Documentation Audience Manager Audience Manager User Guide

Actionable Log Files

Last update: September 2, 2022

Topics:
Log Files

Actionable Log Files allow you to capture media data from ad server log files and use the data to create traits in Audience Manager. Capture impressions, clicks, and conversions from ad servers as traits without having to append pixels.

NOTE

The text styles (monospaced text, italics, brackets [ ] ( ), etc.) in this document indicate code elements and options. See Style Conventions for Code and Text Elements for more information.

Purpose

Actionable Log Files streamline the way you capture impressions, clicks, and conversions from ad servers. Use this information for user segmentation without having to manually pixel media to send campaign attributes to Audience Manager.

Getting started

To get started with Actionable Log Files, you need to import log data into Audience Manager. The following links will help you get started:

For Google Campaign Manager logs, see Import Google Campaign Manager Data Files Into Audience Manager and contact your Audience Manager consultant.
For Google Ad Manager (formerly Google DFP) logs, see Import Google Ad Manager Data Files Into Audience Manager and contact your Audience Manager consultant.
For other ad server logs, see Data and Metadata Files and contact your Audience Manager consultant.

If you are already importing log data into Audience Manager, ask your Audience Manager consultant or Customer Care to enable Actionable Log Files for you.

Working with Actionable Log Files

With Actionable Log Files, the information from ad server logs is captured in Audience Manager the same way that you would capture data from real-time website interactions. Audience Manager connects to your ad server log storage, parses the information from the logs, and sends the log data as actionable signals to our Data Collection Servers.

You still need to set up rule-based traits to capture the actionable signals. See how to set up rule-based traits either in the Audience Manager user interface or using our Bulk Management Tools. Scroll down to the Actionable Signals section for a list of all the keys you can use in rule-based traits.

IMPORTANT

We recommend implementing Actionable Log Files instead of Pixel Calls. We discourage the use of both options, as this leads to an increase in frequency counts for traits.

Actionable Signals

Signals are the smallest data units in Audience Manager. Actionable Log Files allow you to capture advertiser, business unit, creative, and campaign values in impression events, click events, and conversion events as signals from ad server logs.

IMPORTANT

Actionable Log Files are supported for the following ad servers:

Google Campaign Manager
Google Ad Manager
Adobe Advertising Cloud, Flashtalking, and Sizmek

Remember, in order to use this information for audience creation and segmentation, you need to set up the rule-based traits yourself.

Actionable Signals from Google Campaign Manager logs

The table lists the actionable signals from Google Campaign Manager log files:

Header Name in Log File

Signal

Description

Example Value

Activity ID

d_conversion

Available only for conversion events.

Represents the numerical ID for the conversion activity in Google Campaign Manager. This field maps to the Activity ID from Google Campaign Manager.

Tip: You can capture multiple or specific conversion activities from Google Campaign Manager. Create traits using d_conversion = activity ID for each conversion activity from Google Campaign Manager.

24122

Conversion ID

d_conversionType

Available only for conversion events.

This field maps to the Conversion ID in Google Campaign Manager. Indicates the activity preceding the user conversion from Google Campaign Manager.

Accepted values are:

1 for post-click conversions.
2 for post-impression conversions.
0 for un-matched conversions. The conversion cannot be matched to a previous activity.

0,1,2

Event Time

d_time

A UTC date and time for the impression, click, or conversion event. Represented in microseconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.

1570826763000

Advertiser Group ID

d_adsrc

An integration code for your advertiser's data source. Note that this is not related to Audience Manager data sources.

This field maps to the Advertiser Group ID from Google Campaign Manager.

134243

Advertiser ID

d_bu

Business Unit ID. This field maps to the Advertiser ID from Google Campaign Manager.

563332

Campaign ID

d_campaign

The Campaign ID provided by Google Campaign Manager.

7892520

Creative ID

d_creative

The Creative ID provided by Google Campaign Manager.

224221

Revenue

d_revenue

The sales amount in USD, to the power of -6. Multiply by 1.000.000 to see as a dollar amount.

10

-

d_event

Indicates the event type. Audience Manager reads the event type from the Google Campaign Manager log file name and transforms it into an actionable signal.

Accepted values are:

d_event = imp for impressions.
d_event = click for clicks.
d_event = conv for conversions.

imp, click, conv

-

d_src

The ID of the data source you use to capture Google Campaign Manager data. See How to Create a Data Source.

743

The signals described in the table are captured in Audience Manager like a real-time HTTP call. The example call below contains information on a conversion event from Google Campaign Manager. Calls do not necessarily have to include all the signals in the example call.

https://yourcompany.demdex.net?d_src=743&d_uuid=07955261652886032950143702505894272138&d_time=1504536233&d_event=conv&d_conversion=24122&d_conversionType=2&d_bu=3983524&d_campaign=7321391&d_adsrc=11111&d_creative=123456

For an average-sized Google Campaign Manager log file of 2 million lines, any traits created from actionable signals are realized within approximately one hour after we process the logs.

NOTE

The event timestamp provided in the Google Campaign Manager logs will be honored and passed to the Data Collection Servers.

If a timestamp isn’t available for a data row in the Google Campaign Manager log file, we use the time of the HTTP call as the event timestamp.
If the data row in the Google Campaign Manager log file contains a malformed timestamp, we ignore the entire row.

Actionable Signals from Google Ad Manager logs

The table lists the actionable signals from Google Ad Manager log files:

Header Name in Log File

Signal

Description

LineItemId

d_lineitem

The numeric ID for the delivered Ad Manager line item

OrderId

d_orderid

The numeric ID for the Ad Manager order that contained the delivered line item and creative.

CreativeId

d_creative

The numeric ID for the delivered Ad Manager creative.

-

d_event

Indicates the event type. Audience Manager reads the event type from the Ad Manager log file name and transforms it into an actionable signal. Accepted values are:

d_event = imp for impressions.
d_event = click for clicks.
d_event = conv for conversions and activities.

-

d_src

The ID of the data source you use to capture Ad Manager data. See How to Create a Data Source.

The signals described in the table are captured in Audience Manager like a real-time HTTP call. The example call below contains information on a conversion event from Google Ad Manager. Calls do not necessarily have to include all the signals in the example call.

https://yourcompany.demdex.net?d_src=743&d_uuid=07955261652886032950143702505894272138&d_time=1504536233&d_event=conv&d_lineitem=112&d_orderid=22223&d_creative=3983524

NOTE

The event timestamp provided in the Google Ad Manager logs will be honored and passed to the Data Collection Servers.

If a timestamp isn’t available for a data row in the Google Ad Manager log file, we use the time of the HTTP call as the event timestamp.
If the data row in the Google Ad Manager log file contains a malformed timestamp, we ignore the entire row.

Actionable Signals from Adobe Advertising Cloud, Flashtalking, and Sizmek ad server logs

First, you must deposit your ad server logs in our Amazon S3 buckets. To accomplish this, read Data Files for Audience Optimization Reports and Actionable Log Files and contact your Audience Manager consultant. The table lists the actionable signals from ad server log files:

Header Name in Log File

Signal

Description

Example Value

Event-Type

d_conversionType

Indicates whether a conversion is matched or not. Options include:

0 Impression
1 Click
-1 Unattributed or unknown

0,1,-1

Time-Stamp

d_time

A UTC date and time for the impression, click, or conversion event. Use the yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format.

2019-03-26 11:23:10

Advertiser-ID

d_adsrc

An integration code for your advertiser's data source. Note that this field is not related to Audience Manager data sources.

134243

BU-ID

d_bu

Business Unit ID.

563332

Campaign-ID

d_campaign

The Campaign ID from the log file.

7892520

Creative-ID

d_creative

The Creative ID from the log file.

224221

Revenue

d_revenue

Purchase or other conversion amount. Data type: Float.

0.001

-

d_event

Indicates the event type. Audience Manager reads the event type from the log file name and transforms it into an actionable signal. See log files naming conventions.

Accepted values are:

d_event = imp for impressions.
d_event = click for clicks.
d_event = conv for conversions.

imp, click, conv

-

d_src

The ID of the data source you use to capture log data. See How to Create a Data Source.

743

The signals described in the table are captured in Audience Manager like a real-time HTTP call. Calls do not necessarily have to include all the signals in the example call.

https://yourcompany.demdex.net?d_src=743&d_uuid=07955261652886032950143702505894272138&d_time=1504536233&d_activity=1234&d_creative=24122&d_placemebt=3442&d_bu=3983524&d_campaign=7321391&d_adsrc=11111

Working with Actionable Signals in the Audience Manager User Interface

You can view your incoming actionable signals in the Signals Search interface.

Go to Audience Data (1) > Signals (2) > Search (3) and select the Actionable Log Files (4) filter.

Actionable Signals in UI

To create rule-based traits using your actionable signals, select Actionable Log Files (1), select the actionable signals that you want to use as trait rules (2), and press Create Trait from Selected Signals (3).

Create traits from signals

Use Cases

One benefit of implementing Actionable Log Files is the option to apply recency and frequency controls to any rule-based traits that contain actionable signals. This allows you, for example, to frequency cap the number of times a user is shown a particular creative, within a media campaign. Read Instant Cross-Device Suppression to learn how to do this. Other use cases include:

Retarget Users

Retarget users who saw creative 123 but didn’t click or convert and show them creative 456. Do this:

Create a trait to capture users who saw the creative. Let’s say you name the trait Creative Trait 123. Use the trait rule:

d_creative == 123 AND d_event == imp
Create a trait to capture users who click or convert. Let’s say you name this one Click and Converter. Use the trait rule:

d_event == click OR d_event=conv
Create a segment to populate with users who saw creative 123 but didn’t click or convert. Name it Retarget Users and use the segment rule:

Creative Trait 123 AND NOT Click and Converter
Map the segment Retarget Users to a destination and target users in the destination with creative 456.

Use Google Campaign Manager Floodlight Activity in the Audience Optimization Reports or in Audience Lab

Floodlight tags enable advertisers to track user conversions. With Actionable Log Files, you can track the Google Campaign Manager conversions in the Audience Optimization Reports or in Audience Lab:

Create a trait and use the following trait rule to capture a conversion from the ad server logs:

d_event == conv AND d_conversion == 123

When creating the trait in the Audience Manager UI, select Conversion as the Event Type.
Once you have created the trait, the conversion will begin to be reported against in the Audience Optimization Reports and in Audience Lab.

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