Adobe Target

About this integration

Adobe Target is a crucial element of Adobe’s Experience Cloud suite, offering A/B testing and personalization features. This destination uses source data to create or update user profiles within Adobe Target that you can use to build target audiences and customize the user experience for your website visitors.

Getting started: direct mode

The Adobe Target “Web” destination loads Adobe’s at.js script for you in order to upsert user profiles, trigger views, and track events.

  1. Go to the Data Pipelines tab and click Connections.

  2. Click Add New under Destinations.

  3. Select the Adobe Target destination.

  4. (Optional) Select the sources that you want to connect to this destination. You can always connect sources to your destination later. We’ll only show you eligible sources.

  5. Configure your destination.

    1. Client Code: Your Adobe Target client code. To find your client code in Adobe Target, navigate to Administration > Implementation. The client code is shown at the top under Account Details.

    2. Admin Number: Your Adobe Target admin number. To find your admin number, please follow the instructions in Adobe Docs.

    3. Version: The version of ATJS to use. Defaults to 2.8.0.

    4. Mbox Name: The name of the Adobe Target mbox to use. Defaults to target-global-mbox.

    5. Cookie Domain: The domain from which you serve the mbox. Adobe Target recommends setting this value to your company's top-level domain.

  6. Click Enable Destination.

Getting started: cloud mode

The Adobe Target cloud destination only updates existing profiles in Adobe Target. If you want to add new profiles and send events, you’ll need to use the direct mode destination.

  1. Go to the Data Pipelines tab and click Connections.

  2. Click Add New under Destinations.

  3. Select the Adobe Target destination.

  4. (Optional) Select the sources that you want to connect to this destination. You can always connect sources to your destination later. We’ll only show you eligible sources.

  5. Configure your destination.

    1. Client Code: Your Adobe Target client code. To find your client code in Adobe Target, navigate to Administration > Implementation. The client code is shown at the top under Account Details.

    2. Bearer Token: If you choose to require authentication for Adobe Target's Profile API, you will need to generate an authentication token. Tokens can be generated in your Adobe Target account under the Implementation Settings tab or via the Adobe.IO Authentication Token API. Input the authentication token here. Note: Authentication tokens expire so a new token will need to be generated and updated here prior to expiration.

  6. Click Enable Destination.

Supported Actions

We support, and have default mappings for the following actions.

Direct Mode:

Cloud Mode:

Create or update person (upsert)

This action only works in direct-mode and create or updates user profiles in Adobe Target. By default, we send this action based on identify calls from your web source(s).

FieldTypeDescription
Mbox 3rd Party IDstringA user’s unique visitor ID. Setting an Mbox 3rd Party ID allows for updates via the Adobe Target Cloud Mode Destination. For more information, please see our Adobe Target Destination documentation.
Profile AttributesobjectProfile parameters specific to a user. If you send personally identifiable information to Adobe Target, you should hash it first.

Trigger view

This action only works in direct-mode and sends page views to Adobe Target. By default, we send this action based on page calls from your web source(s).

FieldTypeDescription
View Name*stringName of the view or page.
Page ParametersobjectParameters specific to the view or page.
Send Notifications to Adobe TargetbooleanBy default, notifications are sent to the Adobe Target backend for incrementing impression count. If false, notifications are not sent for incrementing impression count.
Mbox 3rd Party IDstring A user’s unique visitor ID. Setting an Mbox 3rd Party ID allows for updates via the Adobe Target Cloud Mode Destination. For more information, please see our Adobe Target Destination documentation.

Track Event

This action only works in direct-mode and sends user actions—like clicks, conversions, and so on— to Adobe Target. By default, we send this action based on track calls from your web source(s).

FieldTypeDescription
Event TypestringThe event type. The type event type must be registered and available in Adobe Target.
Event NamestringThe event_name in Adobe Target.
Event ParametersobjectParameters specific to the event.
Mbox 3rd Party IDstringA user’s unique visitor ID for the person who performed the event. Setting an Mbox 3rd Party ID allows for updates via the Adobe Target Cloud Mode Destination. For more information, please see our Adobe Target Destination documentation.

Update Person (Cloud Mode)

This action is for cloud mode destinations and updates user profiles in Adobe Target. By default, we send this action based on identify calls from your web source(s).

FieldTypeDescription
Mbox 3rd Party IDstringA user’s unique visitor ID. Setting an Mbox 3rd Party ID allows for updates via the Adobe Target Cloud Mode Destination. For more information, please see our Adobe Target Destination documentation.
Profile AttributesobjectProfile parameters specific to a user. If you send personally identifiable information to Adobe Target, you should hash it first.

You probably want to use this destination in direct-mode

You may need to set up by the direct and cloud mode destinations to get the most out of Adobe Target, but you must use the direct-mode destination if you want to create profiles in Adobe Target.

Adobe Target only supports profile creation with their client-side library. We only load this library when you use our direct mode integration, so you have to use the direct-mode destination if you want to create new profiles in Adobe Target.

You can use our cloud mode destination to update existing profiles. It can’t create new profiles in Adobe Target, but it may be helpful to use our server-side integration to augment information that you capture from your direct-mode destination with a cloud-mode destination.

How does it work?

Our JavaScript source library loads Adobe Target’s at.js script. While this script identifies people using a PCID we recommend that you identify people using the mbox3rdPartyId instead. In your destination, you should leave this value mapped to the default userId value (falling back to anonymousId for people you haven’t identified yet).

This provides a common identifier that ties data from your cloud source back original profiles created from your JavaScript source(s). Depending on your users journeys, they could generate multiple profiles in Adobe Target.

When an anonymous user arrives on your website, we’ll create an Adobe Target profile setting the mbox3rdPartyId to our anonymousId. If the same anonymous user visits your site on a different device, they’ll generate a new anonymousId and, therefore, a different mbox3rdPartyId. This results in a separate Adobe Target profile. This is Adobe’s standard PCID behavior.

When you identify a user—like when they log into your service—the person is assigned a new mbox3rdPartyId corresponding to their userId. If this profile doesn’t already exist, they’ll have a another profile.

If you identify people immediately upon their arrival—like in a single page app where people must login before they enter your website—then it’s likely that your users will always have the same userId and mbox3rdPartyId across devices (because you’ll always know exactly who they are).

Finding data in Adobe Target

Go to Adobe Target > Audiences > Create Audience > Add Rule to find and use your data in Adobe Target.

  • Attributes appear under Visitor Profile attributes.
  • Page Parameters show up as Custom attributes. Fields have page. prepended to the key.

You can use Adobe Target audiences in activities, like A/B Testing and Experience Targeting.

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