Automated Traffic Sources Tracking for Adobe Launch

A robust JavaScript solution for automated website traffic sources detection in Adobe Analytics.

Overview

This library automatically identifies and classifies website traffic sources to enable accurate campaign tracking and attribution.

Features

• Comprehensive Traffic Source Detection:

  • Identifies traffic from:
    • Search Engine Advertising (SEM/SEA)
    • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
    • Social Media platforms
    • Email providers
    • Internal referrals
    • Direct traffic

• Automatic ECID Management: Extracts and processes Campaign Tracking IDs from URL parameters

• Session-Based Processing: Only runs on first page view of a session

• Robust Pattern Matching: Uses reliable detection patterns for each traffic source

How It Works

The script detects incoming traffic sources through several methods:

1. ECID URL Parameter: Checks for explicit campaign tracking via ecid parameter
2. Paid Search Detection: Identifies SEA traffic via gclid (Google) and msclkid (Bing) parameters
3. Organic Search Detection: Analyzes referrer domains to detect organic search traffic
4. Social Media Detection: Recognizes traffic from numerous social platforms
5. Email Client Detection: Identifies traffic coming from email clients
6. Direct Traffic: Handles sessions with no referrer information

Detected traffic sources are pushed to Adobe's Data Layer for further processing in Adobe Analytics.

Implementation

Prerequisites

• Adobe Launch implementation
• _satellite object available for testing purposes
• adobeDataLayer configured and accessible
• sessionStorage access for event counting

Installation

1. Add this script as a custom code action in Adobe Launch
2. Configure it to run at the beginning of page load before Adobe Analytics Action executes
3. Ensure it has access to referrer information

Code Structure

The implementation follows a modular approach:

// Helper functions for readability and DRY code
const hasReferrer = () => referrer !== undefined && referrer.length >= 1;
const hasNoEcidParam = () => queryParam.indexOf('ecid') === -1;
// ...more helpers

// Primary tracking function
const trackCampaign = () => {
  // Logic for detecting and categorizing traffic sources
  // ...
};

// Execute tracking with error handling
try {
  trackCampaign();
} catch (error) {
  _satellite.logger.log('Error in campaign tracking: ' + error.message);
}

Traffic Source Classification

The script categorizes traffic into these main groups:

Category	Sub-category	Example	ECID Format
SEA	Google	Google Ads traffic	sea.auto_tag.auto_tag.google.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
SEA	Bing	Microsoft Ads traffic	sea.auto_tag.auto_tag.bing.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
SEO	Google	Organic Google search	seo.auto_tag.auto_tag.google.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
SEO	Other	Other search engines	seo.auto_tag.auto_tag.other.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
Social	Facebook	Facebook traffic	socialmedia.auto_tag.auto_tag.facebook.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
Social	Twitter	Twitter/X traffic	socialmedia.auto_tag.auto_tag.twitter.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
Email	Other	Email client referrals	email.auto_tag.auto_tag.other.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
Direct	No referrer	Direct visits	dir.auto_tag.auto_tag.no-referrer.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.
Internal	Auto tag	Internal traffic	int.auto_tag.auto_tag.auto_tag.nn.nn.nn.nn.nn.

Best Practices

• Testing: Verify detection using various traffic sources and campaign parameters
• Monitoring: Review data in Adobe Analytics to ensure proper attribution
• Maintenance: Update patterns as search engines and social platforms evolve
• Performance: This script is designed to execute quickly and only on first page view

Troubleshooting

• Debug Logging: The script logs detailed information using _satellite.logger.log
• Common Issues:
  • Referrer information missing due to cross-domain security policies
  • Event counting issues if sessionStorage is unavailable
  • Pattern matching failing for new or changed referrer formats, make sure to keep the pattern up to date

Advanced Configuration

The traffic detection patterns can be modified in the patterns object to add or update detection for new traffic sources:

const patterns = {
  sea: {
    google: (referrerContains('gclid') && !referrerContains('msclkid')) || 
            (referrerContains('gclid') && referrerContains('google')),
    // Add or modify patterns here
  },
  // ...other categories
};

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions to improve detection patterns or add new traffic sources are welcome. Please submit a pull request with your changes.