Getting Data Into Salesforce Audience Studio - Data Layer Ingestion

What is a Data Layer?

A Data Layer is a javascript object that is available on a website page that holds information to be used by systems like analytics, ad servers, DMPs, CRMs and others. Many different Data Layer types and structures exist and they are dependent on what the sites they are on do, and what is available to them on the page.

I already have a Data Layer

Excellent, let your Salesforce Audience Studio representative know and send them a few details.

• Your Data Layer object name
  • if you use Google analytics it will typically be dataLayer
• A few test pages so we can check data ingestion is working
  • please include a variety of example pages where the Data Layer is either basic or complicated
• If you have anything that appears in the "Exclude the Following" list below.

How to build a Data Layer (Minimum Taxonomy)

Audience Studio can work with any shape/structure of Data Layer. We do have some recommendations that make things helpful:

• Please have separate sections for page information and user information.
• Below is a sample data layer.  The typical list of page attributes are highlighted below in blue, and are recommended for getting started.

  {
   "page": {
     "site": "example.com",
     "section": "news",
     "subsection": "daily",
     "category": "local news",
     "keywords": ["technology", "small business"]
    },
    "user": {
      "userId": "f7c3bc1d808e04732adf679965ccc34ca7ae3441",
      "email_sha256": "e494165e2c7b061fb6669b29d8488ad8ae1d5eb8d5b9fcffcd31a3eb9b53704b",
      "profile": {
        "gender": "m",
        "ageRange": "19-24"
      }
    }
  }

• You can include multiple values for a given item by making it an array like keywords above.
• Please avoid using commas in values, if you need to include commas, first reach out to your Audience Studio representative to discuss options.
• The following characters are not allowed in attributes or values:
  

  /
  <
  >
  \
  &

Note: We expect unsalted SHA-256 hashing for email_sha256. We recommend that the attribute be called email_sha256 in the dataLayer to assist with the setup of Marketing Cloud integrations.

Exclude the Following:

• HTML Objects.
• GPS Co-ordinates.
• Attributes containing gtm in the name
• Values that look like an email address
• Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
  • Note: Certain countries have very specific laws on what PII is.
• Highly unique values. e.g.
  • Session IDs
  • Timestamps
  • Page URLs
  • 0.0001, 0.0002, 0.0003, etc.
  • Query strings
  • Impression IDs
  • Anything that changes from impression to impression

Steps to Activate

Once the Data Layer is ready please contact your Audience Studio representative who will provide you with the Data Specification Template. This is a spreadsheet that you fill in with the items you are expecting to send to Audience Studio and some of the possible values, as well as information on how you would like the attributes displayed in the Audience Studio platform.

Updates to Data Layer

One of the major benefits of using the Data Layer is that you can easily add new items to the data collection at any point in time.  Once Salesforce Audience Studio has configured our account to pull data from your Data Layer, you can add and remove items for ingestion into Audience Studio at any point in time.  Please contact your Salesforce Audience Studio representative with the details if the item you have added/removed. There is a short review process to ensure that the data is acceptable for collection and pending review it will be enabled within Audience Studio.

Other Information Regarding Data Layers

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DIGITAL DATA COMMUNITY GROUP
http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2013/10/15/unlock-data-layer-google-tag-manager/

Need Help?

If you need help with Data Layer Ingestion, don't hesitate to contact the Salesforce Audience Studio Solutions team at [e-mail].