Bank Promotions by Top Celebrities

Celebrities endorsements to influence the decision making of any products do have a telling effect, as proved by researchers. Here are some of banking promotional videos by top celebrities.

I am not boring anymore, any one can hangout with me. I have with me citibank private pass. 

Capital One Promo on Venture Rewards Credit Card - Celebrity Promotion

TD Bank promo - By Celebrities

Bank America Cash Awards Credit Card

Glad that banks have figured out that celebrity endorsements can help them to grow!

Customer Journey & Touch Points in Retail Space - Industry Benchmark Analytics Data

Customers travel through several TouchPoints before they get converted. Measuring the effectiveness of each of the TouchPoint is vital for arriving at the marketing impact. Gone are the days where you will just measure the last touch point without even considering which are the other channels that assisted the customers to complete the conversion. Turning on and off a campaign makes sense only if it really doesn't perform well, so here the measurement is the key, and need to be done through a robust measurement foundation.

Customer TouchPoints

Typical measurement foundation

Measurement Foundation

Industry benchmark for typical Customer journey in retail space

Retail Space Customer Journey - Industry Benchmark Data

Here is the check list to measure the TouchPoints

Checklist for Measurement

Segmentation in SiteCatalyst (Adobe Reports & Analytics) - How to Create Segments (Sequential & Logic)

This post is to make you understand segment creation in SiteCatalyst. You can play with segments and give powerful insights to the clients for improving the businesses.

No:	Segment Feature	Details
1	Show / Hide - The Dimension selector	You can view, add and hit search to find dimensions for adding to segment definition.
2	Show / Hide - The Segment selector	You can view, add and hit search to find segments you would have created for adding to segment definition.
3	Show/Hide - The Event selector	You can view, add and hit search to find events you had configured for adding to segment definition.
4	Title field - Name of the Segment	You can create for your segment or rename your already created segment.
5	Description field - Describing the Segment	Describing about your segment can be done here, though it is not a mandatory field. Adding a description allows others to understand better about this segment.
6	Definitions - The life giver for your Segment	Create your segment by adding dimensions and event metrics.  You can drag and drop dimensions and metrics, select Visitor / Visit / Hit, create rules, add required operators (and / or / Then), strategize sequential / logic group containers etc.
7	Segment Options (gear) icon	• Add container: You can add top level container to the segment definition • Add container from selection: You new container to the elements you have selected in the definition field. • Exclude: You can exclude dimensions, metrics or segments.
8	Top Container selector	You select top-level container having Visitor / Visit /Hit. The default selector is Hit.
9	Dimensions (orange sidebar)	Dimensions which you can drag and drop from the Dimensions list on the left panel.
10	Comparison operators	You can the select the operators (example: equals, contains)for the dimensions and metrics
11	Value to Choose	You can enter a value for the dimension or segment or event.
12	And/Or/Then operators	You can assign AND/OR/THEN operator between the containers or rules. You can define sequential segments using the THEN operator.
13	Event Metrics (green sidebar)	You can drag and rop the Event from the Events list.
14	X (Delete) Option	Allow you to delete the segment definition.
15	Tagging Creation	Create tags for your segments
16	Save button for Segment	You can save the segment
17	Checking the Product Compatibility	A small number of available segment criteria are not compatible with all Adobe Analytics tools. Tools that are compatible with the segment are indicated in this list. To make a segment compatible with all Adobe Analytics tools, try editing your criteria.
18	Preview your Segment	You can see 3 concentric circles with data which helps you to validate the segment instantly.
19	Search for Data - dimensions/ segments/ event	You can search dimensions, segments, or event from the search field.
20	List of data chosen from dimensions/ segments/ event	Shows the selected list accordingly.
21	Select the Report Suite	You can save the report under the report suite of your choice, though the segments can be selected universally.

Customizing Menus in SiteCatayst - Shuffle / Tweak / Add the Report Menu Structure in the Order of Business Importance

Hope all of you agree that preparing a good presentation is the key, with understandable slides pertaining to the topic for the target audience.

Even the web analytics interface needs to be presented well to the business, and the requirements will be different client to client. SiteCatalyst has done its best to fit the menus / report holders for all users by default. But since the requirements differs from client to client, isn't it better to the customize the menus according to your client requirement, and keep the sets of data in the order of importance. This can be easily done in SiteCatalyst.

You can customize the menus in SC by navigating to report suite in admin -> General -> Customize Menus. Below are some of the screenshots pertaining to customization.

In the below screenshot, I have moved the Custom events from Site Metrics to Custom Conversion, I thought if  Custom Conversion and Custom events / Success Events are available in the same location it is easier for the business folks to locate them and see the data. I pushed the Custom Conversion to almost to the top and as I have added Custom events to it, I renamed it as Custom Conversion and Events. Makes sense :-)

 Renaming the Menus

Adding a new folder, and stuffing the reports to it is also possible, like mentioned below; Revenue and Profit is the folder I created. Folders can have sub folders up to 5 levels deep.

If you want to restore to default SiteCatalyst menu, you can change it anytime by clicking on restore default.

How to get the Page URL Report (Not Available by Default) in SiteCatalyst using DTM / s_code / Processing Rules

Nowadays you don’t see the page URL report by default in SiteCatalyst, your search for this readymade report will end in vain with just OOB (Out of the Box) configuration.

However small changes to the implementation can do wonders to bring back this data in SiteCatalyst as this value is already available in SC data warehouse and data feeds. The page URL is being fired up for all SC implemented sites but since there is no placeholder to take in value in SiteCatalyst this is not reported as a dimension.

Here is a way to check and confirm that the page URL is getting fired up…go to adobe.com> open the chrome debugger > go to the network tab > type /ss/ > click on the image request and then look for the value for g:….you will get to see the value as http://www.adobe.com… It will be similar to the below screenshot.

Now g is the variable which hold the page URL value. In order to get this information in SiteCatalyst the value need to be stripped and passed to any other custom variable you would want to assign this value. Now here is how you can do via DTM, through s_code and via Processing rules.

Method 1: Implementation via DTM

If your implementation uses Adobe's Dynamic Tag Manager, you can easily follow these steps:

1. Log in to dtm.adobe.com and click the desired web property.
2. Click the icon next to the Analytics tool.
3. Under global variables, find an unused eVar and set it to D=g. D= is Adobe's dynamic variable operator, and g is indicative of page URL.
4. Save and deploy settings.

Method 2: Implementation using s_code

If your organization is not using DTM, you can assign the variable value within your core JavaScript file:

1. Open your s_code.js file.
2. Within the doPlugins() function, add a line containing this code, replacing XX with the desired eVar:
   s.eVarXX="D=g";
3. Save the file and upload to your site.

Method 3: Using Processing Rules

If you are authorized to use Processing Rules, you can use them to automatically populate a variable with page URL:

1. Log in to Adobe Analytics and go to Star Menu | Admin Tools | Report Suites
2. Select the correct report suite, and go to  Edit Settings | General | Processing Rules
3. Click Add Rule, and create the following rule (Always Execute):
   Overwrite value of [desired eVar] with page_url
4. Click Save.

Now you know how can you easily get the URL data in SiteCatalyst using any of the above methods!

No More Practical Questions in Adobe SiteCatalyst (Reports and Analytics) ACE Implementation Exam

The sheen of Adobe SiteCatalyst ACE implementation exam has gone. Practical questions for coding is no more part of the exam, and the exam is just left with multiple choice questions. Why did you do this Adobe? Could be you are saving effort and time required to correct the practical papers manually.... 

Pass Percentage is also reduced to 66 from 80 hmmmmm 
Number of multiple choice questions are just 50
Cost slashed from $349 to $180

Now it is more easier to become an implementation ACE but the sheen has gone!!!!!!

http://training.adobe.com/certification/exams/adobe_reports_and_an.html
http://training.adobe.com/certification/exams/adobe_reports_and_an/_jcr_content/sampleExam

Traditional eVars vs Merchandising evars in SiteCatalyst [Digital Analytics Tool]

eVars are great, it is persistent...can retain the value.. has got the expiration settings...allocation settings...can work better with success events...no matter how distant it is........... but its ability to hold only one value at the time makes its team mate Merchandising evar popular than it.

eVars can walk/run scores of miles over the website to meet it lover(s), the success events. Lets look at this example, a person is searching for shoes and towels, adds to cart both the product, and buys both the products. Most of the people would have used "most recent allocation" for the eVars, and if that is the case here...just guess which one would get the credit......and it is going to be obviously Mr.Towel..

Merchandising eVars can correctly assign the credit for each of the searches --> Shoes for the product Shoes, and Towels for the product towel.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post there are 2 methods of Merchandising evar, the Product syntax and Conversion variable syntax. Read it here

Merchandising Variables in SiteCatalyst