Using Adobe Advertising IDs to create Marketing Channels processing rules
Advertisers with an Adobe Advertising-Adobe Analytics Integration Only
You can use Adobe Advertising IDs (AMO ID and EF ID) to configure Marketing Channels processing rules in Adobe Analytics. Use Adobe Advertising IDs for rules specific to your Adobe Advertising campaigns. The order in which you process the rules determines whether all possible data is captured correctly.
The AMO ID in processing rules
The AMO ID is the primary tracking code used to report Adobe Advertising data within Analytics. The AMO ID is a concatenation of dynamic values managed by Adobe to provide granular reporting within Analytics. It’s stored in an Analytics eVar or rVar dimension (AMO ID). The AMO ID can be set in Analytics in two ways:
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Click-through tracking: Adobe Advertising sets the
s_kwcidquery string parameter in a link, and Analytics picks up the parameter from the landing page URL when a click-through occurs. -
View-through tracking (DSP Only): The Last Event Service detects a view-through on the server side and sends the AMO ID to Analytics. In this case, the URL doesn’t contain a
s_kwcidparameter.
The dynamic values within AMO IDs indicate the marketing channel that was tracked:
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The prefix in the AMO ID can be used to identify the top-level channel within Marketing Channels.
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Character phrases in the body of the AMO ID indicate a more specific campaign type.
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The suffix “vt” is present for DSP view-through traffic and can be used to create separate click-through and view-through DSP channels.
The rest of the AMO ID can be ignored.
The EF ID in processing rules
The AMO EF ID (EF ID) is the second tracking code used in the Analytics for Advertising integration. Its primary purpose is to track and pass Analytics event data into Adobe Advertising. Every time a click-through or a view-through occurs, a unique EF ID is generated, even if it is the exact same ad for the same visitor. The EF ID is not used in the Analytics reporting user interface because it typically exceeds the 500k unique values per variable limit in Analytics, making it unusable for reporting. The Adobe Advertising metrics and metadata are not applied to the EF ID; they are applied only to the AMO ID. The added granularity of tracking is required for campaign optimization in Adobe Advertising, so both IDs are required.
Although the EF ID dimension isn’t used directly in Analytics reporting, the EF ID can be useful in creating marketing channels. The EF ID suffix indicates the channel (display or search) and whether the visit was driven by a click-through or a view-through. The delimiter in the EF ID is a colon, rather than the exclamation point in the AMO ID.
Examples of processing rules for Adobe Advertising
The following example rule set focuses on the rules for the advertising channels (Paid Search, Display ClickThrough, and Display ViewThrough). The recommended rule for Paid Search detection (including how that rule interacts with the Natural Search Marketing Channel logic) and an optional update to the Natural Referring Domains rule are also demonstrated.
Note: Display can be separated as two channels or merged into a single channel based on advertiser preference.
Other channels are included in the example screen shot to illustrate the recommended order of operations of the advertising channels versus other channels in a typical implementation.
Paid search rule
The best practice is to include two conditions with the “Any” operator for a Paid Search rule:
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Cost/click/impression data contains the AMO ID, so include the AMO ID. The AMO ID should start with “AL!” to correctly allocate click/cost/impression data to Paid Search.
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The URLs for Paid Search click-throughs always include the
s_kwcidquery string parameter, so include it to ensure proper de-duplication occurs if the visitor navigates back to the landing page. Include “AL!” before thes_kwcidto correctly allocate click/cost/impression data to Paid Search.
Don’t set the channel’s value to the AMO ID. Instead, set it to something such as the Referring Domain, Search Engine + Keyword, or Page. (This is relevant for all the Marketing Channels).
Natural search rule
For Natural Search, ensure that your Paid Search detection rules include the ef_id and s_kwcid query string parameters. (Typically, this is automatically configured when Advertising Search, Social, & Commerce is integrated into Analytics, but verify in case an Analytics administrator changed the logic after the integration was configured.)
Set the rule to “Matches Natural Search Detection Rules” (which is usually the default setting for this channel).
Display click-through rule #1
Create a Display ClickThrough marketing channel by capturing only click-throughs. Because the AMO ID is the same for both click-throughs and view-throughs, this rule uses the EF ID variable and the ef_id query string parameter.
Sometimes click-throughs are tracked through the URL (the default). In other cases, click-throughs are tracked through the Last Event Service on the server side, and therefore the URL doesn’t contain the ef_id parameter. The rule therefore checks for conditions in which the EF ID variable or the ef_id query string parameter ends with “:d”. Use the “Any” operator because you want this rule to be triggered for either condition.
Natural referring domains rule
(Optional) The best practice is to add an “Is First Page of Visit” condition with the “Any” operator to the standard Natural Referring Domains rule. While this rule is optional, it can help prevent the edge case of natural referrers being set when the user clicks the back button to return to the landing page.
Display CTV view-through rule
To track DSP connected TV (CTV) view-throughs, create a rule where the AMO ID ends with "!ctv". Because the visitor didn’t click the ad, the view-through tracking doesn’t include the ef_id or s_kwcid in the URL, and the rule requires only one condition.
Display view-through rule
To create a Display ViewThrough channel, create a rule in which the EF ID ends with “:i”. Because the visitor didn’t click the ad, the view-through tracking doesn’t include the ef_id or s_kwcid in the URL, and the rule requires only one condition.
Display click-through rule #2
For the second Display ClickThrough rule, set AMO ID starts with “AC!”. This second rule exists to capture the click/cost/impression data for the Display channel that comes in directly from Adobe Advertising to Analytics. This data is attributed to an AMO ID but doesn’t include an URL with the ef_id query string, so these hits aren’t connected with an AMO EF ID, which is what the first Display ClickThrough rule captures.
Order of operations for Marketing Channels rules rule-order
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Put Paid Search before Natural Search. Otherwise, paid search data may be allocated to natural search.
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Put the first Display ClickThrough before Natural Referring Domains and Natural Social.
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When you use CTV view-throughs, put it before Display ViewThroughs. Otherwise, CTV view-throughs will be captured as Display ViewThroughs.
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Put Display ViewThroughs after other channels but before Internal and Direct because it’s possible that a view-through and a non-Advertising click-through can occur in the same landing event. For example, a visitor may sees an Adobe Advertising ad, get an impression, and then go to the site through Natural Search.
The best practice is to prioritize the other channels (except Internal and Direct) over view-throughs.
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Some advertisers may opt to prioritize Display ViewThroughs over Natural Referring Domains. Do this by swapping the processing order of the two rules.
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The second Display ClickThrough rule is there to catch the click/cost/impression data that comes in directly from Adobe Advertising to Analytics. Since this data is only attributed to an AMO ID, these hits aren’t connected with an AMO EF ID. If you don’t set this rule, all click/cost/impression data falls under the Direct channel, which is the default channel for any data that doesn’t match a Marketing Channel. This rule must come after the view-through rule or it will pick up any view-throughs.