Glossary

Glossary

A

ACDL — Adobe Client Data Layer. A standard way to structure data in the browser before sending to Adobe Analytics.

Attribution — How credit is assigned to touchpoints along a customer journey. E.g., does first click or last click get credit for a conversion?

B

Bot — Automated traffic (search engine crawlers, monitoring scripts). Usually filtered out of analytics to focus on real users.

Bot filtering — Feature that removes known bot traffic from your report suite automatically.

Bounce — A visit with only one hit (visitor lands and leaves without clicking).

Breadcrumb — Visual navigation showing your location in a website's hierarchy (Home > Section > Page).

C

Calculated metric — A metric you create by combining base metrics (e.g., Revenue / Orders = AOV).

Classification — A lookup table in Adobe Analytics. Maps values to descriptions (e.g., campaign code "ABC123" → "Summer Email Campaign").

Conversion — A desired business outcome (purchase, form submit, signup).

Conversion variable — See eVar.

D

Data layer — JavaScript object on your website that holds data before sending to analytics. Decouples page structure from analytics logic.

Datastream — In Web SDK, a configuration that routes data to different Adobe solutions and destinations.

Dimension — A category or grouping axis in a report (e.g., Page Name, Device Type).

Double counting — When the same action is counted twice (usually a bug in tracking).

E

ECID — Experience Cloud ID. Adobe's default visitor identifier, stored in a first-party cookie.

eVar — Adobe Analytics variable for session/visitor-scoped data (conversion variables). Persists across hits.

Event — A counter or occurrence tracked in analytics (form submit, video play, purchase).

F

First-party cookie — A cookie set by your domain (trusted by the browser).

Flow — User paths through your site (what page did users go to after the homepage?).

G

Governance — Processes to keep analytics clean and consistent (naming conventions, variable ownership, retention policies).

Granularity — Level of detail in data (hourly vs daily vs monthly).

H

Hit — One request to Adobe Analytics (one page view, one custom event).

Hit model — Adobe's data model where every action is a standalone hit.

I

Identity — How Adobe knows who a user is (ECID, user ID, login).

Implementation — Code you write to send data to Adobe Analytics.

IP exclusion — Blocking traffic from specific IP addresses from being counted (internal traffic, bots).

J

JCR — Java Content Repository (AEM concept, not Analytics).

K

Keyword — Search term used in site search or organic search.

L

List prop — A prop configured with a delimiter, allowing multiple values per hit.

List var — Deprecated term for list prop.

M

Metric — A counter or aggregate (Visitors, Page Views, Revenue).

Mobile — User on a phone or tablet (vs Desktop).

Multi-Suite tagging — Sending data to multiple report suites simultaneously.

N

Namespace — A grouping for classifications or variables.

O

Out-of-the-box — Variables/data Adobe collects automatically without custom implementation.

Overflow — When your daily unique value limit is exceeded (data is lost).

P

Page view — One hit generated by a page load or manual page view call.

Persistence — How long a variable value persists (hit, visit, or visitor scope).

Processing rule — Server-side transformation that modifies data before it reaches your report suite.

Prop — Adobe Analytics variable for hit-scoped data (traffic variables).

Q

QA — Quality assurance. Testing that your implementation sends correct data.

R

Referrer — The previous page URL (where the user came from).

Report suite — Your analytics database. All your data lives here.

S

Sampling — When Workspace shows results based on a subset of data (usually due to traffic volume).

SDR — Solution Design Reference. Document that specifies what data you'll collect.

Segment — A filter applied to a report (show me only mobile visitors).

Server-side tagging — Sending data to Adobe from your server instead of the browser.

Session — See Visit.

Slicing — Breaking down a metric by a dimension in a report.

Sunset — Retiring a dimension or metric from use.

T

Tags — Adobe's tag management system. Lets you manage tracking without touching code.

Traffic variable — See Prop.

Triage — Systematic approach to diagnosing problems.

U

Uniqe value limit — Maximum number of unique values per variable per day.

Unsubscribe — Visitor has opted out of tracking (if you implement consent).

V

Variable — A data field you collect (prop, eVar, custom event).

Virtual Report Suite (VRS) — A filtered view of a report suite, without affecting source data.

Visitor — A unique person (identified by ECID or user ID).

Visit — A session. Group of consecutive hits timed out after 30 min.

W

Web SDK — Adobe's modern data collection library (successor to AppMeasurement).

Workspace — Analysis Workspace. Adobe's analysis and reporting UI.

X

XDM — Experience Data Model. Standard data schema for Adobe Experience Platform.

Y

Year-to-date (YTD) — Reporting period from January 1 to today.

Z

[No common analytics terms start with Z]

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