Conversion
Automated event
Also called auto event.
Automated event is an event a script infers from DOM patterns such as outbound clicks or file links, without a hand-written call for each one.
How it is measured
The script scans links and forms for patterns, attaches listeners and sends events with a standard name. Coverage depends on the rules: it catches links, not buttons that run JavaScript.
Tarsier does not ship automated events. Every event reaches it through an explicit call with a name of up to 100 characters, so what you see is exactly what you instrumented.
Worked example
A consultancy turns on a tag manager rule that fires an event for every link ending in .pdf. In the first week it logs 640 events, of which 210 come from an internal wiki page that pre-opens files for a crawler.
The firm adds a filter on the page path and the count falls to 430, which matches the real readers.
How it differs
An automated event is detected by rule. A custom event is one you name and call. Event tracking covers both. Outbound link and download events are the usual automated ones.
Common errors
Trusting rules without a test click. Naming conflicts with hand-written events. Counting crawler and prefetch clicks. Letting the rule fire on every page. Forgetting that new link patterns slip past.
In practice
Run the rule on a staging page, click each type of link once, and compare the log to what you did.