Out-of-the-box variables you already have
Purpose: Understand what Adobe Analytics collects automatically, with zero configuration.
Who this page is for
| Audience | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|
| Analysts | Know what data is available before asking for custom tracking |
| Implementation engineers | Know what you get for free |
Out-of-the-box variables you already have
Before collecting custom data, understand what Adobe gives you automatically. You have more data than you think.
Automatic dimensions
These are collected by the Web SDK/AppMeasurement with zero configuration:
Visitor & visit scoping
- Visitor count: Unique ECID
- Visit count: Session (30-min timeout by default)
- Hit count: Raw page view requests
Temporal
- Date: Day, week, month, year
- Day of week: Monday through Sunday
- Hour of day: 00:00 through 23:00
- Time to first byte: Server response time
Device & browser
- Device type: Desktop, mobile, tablet
- Browser: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.
- Operating system: Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
- Browser language: en-US, fr-FR, etc.
Traffic source (first touch)
- Referrer: Previous page URL (if external), or "typed/bookmarked"
- Referrer domain: Domain of the referrer
- Search engine: If from organic search, which engine
- Search keyword: If from organic search, what was searched
- Tracking code: UTM parameters (if sent)
Page-level
- Page name: Whatever you set in the page view beacon
- Page URL: Full URL of the current page
- Domain: Domain of the current page
- Path: URL path after domain
- Query string: URL parameters
Automatic metrics
Standard metrics
- Page views: Count of page view beacons
- Visitors: Unique visitor IDs
- Visits: Session count
- Bounce rate: 1-hit visits / visits
- Average session length: Total hit time / visits
Time-based
- Time spent on page: Calculated from timestamp delta
- Time spent on site: Sum of time spent per page
What you DON'T get automatically
You must implement tracking for:
- Custom events: Button clicks, video plays, downloads (unless form submit or click)
- Custom dimensions: Product category, customer segment, A/B test variant
- Revenue: Purchase amount, product price, cart value
- Form interactions: Form field interactions, validation errors, conversions
- PII or sensitive data: Customer ID, email, name (requires special configuration and consent)
Example Super: What's free
Just by implementing Web SDK, Example Super's report suite has:
| Dimension | Sample values |
|---|---|
| Date | Dec 15, Dec 16, Dec 17, ... |
| Device type | Desktop, Mobile |
| Browser | Chrome, Safari, Firefox |
| Referrer | google.com, direct, linkedin.com |
| Page name | Home, Complaint Form, Search Results |
| Traffic source | organic, direct, paid |
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Visitors | 1,250 |
| Visits | 2,100 |
| Page views | 5,300 |
| Bounce rate | 42% |
Without one line of custom tracking code, Example Super can answer:
- How many visitors came from Google?
- What % used mobile vs desktop?
- Which page has the highest bounce rate?
- What's the average session length by device?
Data quality note
Automatic dimensions have data quality risks:
- Referrer is often blank (https→https hides it, privacy settings block it)
- Search keywords are often "not provided" (Google doesn't send them anymore)
- Device type is guessed from User-Agent (not perfectly accurate)
But they're a starting point. Invest in custom tracking for what you need to measure.