Utilizing the Audiences feature requires several steps to create and send audiences to downstream systems, e.g. Facebook, Yahoo!, Google Analytics, Nielsen. The high-level steps of how and what data is available for defining attributes, how to utilize the attributes to create audiences, and how to select the audiences to send to the downstream systems are described in the article Building an Audience Workflow.
This article dives into the details of the fourth of those steps, Creating Audience Sync apps:
- Creating an Audience Sync app
- Select the needed data layers
- Define an Audience Selector process
- Testing the Audience Sync app
- Activating the Audience Sync app
Creating an Audience Sync app
The Audience Apps page is available from the main menu (
) and then select the submenu item Apps under Audience or, if already within the Audience module, via the apps icon (
).
As noted in the Integrating audiences downstream section of Building an Audience Workflow, at this time it is necessary to create one audience sync app per downstream system integration. Each audience sync app will have its own list of selected audiences that will be sent to the particular downstream system the app is integrated.
When a new audience sync app needs to be created then simply click the green plus icon (
). Doing so will bring up the below pop-up allowing you to create the audience sync app.
The following fields need to be completed to create a new audience sync app:
- Name - The name should be descriptive of the downstream system to where the audiences will be sent. The name must be unique across all apps within the Syntasa platform.
- Key - The key value you typically can leave as is since it is auto-generated from the name of the app. It too needs to be unique across all apps. The key value cannot be changed after the app is created.
- App Prefix - The app prefix is the abbreviated value used to identify the app's datasets and tables within the workflow canvas. This typically can be left as-is and can be altered after the app has been created.
- Copy an Existing App - May be used in the context of audience sync apps as you may want to duplicate the list of selected audiences that exist in another audience sync app. If this were used, as discussed later, the integration portion of the app will need to be changed by Syntasa staff.
- Template - This should be selected as "Audience Sync" for our purposes of creating a new audience sync app.
- Description - Informational note describing the intent and use of the app.
- Event Store - This is the location the audience sync app will be stored. Audience sync apps work across data layers and thus are not limited to a data layer as are the attribute builder and audience builder apps.
- Default Partition Scheme - This typically is set as Daily.
- Override Icon - The icon of the app card can be altered from the default (
). This can also be changed later from the app's overview screen.
Initially, the app will look like the below with no data layer input stores (
), one unconfigured audience selector process (
), and the audience sync result table (
).
As seen on the element selection on the left, an audience sync app has many stores and processes that can be added to the app, but users should only be concerned with: one type of input store, data layer; and one type of process, audience selector.
Select the needed data layers
Drag and select the data layer(s)
- Unlock the app - Before editing an app you need to click the lock/unlock icon (
) to unlock the workflow canvas. - Drag the store - Drag the needed number of data layers onto the workflow canvas. Initially, this new node will be gray in color.
- Select the data layer - Click on the store node(s) dragged onto the workflow canvas. The bottom panel will have the Dataset option selected. Choose the desired Data Layer, the Dataset will then be automatically selected, and click the green checkbox (
).
Connect the data layer(s)
The last step for the data layer is to connect it to the needed audience selector process by dragging between and connecting the dots between the two nodes. If there are multiple data layer nodes each will connect to its own audience selector node, which will have to be dragged onto the workflow canvas.
Define an Audience Selector process
Select the audiences
Now that you have connected the data layer to the audience selector process, the process can now be configured. Click on the process node, the bottom panel will have the Audiences option selected.
The list of audiences shown are those that are currently selected to be sent to the downstream system. To add currently unselected audiences, use the Add (
) or Add All (
) buttons; to remove currently selected audiences, use the trash can (
) or Clear buttons (
).
Once the audience selector process is configured click the green checkbox (
) to confirm the inputted values of the process. Once this is checked the configuration panel of the process will close. If needing to open the panel again then click on the process node again. After the checkbox is clicked, the process node on the workflow canvas will be a light green (
).
Downstream integration
The audience sync app requires further configuration to interface with the downstream system. The Syntasa staff will configure the other processes needed within the audience sync app. It is important to note that only the audience selector process noted above is required for users to interact with; the subsequent processes for the integration are not intended for user configuration.
Testing the Audience Sync app
Once the audience sync process has been configured the audience sync can be tested with the Syntasa staff. Unlike attribute builder and audience builder apps that are harmless to test in the development section of the app, the audience syn app may have unintended effects as they are connected to the downstream system.
Once the audience sync app has been verified, the further changes by users will be limited to (de)selecting audiences to be sent downstream. Therefore, the testing within the development section of the app may be skipped at the user's discretion.
Save & Lock
Before being able to save and promote changes to the selected audiences into the production section of the app, the app needs to be locked. To save and lock the app click either the Save & Lock button (
) or the Save button (
) followed by the lock icon (
).
Activating the Audience Sync app
When the audience sync app is configured to satisfaction it can then be activated into the production section of the app by clicking the Activate button (
). This will use the current version of the app in the development section of the app to update/overwrite the current copy of the app in production or create the initial production version if one does not currently exist.
After the app is in the production section of the app the job needs to be run to send the audience results to the downstream system.