By Abraham Easo, Principal Consultant Numeric Analytics.
Welcoming you to another exciting Numeric Analytics blog….. Let’s get started!!!
We all know about Tag Management Systems (TMS); these incredible tools assist analytics and marketing tags implementations almost flawless. Around November 2017, Adobe announced release of its next generation TMS, Adobe Experience Cloud Launch!! Today we will cover some interesting stories about this tool and key new features that could help analytics & marketing teams to advance on the next generation of tagging.
Story of Adobe tag management systems started when Adobe purchased Satellite in 2012. Over the years, this tool got evolved to the present Adobe DTM (Dynamic Tag Manager) which is one of the top utilized tools amongst tag management systems. DTM comes within the Adobe Experience Cloud package. So, it’s free to use for Adobe Experience cloud customers. That’s one less hassle of purchasing licenses for tag management systems. The new Adobe Launch tool follows the legacy DTM in pricing strategy. YAY!! It’s free for Adobe Experience Cloud customers.
Next let’s talk about some of the key interesting features of Adobe Launch!
- Light, Modular Container tag – Per Adobe, Launch container tag is 60% lighter than Adobe Tag Manager and 40% lighter than Google Tag Manager. Container code is further minified and in addition, users have the capability to selectively add or remove components to make it fast and lighter.
- Everything is Modular – Rules, Data Elements, Adapters, Extensions, Environments – In the era of DTM, implementations were less modularized with individual rule types, fewer environments, limited number of built-in marketing tags, limited user work flows, single deployments etc. With Launch, we have overcome all these limitations with an extensive modular approach, where each component has its individual existence. For example, rules are generalized from which different types of rules can be created, multiple environments, extensions/apps, multiple adapters (akamai/ftp) which can be tied to environments, and many more. These components can be customized and combined together to form custom use cases. This modular approach allows flexibility and easy extension of components without much dependency on where it is being used.
- Enterprise user workflows – User workflows are made most comprehensive with the flexibility of creating unlimited development environments, specify where and when you want your code deployed, Multiple libraries can be built in parallel by different teams, permissioned process for merging libraries together are the new major features.
- Extensions and its Catalogs – An extension is a package of code (JavaScript, HTML, and CSS) that extends the Launch UI and client functionality. Compared to DTM, Launch has comprehensive collection of extensions/tags that can be easily plugged and played. Extensions are kept open for more tags to be developed as self-service systems where new components/apps can be developed. Adobe have built the extensions, similar to app/play store where the list of re-usable apps exists, from which we could install the required apps. Currently the extension and process to generate a new one looks to be in its early stages. But over time we could expect this to become more comprehensive and an easier work flow.
- Open APIs’ – Launch allows communication with the tool front using APIs which opens capabilities of automating the development, integration and deployment of tags and other components. Currently the API’s are in the alpha state but allowing customers to play and learn. Soon we could expect more interesting things to evolve in this area.
- Data Elements – Next generation data elements are here. Adobe has built many features in data elements with which make creating data elements much easier than DTM. Here are some new plug and play features: capturing session/local storage, page info, random number, visitor behavior, cookies and many more.
- Launch has gone mobile!! – Adobe Launch can now be used to manage your mobile SDKs. This was a long-awaited feature, where we can build tags in tag manager for mobile apps with less dependency on the tedious app/play store build and deployment process. Currently we could see the basic frame work is in place and looking forward to see much more innovation in near future. With the current functionality, data elements, rules, and extension configurations are delivered to your application dynamically at app launch, and do not require app store updates. Adobe tried to make sure the core functionalities are in place for the customers to easily plug and play the features. Mobile Core and Profile extensions are some of these built in features. Extensions are available for other Adobe solutions including Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target and Adobe Audience Manager. Extension updates/installs, will need to recompile your app and complete the app store submission/approval process.
Hope this provided a better understanding on the new/budding features on Adobe Experience Cloud Launch. Way more to go!
Numeric can help you navigate the emerging market of TMS like Adobe Launch or others. If you’d like to learn more, contact us.
