Implementing Audience Manager

Last update: April 13, 2021

This section outlines and explains the processes related to getting started with the Audience Manager data management platform (DMP). This section is designed to help business teams, project managers, and technology managers understand the Audience Manager implementation process. Getting started with Audience Manager can take approximately six weeks to three months, depending on your data collection needs.

Our implementation techniques help create consultative partnership with new clients. This process is designed to:

  • Discover and understand your business requirements;
  • Produce an actionable plan to address those demands;
  • Develop custom solutions to help meet unique requirements or use cases;
  • Ensure that your proprietary data is imported and made available in the Audience Manager.

Our Partner Solutions and Account Management teams will work closely with you before, during, and after the implementation process.

Audience Manager takes a phased approach to setup and implementation.

Define Phase

The define phase introduces you to our Partner Solutions project leads and begins the project management process.

This step is designed to help potential clients define and agree on project scope, understand custom requirements, establish milestones, and set up communications.

The following table describes key activities that take place during this phase:

ActivityPurpose/DescriptionSuggested Participants
Kick-off call/meeting
  • Introduce project leads
  • Define roles and responsibilities
  • Establish goals and milestones tied to delivery dates
  • Confirm plans for on-site work
  • Establish communications for questions and status updates
Business and technical teams
Provide accessEstablish access to shared resources and distribute log-in credentialsBusiness and technical teams
Status reports and project team callsEstablish and maintain clear communication about plans and progressBusiness and technical teams

Deliverables for this phase can include the following:

  • Documents that identify roles and responsibilities;
  • Documents that establish the scope of work;
  • A plan to schedule project meetings and calls;
  • A process to share resources and access.

Discovery Phase

The discovery phase is dedicated to gathering requirements, conducting research, and working toward a deeper understanding of your business needs and data-collection strategies.

The following table describes key activities that take place during this phase:

ActivityPurpose/DescriptionSuggested Participants
Requirements and goal setting
  • Develop plans for tag management and data collection
  • Develop plans that meet customer needs, goals, and expectations
Business teams
Evaluate data
  • Determine how to collect your data and the sources of that data
  • Discover sources of your first-party, second-party, and third-party data
Business and technical teams
Find destinationsDiscover if the client sends data to other ad servers, DSPs, networks, or exchangesBusiness teams
Breakout sessionsRefine business requirements and needsBusiness teams
Follow-up communicationRegular communication for follow-up and development purposesBusiness and technical teams

Deliverables for this phase can include:

  • A completed first-party, second-party, and third-party data collection strategy;
  • A completed CRM or data warehouse ingestion plan;
  • Defined audience-segmentation requirements;
  • a completed data taxonomy;
  • A developed third-party data-integration plan.

Build, Test, and Train Phase

During the build, test, and train phase, you will review the data collection strategy and prototype with a designated Partner Solutions lead.

Your data collection strategy will undergo end-to-end QA testing. Partner Solutions will track discovered bugs and coordinate problem resolutions with our systems engineers. Customer training can start in parallel with these other efforts.

The following table describes key activities that take place during this phase:

ActivityPurpose/DescriptionParticipants
Prepare a data collection strategyWork with Adobe technical teams to build a data-collection plan that satisfies your business requirementsBusiness and technical teams
Deploy and test codeTest the proposed solution in a staging environment and perform cross-browser testingTechnical teams
Verify functionality and resolve bugsExamine and communicate results, resolve bugs, and re-testTechnical teams
User trainingProvide education and understanding about Audience Manager features, tools, and reportsBusiness teams

Deliverables for this phase can include:

  • A completed and accepted data-collection plan;
  • End-to-end QA testing;
  • Basic instruction on Audience Manager user interface features;
  • Acceptance and sign-off.

Launch, Support, and Optimize Phase

During the launch, support, and optimize phase, your data-collection and prototyped implementation moves from development to a live, production environment. We’ll continue training on product familiarization and strategies that can help increase your ROI through data-driven optimization.

The following table describes key activities that take place during this phase:

ActivityPurpose/DescriptionParticipants
Data analysis and optimizationAnalyze data trends and provide recommendations for optimizationBusiness teams
Create traits and segments

Create real traits and segments for data collection:

  • Create real traits and segments
  • Discuss segment-creation strategies
  • Consider and review use cases
Business teams
Further trainingContinue to build understanding and familiarity with product features, tools, and reportsBusiness teams
Follow-up communicationsRegularly scheduled communication to keep abreast of your user experience with Audience ManagerBusiness and technical teams

Tasks for this phase can include:

  • Generating and interpreting report data;
  • Understanding custom reports;
  • How to get product support
  • Responding to or soliciting feature requests, bugs, and user feedback;
  • Deepening familiarity with Audience Manager features and reports.