Data Cloud’s Activation Toolkit is an innovative solution streamlining the process of Data Cloud Activation through a metadata-driven approach. In this blog post, we’ll explore the value of the Activation Toolkit, dive into its core features, and discuss how it facilitates seamless onboarding, configuration, and activation across entire consumer journeys.
Customer value
Today’s consumer journeys are nonlinear and fragmented across touchpoints. Most consumers use multiple channels to start and complete a single transaction and they switch between channels based on context and convenience. For eg: They first see an ad on social media only to make a purchase on a website later. Consumers expect brands to communicate with them accordingly, demand relevant offers and feel truly known and understood as individuals.
Activation Toolkit makes it really simple for business users to connect / authenticate, map any data (segments, purchase events, consumer activities, consumer insights etc) available in Data Cloud to the specific data schema (name, email, phone, purchases, recommendations, etc) required by the customer engagement platforms such as Google, Meta, LinkedIn etc to provide connected experiences across the entire consumer journeys. Data Cloud empowers brands to activate any data in batch and streaming modes to orchestrate personalized experiences across the entire B2C and B2B customer journeys. For example, the Google Ads Activations built using Activation Toolkit helps customers deliver personalized experiences by activating the unified first-party data at scale. Similarly, the Meta Conversion API Activations powered by the Toolkit enables marketers to activate standard and custom events such as purchases or lead status changes to optimize Ad targeting and measure outcomes.
Case study: Salesforce nurtures Leads using LinkedIn Media Campaigns
The Salesforce Marketing team uses Data Cloud to create high value audience segments using signals such as product intent and open opportunity. These audience segments are used in Marketing Nurture programs including paid media campaigns on LinkedIn.
In Data Cloud, LinkedIn was initially setup with email address only as the match key for media targeting. The initial match rate with LinkedIn using lead’s email address only was rather low to effectively and accurately target Leads. The low match rate was primarily due to the fact that Leads often use corporate email addresses during the sales motions while the same leads typically use personal email addresses on LinkedIn.
To improve match rates, the Salesforce marketing team quickly expanded the LinkedIn schema using the Activation Toolkit to include additional match keys, such as First Name, Last Name, Google Ad ID, Job Title, Company, and Country. The Activation Toolkit made it really simple to incorporate additional match keys, which reduced the setup time and significantly improved the match rates, resulting in lower spend on other channels. As a result, match rates increased by 65%, leading to a notable boost in campaign performance, aligning with the team’s expectations.
With the Activation Toolkit, users can easily select and map attributes from any standard or custom DMO in Data Cloud, optimizing the partner matching process and simplifying campaign management.
What does the Activation Toolkit comprise of?
At its core, the Activation Toolkit is a set of services that empower businesses to onboard destinations(aka Activation Targets) and activate data seamlessly using metadata. Let us take a look at a quick overview of the composition.
Destination Platform Metadata:
The destination platform metadata is central to the Activation Toolkit. It defines all the necessary configurations for each destination platform. By leveraging this metadata, the Activation Toolkit configures both the Activation Target and the overall Activation workflow, transforming what would otherwise be a complex process into a highly efficient and scalable one.
At a high level, the metadata captures the following details:-
- Connection / Authentication: How to securely authenticate connections to destination platforms such as OAuth2, API keys and more.
- Target schema fields: The specific set of attributes required by destination platform (e.g., Google Ads, Meta). The attributes could be user identifiers such as email, phone number, address, first / last name, engagement attributes such as purcashes and events such as Product browse, Add to cart, Checkouts, etc.
- Activation Frequency: The schedule or frequency at which data will be sent to the destination (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly).
- Data Thresholds: Limits or criteria that define when data should be activated, such as audience size or data freshness.
How to use an Activation toolkit in Data Cloud?
Use the following steps in order to use activation toolkit in data cloud:
1. Onboard Destinations:
This service simplifies the onboarding of new destinations onto Data Cloud, whether it’s an advertising platform or an external messaging system. The process is straightforward: Salesforce team uploads the destination platform’s metadata file to a developer org. Behind the scenes, Salesforce Package Manager is used to package the metadata and ensures seamless distribution to all the customer orgs. For ISV partners onboarding a destination platform, the packaged metadata becomes available on AppExchange after completing the AppExchange review process.
2. Create Activation Targets
This service enables Activation toolkit to configure the experience to create Activation Targets based on the destination platform metadata configurations. For example, the toolkit leverages destination name, logo, description etc. to show tiles for each destination.
Similarly, the toolkit leverages the authentication type and the connector fields from the destination platform metadata to configure the authentication experience and enable clients to create authenticated connections to the destination platforms.
3. Create Activations:
Similar to configuring the experience to create Activation Targets, the toolkit leverages the destination platform metadata to configure the experience to create Activations. The toolkit uses the required & option fields, the number of values supported for each field etc. to enable clients to map from DMOs to destination schema.
To conclude, Activation Toolkit is a powerful enabler for marketing, sales, and data teams to activate their first-party data (including 1P anonymous identifiers) from Data cloud to a wide range of external platforms. It provides the flexibility needed to onboard and activate data across an expanding range of strategic and long-tail destinations. Its metadata-driven approach makes it a critical tool for organizations looking to leverage the full potential of their data ecosystem. By onboarding Activation Targets efficiently, users can create targeted campaigns, optimize marketing spend, and personalize their outreach across multiple channels, all from within Salesforce Data Cloud.
Forward-looking Statement
This content contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If any such uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions proved incorrect, the results of salesforce.com, inc. could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this document or other presentations, press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase our services should make the purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
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