Configure profile parameters for Adobe Target

Adobe Target is a set of tools for personalizing and optimizing customer experiences across digital channels, including websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms.

Send profile parameters from Amperity to Adobe Target and manage the collection of profile parameters your brand uses for personalization and optimization from your Amperity customer 360 database.

Note

Amperity uses the Bulk Profile Update API to send profile parameters to Adobe Target.

  • Amperity creates profiles when the identifier–thirdPartyId or pcId–does not exist in the Adobe Target profile store.

  • Amperity updates profile parameters when the identifier exists.

  • Parameter names are case-sensitive. Amperity creates profile parameters when a matching parameter name does not exist.

  • Parameter values are case-sensitive. Amperity updates profile parameter values to match the value sent from Amperity.

  • Empty values–missing fields, “”, or NULL–do not reset or delete values in the Adobe Target profile store.

  • Existing profile parameter values are never removed.

Changes to profile parameter updates are not immediately available in Adobe Target. Allow for up to 24 hours after the point at which Amperity has finished sending audience updates for them to be available.

What are profile parameters?

Profile parameters in Adobe Target are attributes specific to the customer identified by a thirdPartyId. Profile parameters are stored in the Adobe Target profile store and can be accessed by the Adobe Target cookie to collect information that supports personalization and optimization use cases.

Each customer’s profile collection contains demographic and behavioral information, such as age, gender, purchase history, product preferences, and geographic location.

Profile parameters are an object referenced from a profile script using the profile.get(‘<profile_parameter>’) function call. Each profile parameter sent to Adobe Target from Amperity is accessble using individual function calls. For example, if profile properties exist for gender, favoriteProduct, lastPurchaseDate, and loyaltyTier in Adobe Target, each profile parameter is accessable from a profile script using a function call for each profile parameter. For example: profile.get(‘<favoriteProduct>’).

Caution

Profile parameters that contain personally identifiable information (PII) should be hashed before uploading to Adobe Target. Hashed information is useful for analysis and for marketing activity in Adobe Target. Sensitive information, such as medical records, financial account information, or information about minors, should never be sent to Adobe Target.

Profile parameter values sent using the Bulk Profile Update API are stored for up to 14 days , after which inactive profile parameters are deleted and inactive profiles expire.

Personalization and optimization activities

Use Adobe Target to test variations of websites and mobile apps to optimize shopping experiences and to personalize offers on websites, mobile apps, and social media platforms.

Adobe Target activity types

Description

Auto allocation

Use auto allocation to identify a winner among two or more experiences, and then redirect traffic to the experience with the best conversion rate.

Auto targeting

Use auto targeting to personalize conversions based on individual customer profiles and historical behavior.

Automated personalization

Use automated personalization to combine specific offers and messages that match different offer variations based on individual customer profiles.

Experience targeting

Use experience targeting to deliver content to audiences based on a set of defined rules and criteria.

Manual A/B testing

Use manual A/B testing to compare experiences to identify which experience improves conversion rates.

Multivariate testing

Use multivariate testing (MVT) to compare combinations of offers to determine which combination offer is best for a specific audience.

Recommendations

Use recommendations to automatically display products, services, or content that might interest visitors based on their previous activity, preferences, or other criteria.

Get details

Review the following details before configuring credentials for Adobe Target and before configuring Amperity to send profile parameters to Adobe Target.

Detail 1.

Client code

Required

The name of the Adobe Target client. The client code is located in the URL for your instance of Adobe Target. For example, “socktown” is the client code in the socktown.tt.omtrdc.net URL.
Detail 1.

Authentication token

Required

The authentication token is created from the Adobe Target user interface or from the Adobe Target Admin API .
Detail 3.

Identifier type

Required

The identifier type for individual profiles in the Adobe Target profile store. The first column in the dataset sent to Adobe Target must have a header that matches the name of the selected identifier type.

  • thirdPartyId (Recommended)

    The thirdPartyId is a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies visitors to a website, mobile app, social media platform, and other cross-channel locations to which your customers log in. For example, a loyalty ID, a membership number, a web account ID, or some other identifier that is not personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive information. Every call made to the Adobe Target profile store must use the thirdPartyId.

  • pcId

    The pcId is an internal identifier generated automatically by Adobe Target. It is tied to the visitor’s browser mboxPC cookie and is the source of truth for profile storage on a single device, single browser, or other cookie location. A single visitor can have many pcId identifiers.

    When should the identity type be set to pcId in Amperity?

    Answer: Not often.

    The pcId is not the best identity type to send from Amperity because pcId interacts with the Adobe Target profile store directly from the cookie.

    When a visitor accesses a page on which Adobe Target is enabled, that visitor is assigned a pcId. If the visitor then logs in, and the implementation passes the mbox3rdPartyId to Adobe Target, Adobe Target connects that visitor’s mbox3rdPartyId with the pcId.

    Updates are synced with the profile store every 5-10 minutes . When the visitor’s session ends, the merged data replaces the previous data associated with the mbox3rdPartyId, creating a complete record of that visitor’s actions.
Detail 4.

A list of profile parameters to send to Adobe Target.

  • Parameter names are case-sensitive. firstName, firstname, first_name, and Firstname are different parameter names.

  • Parameter names cannot be the same as a system parameter name , inculding averageDaysBetweenVisits, browserTime, geolocation, mobile, parameter, sessionCount or user.

  • Parameter values are case-sensitive.

  • Parameters should not contain unhashed personally identifiable information (PII).

  • Parameters must not contain sensitive data, such as medical records, financial records, or information about minors.

  • thirdPartyId or pcId must be the name of the first column in the dataset sent to Adobe Target.

  • There is no restriction on the number of attributes you can upload to the Adobe Target profile store. However, the total size of external profile data, which includes Adobe Customer Attributes, profile parameters in the Adobe Target profile store, Adobe Target Mbox profile parameters, and profile script output, must not exceed 64 KB.

Configure credentials

Configure credentials for Adobe Target before adding a destination.

An individual with access to Adobe Target should use SnapPass to securely share “client code” and “bearer token” details with the individual who configures Amperity.

To configure credentials for Adobe Target

Step one.

From the Settings page, select the Credentials tab, and then click the Add credential button.
Step two.

In the Credentials settings dialog box, do the following:

From the Plugin dropdown, select Adobe Target.

Assign the credential a name and description that ensures other users of Amperity can recognize when to use this destination.
Step three.

The settings that are available for a credential vary by credential type. For the “adobe-target” credential type, configure settings, and then click Save.

Client code

Required

The name of the Adobe Target client. The client code is located in the URL for your instance of Adobe Target. For example, “socktown” is the client code in the socktown.tt.omtrdc.net URL.

Authentication token

Required

The authentication token is created from the Adobe Target user interface or from the Adobe Target Admin API .

Add destination

Use a sandbox to configure a destination for Adobe Target. Before promoting your changes, send a test audience, and then verify the results in Adobe Target. After verifying the end-to-end workflow, push the destination from the sandbox to production.

To add a destination

Step one.

Open the Destinations tab to configure a destination for Adobe Target. Click the Add Destination button to open the Destination dialog box.

Enter the name of the destination and a description. For example: “Adobe Target events” and “Send events to Adobe Target.”.
Step two.

Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Adobe Target.

The credential type is set automatically. You may use an existing credential or you may add a new one.

Select an existing credential from the Credential dropdown.

– or –

Select Create a new credential from the Credential dropdown. This opens the Credential dialog box.
Step three.

In the “Destination settings” dialog box, assign the destination a name and description that ensures other users of Amperity can recognize when to use this destination.

Configure business user access

By default a destination is available to all users who have permission to view personally identifiable information (PII).

Enable the Admin only checkbox to restrict access to only users assigned to the Datagrid Operator and Datagrid Administrator policies.

Enable the PII setting checkbox to allow limited access to PII for this destination.

Use the Restrict PII access policy option to prevent users from viewing data marked as PII anywhere in Amperity and from sending data to downstream workflows.
Step four.

Configure the following settings, and then click “Save”.

Identifier type

Required

The identifier type for individual profiles in the Adobe Target profile store. The first column in the dataset sent to Adobe Target must have a header that matches the name of the selected identifier type.

thirdPartyId

The thirdPartyId is a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies visitors to a website, mobile app, social media platform, and other cross-channel locations to which your customers log in. For example, a loyalty ID, a membership number, a web account ID, or some other identifier that is not personally identifiable information (PII) or sensitive information. Every call made to the Adobe Target profile store must use the thirdPartyId.
Step five.

After configuring this destination users may use orchestrations to send query results Adobe Target.
Step six.

Test the connection with Adobe Target by using an audience with a very small membership. For example: 10 or 100 members or the minimum audience size recommended by Adobe Target. Send the test audience to Adobe Target and verify the audience is correct in Adobe Target. Make adjustments if necessary. Only send full audiences after validation is complete.

Build a dataaset for Adobe Target

Create a dataset dedicated to Adobe Target profile parameters by adding a database table to your customer 360 database or by using a query and mapping fields in your customer 360 database to profile properties your brand wants to us in Adobe Target. Use an orchestration to send the profile parameters to Adobe Target on a batched schedule.

Adobe Target table

Add a database table to your customer 360 database with all profile parameters your brand wants to send to Adobe Target. The Adobe Target table should use attributes in the customer 360 database mapped to the names of profile properties your brand keeps in the Adobe Target profile store.

An Adobe Target table consolidates data from multiple tables and uses an INNER JOIN on the Amperity ID.

  • Give the table a name that ensures all users in your tenant will know what the table is for. For example: Adobe_Target_Profile_Parameters.

  • The first column in the table must be named thirdPartyId. The value of thirdPartyId must be a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies visitors to a website, mobile app, social media platform, and other cross-channel locations to which your customers log in. For example, a loyalty ID, a membership number, or a web account ID.

  • Parameter names are case-sensitive: firstName, firstname, first_name, and Firstname are different parameter names.

  • Parameter names cannot be the same as a system parameter name , inculding averageDaysBetweenVisits, browserTime, geolocation, mobile, parameter, sessionCount or user.

  • Parameters should not contain unhashed personally identifiable information (PII). Apply SHA-256 hashing to any profile parameter that contains PII.

  • Parameters must not contain sensitive data, such as medical records, financial records, or information about minors.

  • A database table with rows unique by Amperity ID may be made available to the Segments Editor.

Note

The SQL that your brand requires may be different, depending on which tables are the sources for profile parameters sent to Adobe Target.

Example SQL for the Adobe_Target_Profile_Parameters table

The following example combines data from three source tables:

  1. The Customer_360 table for a hashed email address.

  2. A Web_Accounts table for the Web_Account_Id. This is a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies visitors and is returned as the value for thirdPartyId.

  3. A Unified_Apps table that has some consolidated interactions data for website and mobile app activity. Most recent login, most recent transaction, primary account time, and the date the customer’s account was created.

SELECT
  wa.Web_Account_Id AS thirdPartyId
  ,SHA2(LOWER(TRIM(c360.email)),256) AS email
  ,ua.lastLogin AS lastLogin
  ,ua.lastTransaction AS lastTransaction
  ,ua.primaryAccountType AS primaryAccountType
  ,ua.openDate AS openDate
FROM Web_Accounts AS wa
INNER JOIN Customer_360 AS c360 ON wa.amperity_id = c360.amperity_id
INNER JOIN Unified_Apps AS ub ON wa.amperity_id = ua.amperity_id
GROUP BY
  wa.Web_Account_Id
  ,c360.email
  ,ua.lastLogin
  ,ua.lastTransaction
  ,ua.primaryAccountType
  ,ua.openDate

Adobe Target query

A query that returns profile parameters to send to Adobe Target maps attributes in the customer 360 database to the names of profile properties in the Adobe Target profile store.

An query can consolidate data from multiple tables.

  • Give the query a name that ensures all users in your tenant will know what the query is for. For example: Adobe_Target_Profile_Parameters.

  • The first column returned by the query must be named thirdPartyId. The value of thirdPartyId must be a persistent identifier that uniquely identifies visitors to a website, mobile app, social media platform, and other cross-channel locations to which your customers log in. For example, a loyalty ID, a membership number, or a web account ID.

  • Parameter names are case-sensitive: firstName, firstname, first_name, and Firstname are different parameter names.

  • Parameter names cannot be the same as a system parameter name , inculding averageDaysBetweenVisits, browserTime, geolocation, mobile, parameter, sessionCount or user.

  • Parameters should not contain unhashed personally identifiable information (PII). Apply SHA-256 hashing to any profile parameter that contains PII.

  • Parameters must not contain sensitive data, such as medical records, financial records, or information about minors.

  • A query that returns rows unique by Amperity ID may be made available to the Segments Editor.

Note

The SQL that your brand requires may be different, depending on which tables are the sources for profile parameters sent to Adobe Target.

Example SQL for the Adobe_Target_Profile_Parameters query

SELECT
  wa.Web_Account_Id AS thirdPartyId
  ,SHA256(TO_UTF8(LOWER(TRIM(c360.email)))) AS email
  ,ua.lastLogin AS lastLogin
  ,ua.lastTransaction AS lastTransaction
  ,ua.primaryAccountType AS primaryAccountType
  ,ua.openDate AS openDate
FROM Web_Accounts AS wa
INNER JOIN Customer_360 AS c360 ON wa.amperity_id = c360.amperity_id
INNER JOIN Unified_Apps AS ua ON wa.amperity_id = ua.amperity_id
GROUP BY
  wa.Web_Account_Id
  ,c360.email
  ,ua.lastLogin
  ,ua.lastTransaction
  ,ua.primaryAccountType
  ,ua.openDate