Omniture tips and tricks.

1. Site Catalyst Top Tips
Barry Mann
@UK_OmniMann

2. Tall & Deep vs Wide and Shallow
Wide and shallow
• 100’s of report suites
• Primary focus is traffic numbers - PV, MUV
• Divergent settings
• VISTA rule chaos
• 2 x implementations per week
• Different challenges !
•Commerce values irrelevant
Tall and narrow
• Deeper integrations < 10 RSID’s
• eCommerce
• Large complex paid traffic acquisition
• Genesis, Data sources, Paid traffic
detection

3. Grab Omniture implementation by scruff of the neck by 4pm
A. Client Care request:
1. Report_suite_audit.tab
2. VIPER report
3. Raw data feed
B. Kick off an Observepoint scan
C. Ask for copy of Solution Design Reference (SDR)
 (Go sob in bathroom !?)
A. Ask for copy of Omniture Contract(s)
B. Get setup with all your tools (Firefox/Firebug/Omnibug, Debugger(s)
C. General observations (whilst waiting)
1. IP address filtering
2. 1st/3rd/Hybrid cookies
3. Any SAINTing ?
4. Read the scode
5. Internal and external link tracking. (utm_source internally? Tracking analyst?)
6. Any Genesis installations even to ESP?
7. Pet Peeves

5. Anatomy Report_suite_audit.tab
• Props 50-75 not there! (2 years on from h.22)
• Officially Omniture internal only
4-18 – Juicy stuff (time zone, commerce level ,
pathing service level , GeoSeg, DWH
121 – Prop On/Off , List var delimiter
170 – Evar On / Off , Subs
221 – Events on / off , counter
274 – Pathing on props, Heir 1,2,3,4 , s.server ,
channels, etc
..
868 – Visitor computation by prop:
D,W,M,Q

6. Expect to make large bulk changes
• Some / Most changes can be made in the
GUI
• Email CC with long lists for Dr Teeth
• Some changes only possible in GUI
• Beware of tech limits esp. SC14
• Some are manual labour (e.g.. Default
metrics)
• Do so with confidence and for the
common good!

7. SDR – The Rosetta Stone
Maintenance and record keeping via
this crucial document is vital for
success and any newcomer.
Period.
• Ask CC to store
• Work from a common drive
• Thought and forward planning
– Prop/eVar/event allocation – use
sparingly.
– Allocating 50>75 is lazy

8. How an SDR should look, really

9. no SDR?
• Most likely to have a copy from
implementation time or “something floating
about”
• How did this happen to me?
• Enabled , not receiving data /Receiving
data but not enabled
• (props backfill , persisted vars do not)
• DOOMSDAY SCENARIO: reconstruct by
hand from a Data Feed.

10. Data Feed .tsv files – raw & uncut

11. VIPER – Why VISTA rule chaos
really happens
• ES 4-6 week lag. Frustrating.
• Always better to populate in code, but not
always possible e.g.. Digital Envoy
• £300 - £500 for VISTA rule copy normally
£1500 for a new rule
• GeoSeg > prop most common
• If you do go down this path you will have
something else to maintain.
• “Bank” 10 rsid’s , VISTA copy and Dr Teeth
them to keep them “spare”.
• Processing Rules aka “VISTA Lite” gaining
traction but not a panacea

12. Omniture Contract
• Obtain, read , understand
• Implementation may not reflect
• ASI
• DWH, Disco 1.5 /3
• Pathing limits
• Understand contractual & tech limits
• BE ASSERTIVE WITH CC

13. ObservePoint

14. ObservePoints Vendor rules DB

15. Bye Bye Setup land
• When SDR step is complete batch change menus.
• Accept that users are intimidated by SC and “just want to use GA”
• Empty menus & “Revenue” eCommerce reports are irrelevant, disorientating
and foster distrust
• Poll users before/after and measure increase in satisfaction
• Issue “certificates” to demarcate leaving SetUp land > Insight Land
• Omniture is all about the implementation.
• Power ahead with dev to grow the installation and extract greater insight
(that management probably thought they had paid for in the first place
• And finally … best practice <> business win. Act with purpose. Optimal
configuration is not necessary.