Access Customer Attributes in the People service

  1. In the Adobe Experience Cloud, click the menu icon ( menu icon ) then click People.

    People

  2. Click the Customer Attributes tab.

    Customer Attributes tab

Customer attribute workflow for Target

Complete the following steps to use CRM data in Target, as illustrated below:

crm workflow

Detailed instructions for completing each of the following tasks can be found in Create a customer attribute source and upload the data file in the Experience Cloud Services and Administration documentation.

  1. Create a data file.

    Export customer data from your CRM to CSV format to create a .csv file. Alternately, a zip or gzip file can be created for uploading. Ensure that first row of the CSV file is the header and all rows (customer data) have the same number of entries.

    The following illustration shows a sample enterprise customer data file:

    crs sample

    The following illustration shows a sample enterprise customer .csv file:

    csv sample

  2. Create the attribute source and upload the data file.

    Specify a Name and Description of the data source and the alias Id. The alias Id is a unique ID to be used in your Customer Attribute code in VisitorAPI.js.

    IMPORTANT
    The data source name and the attribute name cannot contain a period.

    Your data file must comply with the file Upload Requirements and must not exceed 100 MB. If your file is too large, or you have data that must be uploaded on a recurring basis you can FTP your files instead.

    • HTTPS: You can drag-and-drop the .csv data file or click Browse to upload from your file system.
    • FTP: Click the FTP link to upload the file through FTP. First step is to provide a password for the Adobe-provided FTP server. Specify the password, then click Done.

    Now transfer your CSV/ZIP/GZIP file to the FTP server. After this file transfer is successful, create a file with the same name and a .fin extension. Transfer this empty file to the server. This indicates an End Of Transfer and the Experience Cloud starts to process the data file.

  3. Validate the schema.

    The validation process lets you map display names and descriptions to uploaded attributes (strings, integers, numbers, and so on). Map each attribute to its correct data type, display name, and description.

    Click Save after the schema validation is complete. The file upload time varies depending on the size.

    Validate schema

    Upload schema

  4. Configure subscriptions and activate the attribute source.

    Click Add Subscription, then select the solution to subscribe these attributes. Configure subscriptions sets up the data flow between the Experience Cloud and solutions. Activating the attribute source allows the data to flow to subscribed solutions. The customer records you have uploaded are matched up with incoming ID signals from your website or application.

    Configure solution

    Activate

    While performing this step, be aware of the following limitations:

    • The maximum file size for each upload using the HTTP method is 100 MB.
    • The maximum file size for each upload using the FTP method is 4 GB.
    • The number of attributes allowed to subscribe: 5 for Target Standard and 200 for Target Premium.

Use customer attributes in Target

You can use customer attributes in Target in the following ways:

Creating targeting audiences

In Target, you can select a customer attribute from the Visitor Profile section when creating an audience. All customer attributes have the prefix < data_source_name > in the list. Combine these attributes as required with other data attributes to build audiences.

Target Audience

Creating profile scripts using tokens

Customer attributes can be referenced in profile scripts using format crs.get('<Datasource Name>.<Attribute name>').

This profile script can be used directly in offers for delivering attributes that belong to the current visitor.

Using mbox3rdPartyID in your website for a successful implementation and usage

Pass mbox3rdPartyId as a parameter to the global mbox inside the targetPageParams() method. The value of mbox3rdPartyId should be set to the customer ID that was present in the CSV data file.

<script type="text/javascript">
            function targetPageParams() {
               return 'mbox3rdPartyId=2000578';
            }
</script>

Using the Experience Cloud ID Service

If you are using the Experience Cloud ID service, you must set a Customer ID and Authentication State to use customer attributes in targeting. For more information, see Customer IDs and Authentication State in the Experience Cloud ID Service Help.

For more information about using customer attributes in Target, see the following resources:

Issues frequently encountered by customers

You might encounter the following issues when working with customer attributes and Target.

NOTE
Issues 1 and 2 cause approximately 60% of problems in this area. Issue 3 causes approximately 30% of problems. Issue 4 causes approximately 5% of problems. The remaining 5% are due to miscellaneous issues.

Issue 1: Customer attributes are removed because the profile is too large

There is no character limit on a particular field in the user’s profile, but if the profile gets larger than 64 K, it is truncated by removing the oldest attributes until the profile is below 64 K again.

Issue 2: Attributes not listing in the Audience Library in Target, even after several days

This is usually a Pipeline connection problem. As a resolution, ask your Customer Attributes team to republish the feed.

Issue 3: Delivery not working based on the attribute

The profile has not been updated on the edge yet. As a resolution, ask your Customer Attributes team to republish the feed.

Issue 4: Implementation issues

Be aware of the following implementation issues:

  • The Visitor Id was not passed correctly. The ID was passed in mboxMCGVID instead of setCustomerId.
  • The Visitor Id was passed correctly, but the AUTHENTICATION state was not set to Authenticated.
  • mbox3rdPartyId was not passed correctly.

Issue 5: mboxUpdate not performed properly

mboxUpdate was not performed properly with mbox3rdPartyId.

Issue 6: Customer attributes are not being imported into Target

If you cannot find Customer Attributes data in Target, ensure that the import occurred within the last x days where x is the Target Visitor Profile Lifetime value (14 days by default).

Training video: Upload Offline Data using Customer Attributes Tutorial badge

This video shows you how to import offline CRM, help desk, point-of-sale, and other marketing data into the Experience Cloud People service and associate it with visitors using their known IDs.

Target


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