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Creating an Audience

You can use the Oracle Data Cloud platform audience builder to specify the users you want to target. Your target audience may contain any combination of your first-party data in your private taxonomy, private data purchased from the second-party data marketplace, and third-party data purchased from the Oracle Data Marketplace.

For example, an electronics retailer might target users that have searched for laptops, smart phones, or other products on their site, and then expand their target audience by adding users with similar or related attributes from a third-party branded data provider. The target audience may include a broad category of users (for example, users interested in purchasing a plan for their smart phone) or a more granular category (such as users interested in purchasing a prepaid plan from a specific carrier). The target can also exclude certain segments, such as users in a specific age range, income, or location. After you define a target audience, you can refine it by targeting only users who have recently demonstrated intent to purchase an item or have repeatedly demonstrated intent to buy.

New Feature - Projected Reach: Audience Builder uses a new faster, more precise inventory counting system called Projected Reach. The category, segment, and audience reach numbers in Audience Builder are based on inventory counts that are now updated once daily at around midnight GMT. Inventory therefore appears in Audience Builder within 24 to 36 hours after data has been onboarded (previously it took up to 96 hours). In addition, the inventory counts are now sampled at a higher rate of 1/8 (the previous sampling rate was 1/350). The reach figures are therefore approximately 95% accurate for counts with 10,000 or more user profiles.

Important: To support the latest audience builder, update your web browser to the latest version. Microsoft Internet Explorer is not fully supported. For more details, see supported browsers.

To create an audience:

  1. Log in to partner.bluekai.com and click New Audience. The Audiences window displays a new audience in edit mode.
  2. Provide a unique name to identify the audience.
  3. Build audience segments that you want to use for targeting.
  4. Set one ID source per audience (recommended).
  5. Save the audience and then create a campaign or share the audience directly with a partner.

Audience builder reference

To display the audience builder, select Manage > Audiences. A new audience is displayed:

Create Audience window

Features in the audience builder

Item Name Description
 1  Name

(Required) Specify a unique name for the new audience. Do not include special characters.
(Recommended) Identify the ID source in the name so that it is easy to select the correct audience and app partner when creating a campaign.

Important To avoid integration problems if you send your audience data to a partner, the audience name should only contain alphanumeric characters, spaces, and underscores.

 2  Categories The Categories tab displays a taxonomy tree in the center pane so that you can select and exclude audience attributes. For details on using the taxonomy tree, see creating audience segments.
 3  ID sources The ID Sources tab displays the available ID sources so that you can choose to include only ID sources that interest you, such as mobile advertising IDs.
 4  Show Labels and Notes Click Show Labels and Notes to display the following boxes:
  • Labels: Enter unique, descriptive tags for your audience. Labels help classify your audiences on the Audiences page. Labels must have a minimum of two characters.
  • Notes: Enter important information about the audience, such as instructions for how to use it.
 5  Search Search for a category by its name or category ID. For example, to search for In-Market > Autos, enter autos or 17. If you click the trash can icon Create Audience window, the search box is cleared and the taxonomy tree is reset.
 6  Taxonomy tree Select the check box for a category to add it to a segment in your target audience.
 7  Reach Displays the Total Reach of unique users seen in the target audience based on its current configuration. As you modify your audience, its Previous Reach changes and the percentage increase or decrease compared to the previous reach is shown.
 8  Price Displays the maximum cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) that you will pay for your audience based on the selected categories. This does not include any premiums charged by your media execution platform.
 9  Recency Specify the maximum number of days that can elapse since a user was last tagged with a category attribute to still qualify for your target audience (the default is All, which is 180 days). Click Custom to select a custom value.
 10  Frequency Specify the number of times users must have qualified for a category since they were initially tagged with it. The frequency tool has two boxes that allow you to specify a range. You can specify a frequency at the audience level or for an individual segment.
 11  Countries Specify one or more countries in which to target users. The default is all countries.
 12  Include (AND) The Include sub-tab displays one or more segments that include the categories in your target audience and the associated segment reach. Two or more categories define a segment using OR logic. Included segments use AND logic to define your audience.
 13  Exclude (NOT) The Exclude sub-tab displays one segment that excludes categories from your target audience, and displays the associated segment reach. Users that have been tagged with one category OR another in the exclude segment are NOT included in the target audience.
 14  Segment (OR) Each segment displays a summary of its categories and reach. For a user to be included in a segment, they must have been tagged in one category in the segment OR another. You can click the x next to a category to remove it from the segment.
 15  Add Segment Click this button to add another segment to your audience.
 16  Import Click this button to import a comma-separated value (CSV) file to add segments to your current audience.
 17  Export Click this button to export an audience to a CSV file to quickly add specific predefined segments to a target audience and reuse the segments.
 18  Save Click to save the audience. This button also has a menu with additional options:
  • Save and Create Audience: Click to save the current audience and then create a new audience.
  • Save and Create Campaign: Click to save the current audience and automatically associate the audience with a new campaign, where you can select the marketing execution platform on which to deploy your target audience.

Creating audience segments

An audience segment represents a subgroup within your target audience. A segment may contain one or more first-party, second-party, and third-party categories. For example, a segment may include users interested in purchasing one or more products or services, users with a specific geographic location or demographics, or any other data category available in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.

When you open the audience builder, an empty segment is displayed. To be able to save the audience, you must name it and add at least one category to segment 1. You can add as many segments as you want by clicking Add Segment. You can exclude segments by clicking the Exclude sub-tab and adding categories to the exclude segment.

Browsing categories in the taxonomy tree

The taxonomy tree contains hierarchies for the following types of categories (listed in order):

Categories are listed in the tree from general to more specific. For example if you are browsing the In-Market > Autos vertical, you can drill down to a specific make and model.

As you browse and select categories, the audience builder's analytics help you shape your target audience. You can view how many unique users are in a specific category, evaluate the highest related categories and their reach, and then add the category and its related categories to a segment.

Categories are arranged in a tree structure built to represent the context of a category, using parent-child relationships where the parent is broader conceptually and the child is more precise. When unique profiles are placed into a child category, they are also automatically placed into the broader parent categories. By selecting the parent category, you do not need to individually select all its child categories—any unique profiles in the child categories are also included. The parent category is not just the sum of its child categories, because it may also contain profiles that were not significant enough to be called out as specific child categories.

Searching for categories

You can quickly search the taxonomy, which includes over 66000 categories, for specific keywords. Any category with that keyword will be returned, along with all of that category's children. For example, if you search for "home improvement," all categories with that keyword are returned, along with all of the narrower categories even if the search term is not in the names of the child categories.

To search for categories:

  1. Enter the name of a category, its ID, or a search string in the Search box. For example, to search for In-Market >Travel, you could enter Travel or its ID, which is 18. The categories are filtered according to your search criteria.
  2. To reset the taxonomy tree, click the icon.

Adding a category to a segment

To add a category to a segment:

  1. Click the Categories tab of the audience builder,
  2. Browse the categories in the taxonomy tree and then select the check box for the category. The category is added to the Include > Segment 1 box and the audience builder updates the reach figures for the segment and the target audience.
  3. To view more details about a category, hover over the category in the taxonomy tree until the details icon is displayed.
    Image of the details icon that is displayed next to categories on hover over
  4. Click the details icon. The Category Details dialog displays the following:
    • Category name
    • Category's ID
    • Full path
    • A description
    • The Add to list that allows you to select a segment and then click Add
    • Related categories and corresponding Add buttons to add a related category to the specified segment (it can take a few minutes for all related categories to load).

      • Image of the Category Details dialog, which also displays related categories

Adding multiple categories to a segment

You can add multiple categories to a segment, which creates an OR condition. This means that a user only needs to have been tagged with one of the categories in the segment to be included in your target audience. For example, if you add In-Market > Retail > Video Games > Systems > Sony > Playstation and In-Market > Retail > Video Games > Systems > Microsoft > XBOX to a segment, the user only needs to have been tagged with one of the video game systems to be included.

Adding multiple segments to an audience

Your target audience may also include multiple segments, which creates an AND condition. For a user to be included in your target audience, they must meet the criteria in segment 1, AND segment 2, AND any additional included segments.

For example, if you add In-Market > Travel > Air Travel to segment 1 and In-Market > Travel > Cruises to a segment 2, the user needs to have been tagged with both categories to be included.

To add a segment to your audience, click Add Segment and then select the check boxes for the desired categories to be included in the segment. The selected categories are added to the new segment and the reach figures for the included segments and the target audience are updated.

Excluding categories

Your target audience may exclude one or more categories in a segment, which creates a NOT condition. This means that users in the excluded segment will not be included in your target audience. For example, if you include users in the In-Market > Travel > Cruises category but exclude users in the Demographic > Premium Demographic > Income > $0-$14,999 and Demographic > Validated Demographic > Income > $15,000-$19,999 categories, users who are in-market for a cruise but are in the specified lower incomes will not be included from your target audience.

To exclude categories:

  1. In the audience builder, click the Exclude sub-tab.
  2. From the taxonomy tree, select categories to exclude.
    Image of the audience builder's exclude tab showing excluded demographic category
    The segment reach is updated to reflect the exclusions.

Adding related categories

You can expand your target audience by viewing and selecting categories related to specific users.

Related categories are ranked according to their index. The index is a score ranging ranges from 0 to 100 that is based on a relative risk calculation. The higher the index, the more the category is related to the one you are viewing. For example, a user in a related category with an index of 50 is 50 times more likely to be in that related category than another user in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.

To select related categories:

  1. Browse the categories in the taxonomy tree and then .double-click a category. Its Category Details dialog displays categories related to the selected category, their associated reach, price (CPM), index, and full taxonomy path. It can sometimes take a few minutes to generate the related categories. Reach numbers can differ slightly when added to a segment because additional filters associated with the segment and audience are applied to the category's reach, such as frequency, recency, country, and ID source.
    Image of the Category Details dialog showing the related categories section
  2. From the Add to list, select the segment to which you want to add the related category, such as Segment 2.
  3. Next to a related category, click Add. The category is added to the selected segment.
  4. Add as many related categories as you want and then close the Category Details dialog and return to the audience builder window.

Selecting ID sources

An ID source represents the way in which a user was identified, such as from a mobile browser session or an Oracle Data Cloud third-party desktop cookie. You can limit audience reach to include only ID sources that interest you, such as mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs).

ID sources currently include:

Audiences created prior to the introduction of ID sources used the following device type values:

You can edit the ID sources of existing audiences and create new audiences so that you have to separate audiences for each source ID (recommended).

To select ID sources:

  1. In the new audience window, click the ID Sources tab . Your ID Sources are displayed.
    Create Audience window showing the ID Sources tab
    By default, all of your ID sources are selected. Each ID type has children that you can view by expanding its section. Each ID type displays its reach, which is included in your total reach.
  2. De-select check boxes next to ID sources to narrow your audience to specific ID types. For example, to narrow targeting to MAIDs, de-select Desktop IDs and Mobile IDs and then select Mobile Advertising IDs:
    Image of the Audiences window with the ID Sources tab selected and the Mobile App check box selected
  3. To narrow the targeting of your audience to users linked to cookies, clear the Mobile IDs check box and then select the Mobile Cookie ID check box.
    Image of the Audiences window with the ID Sources tab selected and the Desktop IDs check box selected
  4. Click Save after you complete other audience settings.

Audience reach

Reach is the number of unique users seen in the target audience based on its current configuration. Reach data displayed in Audience Builder and elsewhere in the Oracle Data Cloud platform is based on a sample rate of 1/8 and is updated once daily at around midnight GMT.

In addition to selecting categories, the following settings affect the number of users in your target audience:

Selecting countries

You can target users in a multiple countries using the Country selector. This filters your audience based on geolocation data for the users. You cannot set a country for each segment, but you can add geolocation categories to each segment.

To set the target country:

  1. Click in the Country box and start typing the name of the country or its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, such as CA to specify Canada.
  2. Select one or more of the listed countries.

Audience frequency

You can further pinpoint your target audience by specifying the audience frequency for all the categories in a given segment. Frequency is the number of times users have qualified for a category since they were initially tagged with it. By default, the frequency is set to a range of 1 to Any.

Setting the frequency enables you to target users that have been tagged with a category a specific minimum number of times or a specific range of minimum and maximum times. When you change the frequency for an audience or segment, the audience builder's reach values are automatically updated.

You can specify a frequency at the audience level or for an individual segment. For example, segment 1 may have a frequency of 5, segment 2 may have a frequency of 1-10, and an excluded segment may have a frequency of Any. To set a specific frequency for one or more segments, the audience frequency must be set to Any. If you set a frequency for one or more segments and then select a frequency for the entire audience, the audience frequency will override your segment frequencies.

Note: Frequency and recency are independent. If you set the recency and frequency, you are creating an OR condition in which the user must be tagged with a category within the time period specified by the recency setting or tagged the number of times specified by the frequency setting.

To set the audience frequency:

  1. Click the Frequency sub-tab above the segment. The frequency selector boxes are displayed.
    Image of frequency selector tool
  2. To set the minimum frequency, enter a numeric value in the left-hand frequency box. For example, if you set the minimum frequency to 1 for a segment with two categories, the user must have been tagged with either of the categories at least 1 time to be included in your target audience.
  3. (Optional) To set a specific maximum frequency, enter a value in the right-hand box. For example, if you set a frequency range of 1-10 for an audience with one segment containing two categories, the user must be tagged with either of the categories between 1 to 10 times to be included in your target audience.
    To set an exact frequency, set the value to the same number in both boxes.
    Image of frequency selector tool
  4. Click Apply. The specified frequency is applied to all the segments. The reach figures are updated for the segment, its parent collection of segments, and the entire target audience.

Frequency-based audiences

You can create frequency-based audiences to reach your customers with the optimal number of impressions across channels by delivering frequency instructions in real-time to your media execution platforms. This helps you to avoid reaching customers too many times and avoid wasted impressions.

To manage frequency:

  1. Use the Taxonomy Manager to create media data categories (such as impressions and clicks) and classification rules to map users who see or click on your ads to those categories.
  2. Ingest media data as a category into your DMP by deploying creative pixels in your ad creatives or ingesting ad server log files.
  3. Create frequency-based media audiences using the frequency slider in the create audience tool. For example, you can select an Impressions category and set a frequency of 1 to 5 along with other categories you would like to target to create an audience of "home page visitors who have seen my ad five times."
  4. Send your audience to your media execution platform. For details, see activating data.

Important: Media execution platforms need to respect frequency. You may need to create an exclusion statement directly in your media execution platform to avoid targeting users outside your specified frequency.

Recency

You can use the Recency setting to limit your target audience to only users that were last tagged with a category within a specific number of days. This increases the probability that you are targeting users that are still in-market for a particular product or service. For example, if you are targeting travelers, it is recommended that you set the recency to a maximum of seven days because users typically book their trips within seven days from when they first start searching for travel.

The default value for the Recency setting is All, which represents 180 days. Using the All setting guarantees that you see all available data.

To set the data recency:

  1. On the right-hand side of the audience builder, click the Recency sub-tab. The recency list displays the default recency: All, which means 180 days.
  2. Select one of the following options:
    • 1 Day
    • Last 7 days
    • Last 30 days
    • Last 90 days
    • All (the default)
    • Custom
    If you select Custom, you can set a specific integer value.
  3. Click Apply. The audience builder updates the reach values for the audience.

Recency guidelines for various categories

Data type Recommended recency Explanation
First-party private 30 days Retargeting typically performs well regardless of the product or service being sold.
Third-party retail Varies depending on the price The recommended recency increases with higher price points.
<$100 7 days or less
$100-$200 7 to 14 days
≥$200 14 to 21 days
Third-party travel 7 days or less Users typically books trips within the first seven days of searching for travel.
Third-party autos 7 to 30 days User typically require 30 days or more to purchase a vehicle because of the large financial commitment.
Third-party in-market (other than autos) 7 days or less
Third-party interest 7 days or less
Demographic, geographic, lifestyle, past purchases, and B2B 30 days or less These data attributes tend to have longer life cycle.

Importing audiences

You can use the Audience page to export an audience to a CSV file. This enables you to quickly add specific predefined segments to a target audience and reuse its segments. After you export an audience, you can open the CSV file with a spreadsheet application, modify your target audience following the formatting guidelines specified in the spreadsheet, and then import the segments into the Create Audience window.

To import an audience:

  1. In the Create Audience window, click Import.
  2. Click Upload, and then select the CSV file containing the target audience to be imported.
  3. The Audience Preview pane displays the categories in their respective segments based on the information in your CSV file.
  4. Click Add. The segments in your CSV file are added as new segments in your target audience.

Related

Installing an app

Managing audiences

Creating a campaign