Stop Using Profile Scripts
Apr 12, 2018I’ve stopped using profile scripts. They are a bit outdated and there is a much better way. I now use Adobe’s tag manager, DTM (soon to be transfered to Adobe Launch), to write scripts to pass in data to Target. Not only can DTM do everything you did with a profile script, it can also do so much more. And it does it better and easier. I will be creating a whole series of articles and examples on how to use DTM to pass data to Adobe Target for testing and creating audience segments. So check back regularly for updates. Here are a few reasons why DTM is better than profile scripts.
Profile Scripts fire for every user
Profile scripts have zero control as to when they fire. This means that each active profile script fires on every page load for every single user. Even if they aren’t relevant for that user. There is no way to segment and only fire them on a particular audience. This is not a good thing and it could put a small burden on your site if you are not careful.
DTM however, gives you plenty of options to set conditions for when rules fire. You could set a rule to only fire on certain pages, on specific areas of a site, or just about any other condition you can think of. There is a lot of flexibility here. This gives you much more control as to when and how you collect and pass data and keeps a script from firing for every single user.
DTM is easier to debug
DTM was built with debugging in mind. With the DTM debug switch, you can output data and values right to your browsers console to verify that your rules are firing correctly and you are seeing the data you expect. But you can’t say the same for profile scripts. Profile scripts have no built in debugging features and no easy way to verify what data is being passed into Target. Profile scripts provide no easy way to output data from the script to see what value its returning.
DTM also offers a simple staging environment to test out new scripts. You can write a script. Test it on staging and easily debug and improve it before rolling out to production. Profile scripts, however, go straight to production with out any safe way to test them before hand. They are basically live all the time to all users, even when you are first testing them. About the only fail safe they give is that if they break, Target will just skip the script. Its not the best process for developing a script.
DTM uses Javascript. Profile Scripts don’t.
DTM will accept any javascript or jquery that you want to write. This gives you a lot of freedom and control. You want to pull a value out of a cookie? Good luck trying to do that in a profile script. But its no problem in DTM with javascript. The problem is that profile scripts won’t let you use javascript or jquery. They use a profile script language that is similar to javascript, but very limited. You can’t use the same javascript functions and commands that you can with DTM.
If you haven’t yet integrated with DTM, I would recommend that you do so. Actually, I would recommend that you integrate with Adobe Launch. Launch is the newest version of Adobe’s tag management and will shortly replace DTM. And they are both free to Adobe users. Not only will they both help you write scripts for Target, they will greatly improve your implementation of all Adobe products. They are essential and will make your life so much easier.
Don’t forget to check back for regular updates as I write more articles and give more examples on how to use DTM instead of profile scripts.