Configuring Video Tracking for Adobe Analytics

There are several methods available for tracking video events, 2 of which are legacy options for older versions of Adobe Analytics. These legacy option are: Legacy Milestones and Legacy Seconds.

Use the following procedure to set up a framework for video tracking using each method. 

1. Set up a web page by dragging a video component from the sidekick and adding a playable video as an asset for the component
2. Create an Adobe Analytics configuration and framework.
   
   • The examples  in the sections that follow use the name my-sc-configuration for the configuration and videofw for the framework.
3. On the framework page, select an RSID and set the usage to all. (http://localhost:4502/cf#/etc/cloudservices/sitecatalyst/videoconf/videofw.html)
4. From the General component category in Sidekick, drag the Video component onto the framework.
   
5. Select a tracking method: 
   • Milestones
   • Non-legacy Milestones
   • Legacy Milestones
   • Legacy Seconds
6. When you select a tracking method, the list of CQ variables changes accordingly. Use the sections that follow for information about how to further configure the component and map the CQ variables with Adobe Analytics properties.

The Milestones method tracks the most information about the video, is highly customizable, and easy to configure.

To use the Milestones method, specify time-based track offsets to define the milestones. When a video playback passes a milestone, the page calls Adobe Analytics to track the event. For each milestone that you define, the component creates a CQ variable that you can map to a Adobe Analytics property. The name of these CQ variables use the following format:

The XX suffix is the track offset that defines the milestone. For example, specifying track offsets of 4, 8, 16, 20, and 28 seconds generates the following CQ variables:

• eventdata.events.milestone4
• eventdata.events.milestone8
• eventdata.events.milestone16
• eventdata.events.milestone20
• eventdata.events.milestone28

The following table describes the default CQ variables that are provided for the Milestones method:

The Adobe Analytics tracking data examples that follow apply to Milestone tracking using track offsets of 4,8,16,20, and 24, and the following mappings for the CQ variables:

For this example, the Video component appears as follows on the framework page:

Calls to Adobe Analytics using the example provided should look like this when viewed with DigitalPulse Debugger:

This is the first call made to Adobe Analytics containing the following values:

• prop1 and eVar1 for eventdata.a.media.name,
• props2-4, along with eVar2 and eVar3 containing contentType (video) and segment (1:O:1-4)
• event3 which was mapped to eventdata.events.a.media.view.

This is the third call made to Adobe Analytics:

• prop1 and eVar1 contain a.media.name;
• event1 because a segment has been viewed
  
• event2 sent with time played = 4
• event11 sent because eventdata.events.milestone8 has been reached
  
• prop2 to 4 are not sent (since eventdata.events.a.media.view was not triggered)
  

The Non-Legacy Milestones method is similar to the Milestones method except milestones are defined using percentages of the track length. The commonalities are as follows:

• When a video playback passes a milestone, the page calls Adobe Analytics to track the event.
• The static set of CQ variables that are defined for mapping with Adobe Analytics properties.
• For each milestone that you define, the component creates a CQ variable that you can map to a Adobe Analytics property.

The name of these CQ variables use the following format:

The XX suffix is the percentage of track length that defines the milestone. For example, specifying percentages of 10, 25, 50, and 75 generates the following CQ variables:

• eventdata.events.milestone10
• eventdata.events.milestone25
• eventdata.events.milestone50
• eventdata.events.milestone75

This method is similar to the Milestones method with the difference that the milestones specified in the Tracking offset field are percentages instead of set points within the video.

1. Set the Track offset.
   • e.g.10,50,75,100

Also, the information sent to Adobe Analytics is less customizable; there are only 3 variables available for mapping:

2. Map these variables to props 1 to 3

The rest of the relevant information in the call will be sent concatinated into one variable named pev3.

Sample calls to Adobe Analytics using the example provided should look like this when viewed with DigitalPulse Debugger:

The pev3 variable sent in the call contains the following information:

• Name - The name of the video file (film.avi)
• Length - The length of the video file, in seconds (100)
• Player Name - The video player used to play the video file (HTML5 video)
• Total Seconds Played - The total number of seconds the video was played (25)
• Start Timestamp - Timestamp that identifies when the video play started (1331035567)
• Play Session - The details of the play session. This field indicates how the user interacted with the video. This might include data such as where they started playing the video, whether they used the video slider to advance the video, and where they stopped playing the video (L10E24S58L58 – video was stopped at sec. 25 of section L10, then skipped to sec. 48)

When using the legacy seconds method, Adobe Analytics calls get triggered every N-th second, where N is specified in the Track offset field.

1. Set the Track offset  to any number of seconds, 
   • e.g. 6

The information sent to Adobe Analytics is less customizable. There are only 3 variables available for mapping:

2. Map these variables to prop1, prop2 and prop3

The rest of the relevant information in the call will be sent concatinated into one variable named pev3.

Calls to Adobe Analytics using the example provided should look like this when viewed with DigitalPulse Debugger:

The call is similar to the Legacy Milestones call above. Please see the information on pev3 provided there.

References used in this tutorial:

[0] http://microsite.omniture.com/t2/help/en_US/sc/appmeasurement/video/index.html#Measuring Video in SiteCatalyst

[1] http://microsites.nick.co.uk/guidelines/resources/Media_Tracking_Implementation_Guide.pdf