Traffic variables work ?
Whenever a page is visited, it sends a bunch of
information about that page to the server
• Functioning of traffic variables are shown with a real life example

7. How Traffic variables work ?
Page A Page B Page A Page C
Page A
Variable =
PageName
PageName
container
Visitor
Page B
Page A
Page A
Page B
Page A
Page C
Page A
Page B
Page A
Pages Report
Page Name Pageviews
Page A 2
Page B 1
Page C 1
Non persistent
Visit = 1
Visitor = 1

8. How Traffic variables work ?
Sachin Bansal wants to see the most searched item
Have to capture the search text
in a traffic variable (prop)

9. How Traffic variables work ?
iPhone 6s Adidas shoes Sony bravia iPhone 6s
Variable =
prop6
search
term
container
Search term Report
Page Name Pageviews
iPhone 6s 2
Adidas
shoes 1
Sony
bravia 1
Non persistent
Visitors = 3
Adidas shoes
IPhone 6s
Sony bravia
Adidas shoes
IPhone 6s
iPhone 6s
Sony bravia
Adidas shoes
IPhone 6siPhone 6s

10. Custom Traffic Vars
Two Purposes for Custom Traffic Variables
1. Counting instances of a specific value
2. Measuring traffic for a specific segment
• Internal search terms
• Internal search type or scope
• Flash version
• Media player version
• Item selected
In all of these cases, you are not really asking how much traffic (how many
page views) happened with a specific value. You are simply asking how many
times a value was recorded.
Counting
• Page groupings (sections,
subsections, etc.)
• Logged in traffic
• Registered users
• Language pages
Measuring traffic

11. Traffic variable types
Predefined (5) Syntax
Page Name Just Name of the page s.pageName
Server Either domain or server s.server
Site Sections Section of the site this page belongs to
s.channel
Hierarchies
(maximum of 5)
Location of this page in site’s hierarchy s.hier1-5
404 Error Page Its different s.pageType
Expect in
ACE exam
Custom Traffic Variables Unnamed counters.. Nothing else s.prop1 - 75

12. Traffic variable types
Site Section
Horizontal
Hierarchy
Vertical
Product Detail
Product Catalogue
Brand
Sub Category
Category

13. Traffic variable types
• Hierarchy variable:
s.hier1=“Sports,Local Sports,Baseball,Red Sox”;
5 variables
98 levels
s.pageName=““
s.pageType=”errorPage”
• 404 Error Page
By leaving the s.pageName variable blank, it will default to the URL

14. Traffic Variable Features
Features
Pathing Can see pathing report for any Traffic var.by default its for Page name
Correlation Breakdown one traffic report by other
Classification Can add additional attributes of grouping to the values of traffic vars.
Visits metric Basic visits metric
Unique Visitors
metric
daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly unique visitors metrics are avilable

15. Traffic Variable Limitations
• Non-persistent
• Only Alphanumeric
• Max 100 bytes (not necessarily 100 characters)
• All variables are case sensitive
• Nothing is retroactive except Classifications
Adobe Analytics variables can record up to 500,000 unique
values per month. Once the 500,000 unique value limit is
reached, all metrics associated with new values are
associated with a line item called “Uniques Exceeded”. All
unique values are recorded in their entirety
in Data Warehouse.

16. Page Naming
3 Con
2 Cle
Effective Page Naming
• If no value is passed to PageName variable it will store Page url by default

17. List Prop
s.prop11=“Flex|Illustrator|Photoshop”;
Without List prop
With List prop
List Prop does NOT support:
Visits
Unique visitors
Correlation
Pathing
List Prop supports
Pageviews
Classification

18. Pathing Reports
Next page Flow report

19. Fallout Report Pathfinder Report
Pathing Reports

20. Pathing – how it works ?
• Pathing is the ability to view the order in which values are passed
to a particular Adobe Analytics sProp for a specific Visit.
• Pathing in Adobe Analytics is not really moving from page to page,
but from “page name to page name.”
• The change from one value to another over time, the order in
which values are recorded in a prop

21. Pathing
• There are eighteen pathing reports available in Adobe Analytics
• You cannot view pathing on a Classification of a Traffic Variable
(sProp) in Adobe Analytics (though you can in Discover).
• Pathing reports do not span multiple visits.

22. Correlation
• Breakdown of one traffic varaible by another is called correlation
• Eg. Top pages viewed under each sitesection
• Any two sProps can be “correlated” or broken down by each other

23. Assignment
1. Write about traffic variables, What each variable does?
2. Find out any website with SC implementation and,
1. Take screenshot/Copy tag of traffic variables set in them for multiple pages.
2. Write about the code and what it does?
3. What are the various reports you can get in SC for traffic variables? – Only
Paths, screenshot not required.

24. Thank you
Arunkumar Sundaram
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunkumartry