Documentation Audience Manager Audience Manager User Guide

Update your data collection library for Audience Manager from AppMeasurement to Web SDK

Last update: March 25, 2025

Intended audience

This page is for Audience Manager and Adobe Analytics customers who use the AppMeasurement JavaScript library to send web data to Audience Manager.

Refer to the table below for guidance on migration steps to Web SDK, depending on your current data collection method.

Your existing data collection method	Web SDK migration instructions
AppMeasurement JavaScript library with AudienceManagement module	Follow the instructions in this guide.
Audience Manager tag extension	Follow the instructions in updating your data collection library from the Audience Manager tag extension to the Web SDK tag extension.
AppMeasurement JavaScript library + standalone Audience Manager DIL library	Follow the instructions in updating your data collection library from the Audience Manager tag extension to the Web SDK tag extension.

Migration overview

Migrating from AppMeasurement to Web SDK is primarily an Adobe Analytics migration. For Audience Manager customers, this migration also includes Audience Manager. Both must be migrated together. If you mainly work with Audience Manager, ensure you involve the Analytics team in this migration.

If you use AppMeasurement for Audience Manager data collection, you are currently using the Server-side Forwarding (SSF) approach to send Analytics data to Audience Manager. In this setup, the Analytics data collection request is forwarded to Audience Manager, which also handles the Audience Manager response to the page.

This has been the standard approach for many years and is likely your current setup. If your AppMeasurement library contains the AudienceManagement module and your data collection calls include the /10/ path in the request (/b/ss/examplereportsuite/10/), then this guide is for you.

Server-side Forwarding (SSF) versus Web SDK data flows

Understanding the data flow differences between Analytics and Audience Manager when moving to Web SDK (and the Edge Network) is crucial for the instructions below.

With server-side forwarding, the Analytics regional data collection node collects the data, transforms it into a signal accepted by Audience Manager, sends it to Audience Manager, and returns the Audience Manager response to the page. The AudienceManagement module in the AppMeasurement library then handles the response (e.g., dropping cookies, sending URL destinations). This process is called server-side forwarding because Analytics forwards the data to Audience Manager using Adobe servers.

With Web SDK, the Edge Network sends data to Analytics and Audience Manager in separate actions. The Web SDK is a single library that sends data to all solutions, and the Edge Network transforms solution-agnostic data points into solution-specific formats.

In this new data flow, all data is sent to an Edge Network datastream, which you can configure to send data to Adobe solutions as needed. For Audience Manager, enabling the Audience Manager service on the datastream transforms XDM and Analytics data into signals accepted by Audience Manager. The Edge Network also returns the Audience Manager response to the page, where the Web SDK handles the response, similar to how AppMeasurement and the AudienceManagement module did.

Tags versus non-Tags migration

Whether you are using Tags with the AppMeasurement extension, the AppMeasurement library in another tag management system, or placing AppMeasurement directly on the page, the steps for migrating Audience Manager to the Web SDK are the same. Since the Audience Manager migration depends on the Analytics migration, the steps to migrate from AppMeasurement to Web SDK are determined during the Analytics migration.

That information is covered in the Analytics documentation for Tags or JavaScript-based implementations.

XDM and the `data.__adobe.` nodes

One of the main functions of the Web SDK is to send data to Real-Time Customer Data Platform (RTCDP). To achieve this and still collect data for other Experience Cloud Solutions without a full re-implementation, solution-specific data is compartmentalized within the data collection server call. This call uses a standardized JSON schema called the Experience Data Model (XDM)

Solution-agnostic elements, such as information about the browser and device, are sent to the Edge Network in a predetermined XDM structure. The Edge Network transforms this data to solution-specific formats. However, data that is specific to Target, Analytics, and Audience Manager is stored in a dedicated data.__adobe node within the XDM payload.

For example:

The Analytics variable s.eVar1 is represented in the XDM payload as data.__adobe.analytics.evar1.
A Target parameter related to customer loyalty status is stored as data.__adobe.target.loyaltyStatus.

Data in the __adobe node is sent to the respective solutions (like Analytics and Audience Manager) without being sent to Experience Platform, even if the Experience Platform service is enabled on the datastream. This means you can keep your current configurations for Analytics and Audience Manager while having the flexibility to map any necessary data elements to XDM schema elements for real-time use cases in Experience Platform using Data Prep for Data Collection.

For example, the Analytics s.products string, which is used to report cart contents during checkout, can still be sent to Analytics and Audience Manager in its original format. At the same time, you can use the elements of this string to create more intuitive XDM cart schemas for Experience Platform use cases.

Since most Audience Manager implementations rely on Analytics data forwarded to Audience Manager, many of your Audience Manager trait expressions are likely based on Analytics variables (c_evar#, c_prop#, and c_events). To avoid rebuilding trait expressions using XDM formats during migration, the Edge Network is configured by default to transform any Analytics variables found in the data.__adobe.analytics node into Audience Manager signals. A similar transformation process happens in the server-side forwarding workflow.

The Edge Network can perform this transformation because a single data collection call from the page is sent to a single datastream that feeds multiple Adobe solutions. Therefore, most migrations from AppMeasurement to Web SDK for both Analytics and Audience Manager will primarily use the data.__adobe.analytics node.

The Edge Network transforms device and browser data from the XDM payload and packet headers into Audience Manager signals. This allows you to continue using h_ and d_ platform keys in Audience Manager trait expressions.

The `data.__adobe.audiencemanager` node

The data.__adobe.audiencemanager node is used for Audience Manager implementations that do not rely on Analytics. It stores custom Audience Manager key/value pairs that were previously sent via the DIL library library, as described in the tag extension migration guide.

While the data.__adobe.audiencemanager node is not needed for the migration outlined in this guide, the new data flow explained here allows data to be sent to Audience Manager without being recorded in Analytics.

If you need to send a custom key/value pair to Audience Manager without including it in Analytics, you can use the data.__adobe.audiencemanager node. Any data set in this node will be appended to the Audience Manager-transformed Analytics data in the data collection server call.

Advantages and disadvantages of this implementation path

Using this migration approach has both advantages and disadvantages. Carefully weigh each option to decide which approach is best for your organization.

Advantages Disadvantages

Advantages	Disadvantages
Uses your existing implementation: While this approach requires some implementation changes, it does not require a completely new implementation from scratch. You can use your existing data layer and code with minimal changes to implementation logic. Does not require a schema: For this stage of migrating to the Web SDK, you don’t need an XDM schema. Instead, you can populate the `data` object, which sends data straight to Audience Manager. Once migration to the Web SDK is complete, then you can create a schema for your organization and use datastream mapping to populate applicable XDM fields. If a schema were required at this stage of the migration process, your organization would be forced to use an Audience Manager XDM schema. Use of this schema makes it more difficult for your organization to use your own schema in the future.	Implementation technical debt: Since this approach uses a modified form of your existing implementation, it can be harder to track implementation logic and perform changes in the future when needed. Requires mapping to send data to Platform: When your organization is ready to use Real-Time CDP, you must send data to a data set in Adobe Experience Platform. This action requires that every field in the `data` object be an entry in the datastream mapping tool that assigns it to an XDM schema field. Mapping only needs to be done once for this workflow, and it doesn’t involve making implementation changes. However, it is an extra step that is not required when sending data in an XDM object.

Uses your existing implementation: While this approach requires some implementation changes, it does not require a completely new implementation from scratch. You can use your existing data layer and code with minimal changes to implementation logic.
Does not require a schema: For this stage of migrating to the Web SDK, you don’t need an XDM schema. Instead, you can populate the data object, which sends data straight to Audience Manager. Once migration to the Web SDK is complete, then you can create a schema for your organization and use datastream mapping to populate applicable XDM fields. If a schema were required at this stage of the migration process, your organization would be forced to use an Audience Manager XDM schema. Use of this schema makes it more difficult for your organization to use your own schema in the future.

Implementation technical debt: Since this approach uses a modified form of your existing implementation, it can be harder to track implementation logic and perform changes in the future when needed.
Requires mapping to send data to Platform: When your organization is ready to use Real-Time CDP, you must send data to a data set in Adobe Experience Platform. This action requires that every field in the data object be an entry in the datastream mapping tool that assigns it to an XDM schema field. Mapping only needs to be done once for this workflow, and it doesn’t involve making implementation changes. However, it is an extra step that is not required when sending data in an XDM object.

Adobe recommends following this implementation path in the following scenarios:

You have an existing implementation using the Adobe Analytics AppMeasurement JavaScript library. If you have an implementation using the Audience Manager tag extension, follow Migrate from the Audience Manager tag extension to the Web SDK tag extension instead.
You intend to use Real-Time CDP in the future, but do not want to replace your Audience Manager implementation with a Web SDK implementation from scratch. The alternative of replacing your implementation from scratch with the Web SDK requires the most effort, as you need to rebuild all of your Audience Manager traits to look for XDM-formatted data. However, it is also the most viable long-term implementation architecture. If your organization is willing to go through the effort of a clean Web SDK implementation, see the Web SDK documentation instead of using this guide, for more details.

Steps required to migrate to the Web SDK

Follow the steps below to migrate your data collection integration to Web SDK.

1. Plan your Analytics migration.

Work with your Analytics team to follow the steps for Analytics migration in either the Tags or JavaScript-based implementations. After you have planned your Analytics migration, return to this guide and continue with the Audience Manager steps to determine what you need to do for Audience Manager so that you can deploy the Analytics and Audience Manager migration together.

2. Add the Audience Manager service to the datastream

Add the Audience Manager service to the datastream that you are using in the Analytics migration mentioned in step 1.

Navigate to experience.adobe.com and log in using your credentials.
Use the home page or product selector in the top right to navigate to Data Collection.
In the left navigation, select Datastreams.
Select the datastream that you created as part of your Analytics migration in step 1.
Select Add Service.
In the service drop-down menu, select Audience Manager.
Check the Cookie Destinations Enabled and URL Destinations Enabled options. These options allow the Edge Network to return those Audience Manager destination types to the page.
Make sure the Enable XDM Flattened Fields is disabled. This option disables the automatic transformation of Analytics variables into Audience Manager signals. This option is designed to maintain backward compatibility for users who migrated to Web SDK before the Edge Network automatically transformed the Analytics data to Audience Manager signals.

NOTE
Migrating to Web SDK with the Enabled XDM Flattened Fields option enabled requires that any data needed in Audience Manager formatted as XDM and all Audience Manager traits using props, eVars, or events be updated to look for XDM-formatted data instead. Adobe recommends leaving this option disabled.
Select Save to save the datastream configuration.

Your datastream is now ready to receive and pass along data to Audience Manager. Note the datastream ID, as this ID is required when configuring the Web SDK in code.

3. Enable Third-Party ID Syncs and set the Audience Manager Container ID

Navigate to experience.adobe.com and log in using your credentials.
Use the home page or product selector in the top right to navigate to Data Collection.
In the left navigation, select Datastreams.
Select the datastream that you created as part of your Analytics migration in step 1.
Select Edit in the upper right corner of the datastream configuration page.
Expand the Advanced Options drop down menu and enable the Third Party ID Sync functionality if it is not already enabled. This option tells the Edge Network to return Partner ID Syncs for Audience Manager and Experience Platform data partners.
In most cases, you can leave the Third Party ID Sync Container ID field blank. It will it will default to 0. However, if you prefer to ensure the right container ID is used, follow the next steps:
- Open a browser window in incognito or private mode and navigate to a page that is part of the migration.
- Use the developer tools of the browser to filter for the network call to dpm.demdex.net/id. This call will only fire on the first page of a first visit, which is why an incognito or private browser is needed.
- View the payload of the request. If the d_nsid parameter is different than zero, copy it to the Third Party ID Sync Container ID field.
Select Save.

Your datastream is now ready to both send data to Audience Manager and pass the Audience Manager responses to the Web SDK.

4. Add customer IDs to the identity map

Most Audience Manager implementations use Profile Merge Rules in cross-device personalization scenarios and to help control what segments visitors can qualify for depending on their authentication state (logged in or logged out). Profile Merge Rules require a customer-owned identifier (CRM ID, account number, etc.) to be sent to Audience Manager on every data collection call after authentication. Previously, the setCustomerIDs function of the Visitor ID Service (visitor.js) was used to append customer IDs to each Analytics data collection call, which was then forwarded to Audience Manager.

With the Web SDK, these identities now need to be sent to the Edge Network using a special XDM construct called IdentityMap.

Passing identities correctly in an identity map requires understanding identity namespaces and carefully considering which identities to pass, especially when sending data to an Experience Platform sandbox. This article outlines these considerations and instructions.

Once you determine which identities to pass and when, follow the guides for using the Identity map Identity map data element within Tags or manually set it as outlined in the identity data overview to align with your Web SDK deployment strategy.

5. (Optional) Set the first-party aam_uuid cookie

A standard practice for many years was to place the Audience Manager UUID (the value in the 3rd party demdex cookie) in a first-party cookie usually named aam_uuid.

To set the cookie, you must enter a cookie name in the Name field of the Unique User ID Cookie section of the Analytics tag extension or the uuidCookie field when configuring the audienceManagementModule. While commonly configured in the code, the cookie was rarely used because the Audience Manager UUID value is a device-specific, cross-domain identifier used by advertising platforms and provides little value as a first-party identifier.

If you find that your implementation requires this aam_uuid cookie to continue to be set after the migration to Web SDK, you can retrieve the Audience Manager UUID in two ways.

Every response from the Edge Network interact endpoint contains a payload with id nodes. The id node of the CORE namespace payload contains the Audience Manager UUID.
Use the getIdentity command of the Web SDK to retrieve it. Use the CORE namespace as outlined in the documentation and retrieve the value from the identity.CORE field in the response.

Regardless of the method used to retrieve the Audience Manager UUID, it is up to your development team to parse the response, retrieve the UUID, and set the cookie. There is no automatic way of setting this cookie via the Web SDK.

Configure Server-Side Forwarding and Audience Analytics in the Analytics Report Suite Manager UI

If you are familiar with the Analytics server-side forwarding feature, you might wonder: “Should I disable the server-side forwarding setting in the Analytics Report Suite Manager UI to prevent sending Analytics data to Audience Manager twice?”.

The answer is no, you should not disable this setting, for the following reasons:

When the Audience Manager service is enabled on a datastream, the Edge Network appends the cm.ssf variable to all data collection requests sent to Analytics. This prevents the Analytics data from being sent to Audience Manager as well. Any Assurance logs used to validate the Analytics migration will show the cm.ssf=1 variable when the Audience Manager service is enabled on the datastream. See the Analytics and GDPR compliance page focused on server-side forwarding for more details.
This setting also enables the flow of data for the Audience Analytics integration. As outlined in the Audience Analytics overview, server-side forwarding is required for this integration because the Audience Manager response to the Analytics data collection server is added to the Analytics hit before processing. A similar process occurs within the Edge Network. When server-side forwarding is enabled, the Edge Network adds the necessary segments from the Audience Manager response to the data sent to Analytics.

In summary, it’s important that this setting remains enabled so that Audience Analytics continues to function with a Web SDK implementation and no data will be double-counted in Audience Manager.

Validate the migration

With all Adobe solutions now being serviced by a single Web SDK call, the steps for validation can change depending on the solutions that Web SDK serves.

If Adobe Target or Adobe Journey Optimizer (including Decisioning) are part of the solution stack being serviced by your implementation, then you will have multiple network calls to the Edge Network on the page. Some of these are meant for retrieving personalizations and offers while others are meant for data collection and reporting.

Regardless of your implementation, the general principles below apply for validating that data is correctly flowing to and from Audience Manager via Web SDK.

The first network call for a first-page, first-time visitor will be to the adobedc.demdex.net domain and the /interact endpoint. You can see the network calls made by Web SDK by opening the developer tab on your web browser, clicking the Network tab, and then filtering for /interact.
There are other types of Web SDK calls, but only interact calls send data to and get a response payload from the Edge Network.
The response to the first network call has multiple payloads. One of those payload nodes includes several subnodes of type url. These url nodes are the third party ID syncs that were historically fired by the Visitor ID service. There should be one url node for each third party ID sync that is configured in your container (see step 3 above).

Additionally, you can filter by demdex and find that each of the URLs referenced in the payload fired their own network request for ID syncing just like the Visitor ID service did. These ID syncs should only fire on the first page of a first-time visitor and only once every 14 days after that.
Any subsequent /interact requests used for Analytics and Audience Manager data collection should contain the data.__adobe.analytics nodes in the payload.

Audience Manager traits that rely on these Analytics variables, as well as traits that use the h_ or d_ platform keys should continue to be populated.

TIP
You may want to create a test trait with a rule expression that can only be expressed if the Web SDK data is being collected. Since there is no development Audience Manager environment and multiple sites could be sending data to the same Audience Manager instance, just looking at overall population counts may not give you the needed validation.
In the same /interact call where Analytics variables are passed, any cookie or URL destinations can be found in the payload nodes of the response. URL destinations will be in payloads of type url (just like in third party ID syncs) and cookie destinations will be in payloads of type cookie.

You should also make sure that the cookies were dropped into the browser’s cookie storage.

TIP
Similar to the previous validation step, qualifying for a segment that should return a cookie destination is a certain way to ensure that data is flowing to and from Audience Manager.
If you need to pass additional customer IDs via Identity Map, authenticate into the site and make sure that identities and their associated parameters are passed in the Identity Map node of the request payload.

TIP
If Adobe Target is one of the receiving solutions and there are Target activities that rely on Audience Manager segments that require the right identity to be passed, make sure that the Identity Map is passed in the /interact calls that are used to retrieve personalizations and not just in data collection calls. Adobe Target will use those identities in the server-side call to Audience Manager when retrieving segment information.

recommendation-more-help