Data Sources, Imports, and Integrations
Bringing offline and external data in
Adobe Analytics accepts data beyond the beacon through Data Sources, classifications, and integrations. Data Sources (full or standard, summary or transaction ID) let you upload offline metrics (e.g., call center revenue) and append them to existing visitors via transaction ID or to summary data. Classifications import metadata keyed to a variable value (e.g., product category by SKU). Integrations include Adobe Experience Platform destinations, Customer Journey Analytics sharing the same data, and the Analytics APIs (Reporting, Data Insertion, Bulk Data Insertion).
Concepts you must know
Understand full vs standard Data Sources, and summary vs transaction ID data. Know that transaction ID data joins to online hits, while summary data stands alone. Know classification file formats (tab-delimited, key column first) and that classification rules can be automated. Know the Reporting API for extracting data and Data Insertion API for importing hit-level data with strict formatting and latency. Understand that imported data is subject to the same variable definitions and processing.
Traps in questions
- Assuming Data Sources can overwrite existing online values; they append or join, they do not rewrite hits.
- Using the wrong Data Source type (summary vs transaction ID) and getting unjoined rows.
- Forgetting classifications require the key to match exactly (case, whitespace).
- Expecting instant availability; imports and classifications have processing latency.
- Confusing Data Insertion API (hit-level) with Data Sources (aggregated/offline).
Rule of thumb
If the data must attach to a known visitor or order, use transaction ID Data Sources or Data Insertion; if it is aggregate context, use summary Data Sources or classifications.