Understanding Infinity and Data Layers

May 2, 2022 Stan

As you explore behavioral tracking and online intelligence, you may get overwhelmed by the various ways to collect and utilize your website and e-commerce data. Perhaps your IT or web team has already implemented a data collection method on your website. Perhaps you’re exploring various options for implementation. Even better, perhaps you’re looking to implement Infinity, and you’re trying to understand how to access and make sense of your data. Regardless of where you are in your journey, there are multiple considerations as you progress to your next stage.

What is a Data Layer?

When collecting data from your website, there are two main options: DOM-scraping and data layers. DOM-scraping involves evaluating parameters on your website and ensuring this data is available for reporting and other technology tools. The data is scraped from your Document Object Model (the HTML taxonomy) using Javascript. This approach has some benefits including ease of use and flexibility, however, it’s not always reliable. Values scraped can change without notice due to web developer updates and SEO requirements. There is typically no naming convention or formalized structure in place.

Data layers require more up-front work, but they provide consistency and reliability in pulling data from your website. A data layer is built on Javascript within the website’s code that stores the data you need to extract and utilize within your marketing technology stack, including Infinity. Data layers consist of key/value pairs of information. A “key” is typically a grouping or category such as “product color.” Each “key” has multiple possible values. In this example, a “value” may be “blue” or “red.” This data layer contains pertinent information about your website and user (and, hence, user activity) that makes it easy for developers to access the data consistently.

If you’re currently analyzing the differences between these options, Oracle has published a decision guide that’s worth a read.

Why is a Data Layer Important?

Data layers are important because they provide a clear and consistent way to access and utilize your data across marketing applications. They also ensure that your data is the same across all of your platforms, making it easier for analytics and targeting. If you’re creating a data layer, or if you’re looking to maximize its use, consider your various use cases for utilizing this information. How do you plan to use it for data analysis? Retargeting? Segmentation? Personalization? Behavioral analysis? Intelligence, predictions, and recommendations? How you devise your data layer can directly impact how you can harness this information to augment your marketing strategies.

Keep in mind that you can utilize this information for more than just static data passing. You can also use Javascript to capture events users take on your website. For example, if someone adds an item to their cart, abandons a form, or abandons a cart, you can trigger an event to capture the relevant data (product information, form data, etc.) to utilize for remarketing efforts.

Without a data layer, you likely won’t maintain the same level of consistency required to collect and use these data points across your systems. You also won’t have the ability to rely on your data long-term given the propensity for HTML schema changes impacting DOM-scraping. It may also be more difficult to access all of the data and events you need in order to enhance your marketing.

What Does This Mean for Infinity?

Infinity utilizes the data in your data layer to create streams and actions that you can then use across various marketing technologies, such as Eloqua, Responsys, Maxymiser, and others. This article is a great starting point if you’d like to know more about Infinity and what it can do for you. As it relates to data layers, Infinity uses a customized script to capture your specific data layer’s key/value pairs. This ensures that you’re able to track, utilize, and analyze user data and behavioral data. Using specific trigger-based scripts, you can also capture data when certain web events occur. Again, think about events you can utilize for behavior-based marketing, transactional events, and abandon events.

Once this data is collected, you can use Infinity’s Action Center to capture the exact information you need for remarketing efforts and send it to the proper marketing tools such as Eloqua and Responsys. With Infinity IQ, you can use this data in conjunction with Maxymiser to personalize website experiences and make recommendations when it matters most.

If you’re evaluating your use of website behavioral data, whether for remarketing efforts or website personalization, Relationship One is here to help.

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