Get Started Capturing & Using Native Browser Storage
Place a single script on your website (using GTM) and turn on the Native Browser Storage Listener. Then, tell us about the cookies, local storage keys, or session storage keys you’d like to “Listen” for – and when changes occur to these storage elements, ListenLayer will capture, parse and push the values into the data layer.
Once in the data layer, ListenLayer allows you to write powerful rules to customize the data layer, report on its activity, and write rules to monitor for anomalies.
Once you realize the power of data layers from ListenLayer, you’ll never go back!
How Native Browser Storage Works
Browser storage is critical to analytics and measurement strategies. Other tools, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, and even custom scripts on your website, will store critical information inside the user’s browser in the form of cookies, local storage, or session storage.
If you need access to this data within your measurement strategy, you’ve come to the right place! ListenLayer allows you to target these browser storage elements, so you can get and use values as users interact with your website.
Here’s how it works:
- Turn on the Browser Storage Listener
- Identify the cookies or browser storage keys you want to Listen for
- When the values stored in the keys change, ListenLayer will automatically push the data into the data layer, allowing you to customize and use the data
Watch the overview video to learn how it works.
How to Capture Native Browser Storage
Target browser storage activity inside ListenLayer with simple rules that you write and maintain. In the image here, you can see that we are targeting the Google Analytics ID cookie. Whenever this cookie is set or changed in a user’s session, the data from the cookie will be pushed into the data layer automatically by ListenLayer.
Optionally, you can choose to push the value of a cookie into the data layer every time the page loads.
Customizing the Data Layer
Once ListenLayer generates data layer activity, you can customize the data using powerful rules inside ListenLayer. For example, write “Simple Rules” with basic or complex conditions, or use Lookup tables to return values for large sets of data.
Custom values inside the data layer allow you to simplify and streamline your Google Tag Manager implementation.
Parse Complex Cookie Values
ListenLayer allows you to parse complex browser storage values. For example, suppose your cookie contains stringified JSON. In that case, ListenLayer will parse out the values and display each object and variable in the data layer, allowing you to access a specific value by simply referencing its location in the data layer.
ListenLayer supports browser storage with these value formats, and more will be released in the future:
- Single value
- Comma Delimited
- URL Encoded
- Formatted Dates & Timestamps
- JSON
- Stringified JSON
Parsed Browser Storage Example
An example of data layer activity generated by this Listener is shown to the right. The activity was triggered when the value of the targeted cookie changed. In this case, the cookie contains stringified JSON. The Listener returns the full cookie value and a parsed version of the cookie contents into the data layer.
You can use this data layer activity directly inside Google Tag Manager. You can also write rules in ListenLayer to customize the data, report on the data, and monitor the data for anomalies.
Ready to Dive In?
See how easy (and powerful) ListenLayer is by opening an account today or requesting a demo.