Using Events to Track User Interactions
You can implement events in the Dynamic Yield script on your website, or call them using our server-side Experience API. Dynamic Yield offers a variety of predefined event schemas, or you can create your own. You can also track custom events that are fired "off-site" using a pixel.
For details about the parameters and values for events tracked using our Experience API, see the Events endpoint API reference.
For details about script-based event schemas, see our list of standard event schenmas.
In 95% of the cases, we see a response time of 5-25 ms for event reporting calls.
Required events per vertical
| Section type | Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| E-Commerce | Add to Cart | The user added an item to the cart. Adding items to the cart is often used as an optimization goal, and contributes to the user's affinity profile. |
| Purchase | The user made a purchase. Purchases are often used as optimization goals. They contribute to the user's affinity profile and are used in calculating recommendations. | |
| Financial Institutions | Application | The user started the application process for a product. Applications are often used as optimization goals, and contribute to the user's affinity profile. |
| Submission | The user submitted an application. Submissions are often used as optimization goals. They contribute to the user's affinity profile and are used in calculating recommendations. |
Events used for cross-channel identification
To identify the same user across devices, you need another identifier named customer unique identifier (CUID). This can be a hashed email address, hashed phone number, or a custom ID you define. When a user is identified with the same identifier more than once, their history, affinity profile, and audience memberships are unified.
To do this, implement events that fire when users perform an action that identifies them. Each event must include the unique identifier that is being used in this section (you can use one CUID type per section):
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Login | Indicates that a user has logged in. |
| Signup | The user completed the signup process. |
| Newsletter Subscription | The user subscribed to a newsletter. |
| Identify User | Use to identify visitors at any point during their journey on your website, such as during the checkout process. |
Additional event schemas
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Remove from Cart | The user removed a product from the cart. |
| Sync Cart | Updates the current cart state. It's mandatory for the Exclude items currently in cart filter; for this filter, it must be implemented upon every page load. |
| Add to Wishlist | The user has added a product to their wishlist. |
| Keyword Search | The user ran a free-style keyword search. |
| Filter Items | The user filtered the product list by a specific field value. This event also impacts the user's affinity profile. |
| Sort Items | The user changed the sorting order of a product list. Not available for API implementation |
| Change Attribute | The user changed an attribute of the displayed product (category, color, keyword). |
| Promo Code Entered | The user entered a valid promo code. Not available for API implementation |
| Video Watch | The user watched a video (in part or in full). You can distinguish between auto-playing videos and those the user clicked to watch. |
Custom events
If you want to track user actions that are not in our standard event list, you can create a custom event, and implement it via script or server-side API. You can also fire custom events from off-site or websites without the Dynamic Yield script (for example, third-party websites) using a pixel. Learn more about custom event parameters and see code examples.
As an alternative to adding code to your site, you can use a template called Fire Event in Custom Code campaigns to fire an event without making any code changes. Learn more about using this template.
Off-site events using pixels
Note: Off-site events using pixels rely on third-party cookies.
Safari and Firefox have been blocking third-party cookies, and Chrome is gradually following this restriction. Keep this in mind if you consider using this method.
You can also fire events from off-site or websites without the Dynamic Yield script (for example, third-party websites) using a pixel. Learn more about pixel events.
Updated 6 months ago