Key February MarTech Updates in Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics
Devrun
March 6, 2025
Staying on top of the latest analytics updates is essential for making data-driven decisions. February 2025 brought significant updates to Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics that will reshape how organizations track, process, and analyze data. These changes focus on enhancing data accuracy, refining tracking mechanisms, and streamlining workflows, ensuring organizations maintain actionable insights and drive better business outcomes.
Google Analytics Updates to Refine Data Accuracy
(Not Set) Values Removed from API Responses
Starting in March 2025, Google Analytics will no longer return "(not set)" in API responses for fields with missing data. Instead, these fields will be left empty, improving data clarity and reducing misleading data points in automated workflows.
Here the key Benefits:
Enhanced Data Integrity: Missing data is no longer represented by a placeholder value, leading to more accurate reporting.
Improved Data Quality: Reports now reflect more realistic values, reducing incomplete data in analytics dashboards.
Impact on Automated Workflows: Automated data systems will handle null values more consistently, preventing anomalies.
Simplified Data Pipelines: Fewer placeholder values mean less post-processing and easier data management.
Scalability Benefits: Handling large datasets becomes easier, reducing overhead as businesses scale.
Cost Data Import Required Field Updates in Google Analytics
Google Analytics has updated the required fields for cost data import, ensuring more accurate financial data mapping. These updates enhance budget analysis and ROI calculations, allowing organizations to align their reporting with up-to-date best practices.
Key Updates:
Consistency in Financial Data Mapping: The update reduces discrepancies in financial reporting by improving how cost data is mapped.
Impact on Budget Analysis: Updated fields ensure that the correct data points are used for more reliable budget analysis.
ROI Calculations: With better data alignment, ROI calculations will be more accurate, providing better insights for decision-making.
Cost Data Import Required Field Best Practices:
Ensure Correct Field Mapping: Verify that cost data fields are aligned with the new requirements.
Automate Budget Reports: Use automation to cross-check data integrity and reduce manual errors.
Review Data Import Configurations: Ensure your configuration matches the latest field structure for accurate data import.
Adobe Analytics: Strengthening Data Retention and Processing
Extended Transaction ID Retention
Adobe Analytics has extended the retention period for transaction IDs from 90 days to 25 months. This update facilitates long-term tracking and attribution modeling, allowing deeper insights into customer journeys.
Key Benefits of Extended ID Retention:
Improved Long-Term Tracking: A longer retention period ensures more accurate tracking of customer interactions over time.
Enhanced Attribution Modeling: Extended retention enables more precise attribution models, capturing all relevant touchpoints.
Better Data Insights: With extended data retention, organizations can analyze customer behavior trends over a longer time frame.
Here the best practices for extended transaction ID retention:
Track Across All Touchpoints: Ensure transaction IDs are mapped correctly across all platforms.
Verify Retention Configuration: Regularly check and adjust configurations to align with the new 25-month duration.
Use Long-Term Data for Analysis: Leverage the extended retention for deeper insights into customer journeys and behavior trends.
Clarified Data Flow Management
New documentation updates now provide clearer guidance on data stream suspension and reactivation. It’s explicitly stated that data processing is paused during suspension, ensuring organizations can better manage their analytics infrastructure.
Key Improvements:
Clearer Data Flow Management: The updated documentation now clarifies the suspension and reactivation processes.
Data Processing Paused: Data processing is explicitly paused during suspension, maintaining data integrity.
Improved Infrastructure Control: Organizations now have better control over analytics workflows with clearer guidelines.
Risk Mitigation: The clarified suspension process reduces the risk of incomplete or inconsistent data.
Enhanced Team Collaboration: Clear guidelines help data engineers, analysts, and other teams stay aligned on when streams are paused and reactivated.
Adapting to These Enhancements
To fully leverage these MarTech updates, organizations must adapt their workflows to integrate these changes seamlessly. This ensures smoother data flow, maximizes the accuracy of decision-making, and enhances the overall analytics infrastructure.
Key Steps to Adapt:
Align Data Handling: Ensure your workflows match the updated data flow and retention policies to maintain consistency.
Optimize Dashboards: Adapt analytics to reflect extended retention periods and updated APIs for more accurate tracking.
Enhance Attribution Models: Leverage new features to improve multi-touch attribution and gain deeper insights into the customer journey.
Validate Data Integration: Regularly test integrations to ensure accurate data transfer during suspensions and reactivations.
Update Team Training: Provide teams with the latest resources on updates and best practices to ensure smooth integration.
Monitor Data Accuracy: Set up continuous monitoring to maintain high data quality during transitions.
Incorporating the latest MarTech updates into your workflows is crucial for maintaining data integrity and improving decision-making processes. The February updates to Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics provide significant improvements in data accuracy, attribution modeling, and data flow management. By adapting to these changes, organizations can ensure seamless integration, enhance reporting capabilities, and leverage better customer insights for long-term success.
