Activate audiences to batch profile export destinations

Overview

This article explains the workflow required to activate audiences in Adobe Experience Platform to batch profile file-based destinations, such as cloud storage and email marketing destinations.

Prerequisites

To activate audiences to destinations, you must have successfully connected to a destination. If you haven’t done so already, go to the destinations catalog, browse the supported destinations, and configure the destination that you want to use.

Supported file formats for export

The following file formats are supported when exporting audiences:

• CSV
• JSON
• Parquet

Note that exporting CSV files gives you greater flexibility in terms of how you want to structure your exported files. Read more about file formatting configuration for CSV files.

Select your desired file format for export when creating a connection to the file-based destination.

Select your destination

1. Go to Connections > Destinations, and select the Catalog tab.

   

2. Select Activate audiences on the card corresponding to the destination where you want to activate your audiences, as shown in the image below.

   

3. Select the destination connection that you want to use to activate your audiences, then select Next.

   

4. Move to the next section to select your audiences.

Select your audiences

To select the audiences that you want to activate to the destination, use the check boxes to the left of the audience names, then select Next.

You can select from multiple types of audiences, depending on their origin:

• Segmentation Service: Audiences generated within Experience Platform by the Segmentation Service. See the segmentation documentation for more details.
• Custom upload: Audiences generated outside of Experience Platform, and uploaded into Platform as CSV files. To learn more about external audiences, see the documentation on importing an audience.
• Other types of audiences, originating from other Adobe solutions, such as Audience Manager.

Schedule audience export

Adobe Experience Platform exports data for email marketing and cloud storage destinations as different file types. In the Scheduling page, you can configure the schedule and the file names for each audience you are exporting. Configuring the schedule is mandatory, but configuring the file name is optional.

Select the Create schedule control corresponding to the audience that you want to send to your destination.

Export full files

Select Export full files to trigger the export of a file containing a full snapshot of all profile qualifications for the selected audience.

1. Use the Frequency selector to select the export frequency:

   • Once: schedule a one time on-demand full file export.
   • Daily: schedule full file exports once a day, every day, at the time you specify.

2. Use the Time toggle to select whether the export should happen immediately after audience evaluation or on a scheduled basis, at a specified time. When selecting the Scheduled option, you can use the selector to choose the time of day, in UTC format, when the export should take place.

   NOTE

   The After segment evaluation option described below is available only to select Beta customers.

   Use the After segment evaluation option to have the activation job run immediately after the daily Platform batch segmentation job completes. This option ensures that when the activation job runs, the most up-to-date profiles are exported to your destination.

   
   Use the Scheduled option to have the activation job run at a fixed time. This option ensures that Experience Platform profile data is exported at the same time each day. However, the profiles you export may not be the most up to date, depending on whether the batch segmentation job has completed before the activation job kicks off.

   

3. Use the Date selector to choose the day or interval when the export should take place. For daily exports, best practice is to set your start and end date to line up with the duration of your campaigns in your downstream platforms.

   IMPORTANT

   When selecting an export interval, the last day of the interval is not included in the exports. For example, if you select an interval of January 4 - 11, the last file export will take place on January 10.

4. Select Create to save the schedule.

Export incremental files

Select Export incremental files to trigger an export where the first file is a full snapshot of all profile qualifications for the selected audience, and subsequent files are incremental profile qualifications since the previous export.

1. Use the Frequency selector to select the export frequency:

   • Daily: schedule incremental file exports once a day, every day, at the time you specify.
   • Hourly: schedule incremental file exports every 3, 6, 8, or 12 hours.

2. Use the Time selector to choose the time of day, in UTC format, when the export should take place.

3. Use the Date selector to choose the interval when the export should take place. Best practice is to set your start and end date to line up with the duration of your campaigns in your downstream platforms.

   IMPORTANT

   The last day of the interval is not included in the exports. For example, if you select an interval of January 4 - 11, the last file export will take place on January 10.

4. Select Create to save the schedule.

Configure file names

For most destinations, the default file names consist of destination name, audience ID, and a date and time indicator. For example, you can edit your exported file names to distinguish between different campaigns or to have the data export time appended to the files. Note that some destination developers might select to have different default file name append options shown for their destinations.

To open a modal window and edit the file names, select the pencil icon. File names are limited to 255 characters.

In the file name editor, you can select different components to add to the file name.

The destination name and audience ID cannot be removed from file names. In addition to these options, you can add the following options:

Select Apply changes to confirm your selection.

Once you have finished configuring all your audiences, select Next to continue.

Mapping

In this step, you must select the profile attributes that you want to add to the files exported to the target destination. To select profile attributes and identities for export:

1. In the Mapping page, select Add new mapping.

   

2. Select the arrow to the right of the Source field entry.

   

3. In the Select source field page, select the profile attributes and identities that you want to include in the exported files to the destination, then choose Select.

   TIP

   You can use the search field to narrow down your selection, as shown in the image below.

   

4. The field you selected for export now appears in the mapping view. If you wish, you can edit the name of the header in the exported file. To do this, select the icon on the target field.

   

5. In the Select target field page, type in the desired name of the header in your exported file, then choose Select.

   

6. The field you selected for export now appears in the mapping view and shows the edited header in the exported file.

   

7. (Optional) You can select your exported field to be a mandatory key or a deduplication key.

   

8. To add more fields for exporting, repeat the steps above.

Mandatory attributes

A mandatory attribute is a user-enabled checkbox which ensures all profile records contain the selected attribute. For example: all exported profiles contain an email address.​

You can mark attributes as mandatory to ensure that Platform exports only the profiles that include the specific attribute. As a result, it can be used as an additional form of filtering. Marking an attribute as mandatory is not required.

Not selecting a mandatory attribute exports all qualified profiles regardless of their attributes.

It is recommended that one of the attributes is a unique identifier from your schema. For more information about mandatory attributes, see the identity section in the Email marketing destinations documentation.

Deduplication keys

A deduplication key is a user-defined primary key which determines the identity by which users want their profiles to be deduplicated.​

Deduplication keys eliminate the possibility of having multiple records of the same profile in one export file.

There are three ways you can use deduplication keys in Platform:

• Using a single identity namespace as a deduplication key
• Using a single profile attribute from an XDM profile as a deduplication key
• Using a combination of two profile attributes from an XDM profile as a composite key

Deduplication example

This example illustrates how deduplication works, depending on the selected deduplication keys.

Let’s consider the following two profiles.

Profile A

{
  "identityMap": {
    "Email": [
      {
        "id": "johndoe_1@example.com"
      },
      {
        "id": "johndoe_2@example.com"
      }
    ]
  },
  "segmentMembership": {
    "ups": {
      "fa5c4622-6847-4199-8dd4-8b7c7c7ed1d6": {
        "status": "realized",
        "lastQualificationTime": "2021-03-10 10:03:08"
      }
    }
  },
  "person": {
    "name": {
      "lastName": "Doe",
      "firstName": "John"
    }
  },
  "personalEmail": {
    "address": "johndoe@example.com"
  }
}

Profile B

{
  "identityMap": {
    "Email": [
      {
        "id": "johndoe_1@example.com"
      },
      {
        "id": "johndoe_2@example.com"
      }
    ]
  },
  "segmentMembership": {
    "ups": {
      "fa5c4622-6847-4199-8dd4-8b7c7c7ed1d6": {
        "status": "realized",
        "lastQualificationTime": "2021-04-10 11:33:28"
      }
    }
  },
  "person": {
    "name": {
      "lastName": "D",
      "firstName": "John"
    }
  },
  "personalEmail": {
    "address": "johndoe@example.com"
  }
}

Deduplication use case 1: no deduplication

Using no deduplication, the export file would contain the following entries.

Deduplication use case 2: deduplication based on identity namespace

Assuming deduplication by the Email namespace, the export file would contain the following entries. Profile B is the latest one that qualified for the audience, so it is the only one getting exported.

Deduplication use case 3: deduplication based on a single profile attribute

Assuming deduplication by the personal Email attribute, the export file would contain the following entry. Profile B is the latest one that qualified for the audience, so it is the only one getting exported.

Deduplication use case 4: deduplication based on two profile attributes

Assuming deduplication by the composite key personalEmail + lastName, the export file would contain the following entries.

Adobe recommends selecting an identity namespace such as a CRM ID or email address as a deduplication key, to ensure all profile records are uniquely identified.

Beta Export arrays through calculated fields

Select beta customers can export array objects from Experience Platform to cloud storage destinations. Read more about exporting arrays and calculated fields and contact your Adobe representative to get access to the functionality.

Known limitations

The new Mapping page has the following known limitations:

Audience membership attribute cannot be selected through the mapping workflow

Due to a known limitation, you cannot currently use the Select field window to add segmentMembership.status to your file exports. Instead, you need to manually paste the value xdm: segmentMembership.status into the schema field, as shown below.

File exports will vary in the following ways, depending on whether segmentMembership.status is selected:

• If the segmentMembership.status field is selected, exported files include Active members in the initial full snapshot and newly Active and Expired members in subsequent incremental exports.
• If the segmentMembership.status field is not selected, exported files include only Active members in the initial full snapshot and in subsequent incremental exports.

Read more about profile export behavior for file-based destinations.

Identity namespaces cannot currently be selected for exports

Selecting identity namespaces for export, as shown in the image below, is currently not supported. Selecting any identity namespaces for export will result in an error in the Review step.

As a temporary workaround if you need to add identity namespaces to your exported files during the beta, you can either:

• Use the legacy cloud storage destinations for the dataflows where you want to include identity namespaces in the exports
• Upload identities as attributes into Experience Platform, to then export them to your cloud storage destinations.

Select profile attributes

For profile-based destinations, you must select the profile attributes that you want to send to the target destination.

1. In the Select attributes page, select Add new field.

   

2. Select the arrow to the right of the Schema field entry.

   

3. In the Select field page, select the XDM attributes or identity namespaces that you want to send to the destination, then choose Select.

   

4. To add more mappings, repeat steps one to three.

File exports vary in the following ways, depending on whether segmentMembership.status is selected:

• If the segmentMembership.status field is selected, exported files include Active members in the initial full snapshot and Active and Expired members in subsequent incremental exports.
• If the segmentMembership.status field is not selected, exported files include only Active members in the initial full snapshot and in subsequent incremental exports.

Select enrichment attributes

Enrichment attributes correspond to custom uploaded audiences ingested in Experience Platform as Custom uploads. In this step, you can select which attributes you would like to export to your destination, for each selected external audience.

Follow the steps below to select enrichment attributes for each external audience:

1. In the Enrichment attributes column, select the (Edit) button.
2. Select Add enrichment attribute. A new empty schema field is shown.
   
3. Select the button to the right of the empty field to open the field selection screen.
4. Select the attributes that you want to export for the audience.
   
5. After you have added all the attributes that you want to export, select Save and close.
6. Repeat these steps for each external audience.

If you want to activate external audiences to your destinations without exporting any attribute, enable the Exclude enrichment attributes toggle. This option exports the profiles from the external audiences, but none of their corresponding attributes are sent to your destination.

Select Next to move to the Review step.

Review

On the Review page, you can see a summary of your selection. Select Cancel to break up the flow, Back to modify your settings, or Finish to confirm your selection and start sending data to the destination.

Consent policy evaluation

If your organization purchased Adobe Healthcare Shield or Adobe Privacy & Security Shield, select View applicable consent policies to see which consent policies are applied and how many profiles are included in the activation as a result of them. Read about consent policy evaluation for more information.

Data usage policy checks

In the Review step, Experience Platform also checks for any data usage policy violations. Shown below is an example where a policy is violated. You cannot complete the audience activation workflow until you have resolved the violation. For information on how to resolve policy violations, read about data usage policy violations in the data governance documentation section.

Filter audiences

Also in this step you can use the available filters on the page to display only the audiences whose schedule or mapping has been updated as part of this workflow. You can also toggle which table columns you want to see.

If you are satisfied with your selection and no policy violations have been detected, select Finish to confirm your selection and start sending data to the destination.

Verify audience activation

When exporting audiences to cloud storage destinations, Adobe Experience Platform creates a .csv, .json, or .parquet file in the storage location that you provided. Expect a new file to be created in your storage location according to the schedule you set in the workflow. The default file format is shown below, but you can edit the components of the file name:
<destinationName>_segment<segmentID>_<timestamp-yyyymmddhhmmss>.csv

For example, if you selected a daily export frequency, the files you would receive on three consecutive days could look like this:

Salesforce_Marketing_Cloud_segment12341e18-abcd-49c2-836d-123c88e76c39_20200408061804.csv
Salesforce_Marketing_Cloud_segment12341e18-abcd-49c2-836d-123c88e76c39_20200409052200.csv
Salesforce_Marketing_Cloud_segment12341e18-abcd-49c2-836d-123c88e76c39_20200410061130.csv

The presence of these files in your storage location is confirmation of successful activation. To understand how the exported files are structured, you can download a sample .csv file. This sample file includes the profile attributes person.firstname, person.lastname, person.gender, person.birthyear, and personalEmail.address.