AEM Analytics Integrations: Setup Guide | OpsBlu Docs

AEM Analytics Integrations: Setup Guide

Set up analytics on AEM using Cloud Services, HTL components, and Adobe Launch. Covers GA4, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, and Adobe Analytics...

This section covers how to integrate analytics and marketing tools with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). AEM provides deep integration with Adobe Experience Cloud products and supports third-party analytics platforms.

Available Integrations

Analytics Platforms

Platform Integration Method Difficulty
Google Analytics 4 Cloud Service + Components Medium
Google Tag Manager Cloud Service + HTL Medium
Adobe Analytics Native Integration Low

AEM Architecture Overview

AEM as a Cloud Service vs AEM 6.5

Modern AEM deployments fall into two categories:

Feature AEM as a Cloud Service AEM 6.5 (On-Premise)
Deployment Adobe managed cloud Self-hosted
Updates Continuous Manual upgrades
Configuration Cloud Manager OSGi Console
Custom Code Cloud-native patterns Traditional bundles

Core Components

AEM uses component-based architecture:

├── Core Components (Adobe provided)
├── Custom Components (your code)
└── Experience Fragments (reusable content)

Integration Approaches

1. AEM Cloud Service Configuration

Recommended for enterprise deployments:

/conf/[site]/settings/cloudconfigs/[service]

2. HTL (Sightly) Template Integration

Direct integration in page templates:

<sly data-sly-use.tracking="com.example.TrackingModel">
    <script data-sly-test="${tracking.enabled}">
        gtag('config', '${tracking.measurementId}');
    </script>
</sly>

3. Client Libraries

Include tracking scripts via clientlibs:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jcr:root xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0"
    jcr:primaryType="cq:ClientLibraryFolder"
    categories="[site.tracking]"
    dependencies="[site.base]"/>

Adobe Analytics vs Google Analytics

AEM has native Adobe Analytics integration, but many organizations use GA4:

Consideration Adobe Analytics Google Analytics 4
Integration Native Requires configuration
Data ownership Adobe servers Google servers
Real-time Yes Yes
Cost License required Free tier available
Features Enterprise-grade Standard + Enterprise

Prerequisites

Before integrating analytics:

  1. AEM Author Access - Admin access to AEM Author instance
  2. Cloud Manager Access (AEMaaCS) - For environment configuration
  3. OSGi Console Access (AEM 6.5) - For service configuration
  4. Dispatcher Configuration - For caching considerations