Integrating into the Oracle Data Cloud Platform
Integrating into the Oracle Data Cloud platform is easy as data in, data out. You ingest your first party online, offline, and mobile data into your data management platform (DMP) and then send it to your server-side profile store, cookie store, or web page using one of our delivery methods.
Data in
The process of getting your first-party data into your DMP is called data ingest, which entails extracting user attributes from your online, offline, and mobile sources, transferring them to the platform, and then classifying and organizing them into a taxonomy (a hierarchical visualization of your user data). Data ingest is the pipeline between your data sources and your DMP.
The method for extracting your user attributes and sending them to the platform depends on the source of the data.
For example, to get your online and mobile user attributes into your DMP, you place a container tag on your website that collects page-level user attributes and sends them to the platform. To get your offline user attributes into the system, you create a file containing a match key (for example, a hashed email address) and your user's offline attributes, and then send the file to the platform or a third-party match partner. To get your user data into the cloud profile store, you make a call to the user data API.
Classification is done via rules that map your user attributes to categories in your taxonomy (a category is a collection of users that have the same attribute).
Consider a user that has purchased a smartphone from an electronics website or mobile site, or in a retail store. This user can be tagged with a "purchase=smartphone" attribute, which is referred to as a "phint." When this data is imported into the Oracle Data Cloud platform, this phint can be mapped to a "Past Purchases > Smartphone" category in your taxonomy via a classification rule that states "if purchase =smartphone, then the add the user to the Smartphone category).
The Oracle Data Cloud classification team can help you build your taxonomy or you can do it yourself. The platform UI includes the Taxonomy Manager for making categories and rules, or you can use Oracle Data Cloud APIs to programmatically create them.
The platform provides the following data ingest methods for ingesting your first-party online, offline, and mobile data:
| Ingest method | Description |
|---|---|
| Online ingest | You deploy a container tag on your site in order to collect your online page and user attributes (for example, product pages, purchase intent, add-to-cart actions, and conversions) and import them into the Oracle Data Cloud platform. |
| Offline onboard | You create a file containing a match key (for example, a hashed email address, IP address, or encrypted unique user ID) and your user's offline attributes and send it to Oracle Data Cloud or a third-party match partner. The platform matches your offline users with their online profiles and then import their offline attributes. You can use this integration to onboard data from a data warehouse, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, or any other structured offline source. |
| User data API | You can use a real-time server-side API to programmatically transfer your user data into the Oracle Data Cloud platform, where it is secured on an Oracle Data Cloud server that functions as your cloud profile store. This method is ideal if you do not have any user storage capacity, but your system supports ID swaps. An ID swap is an HTTP call to an Oracle Data Cloud server for passing and storing your unique user IDs (UUIDs). |
| Mobile ingest | You deploy an Oracle Data Cloud mobile core tag on your mobile web site and mobile hybrid apps in order to collect and organize your mobile user attributes. |
| Mobile app ingest | Use Oracle Data Cloud Android and iOS SDKs to collect data from your mobile native and hybrid apps. |
Note: Check out the data ingest page. It includes checklists for completing each of these integrations and how to get help in case you need it.
Data out
After your user data has been ingested, you can send it to your system for targeting. This is called data delivery. To deliver data, you create audiences that defines the data you need and then send it to your system .
An audience is one or more segments combined with AND logic that each contain one or more categories that are combined with OR logic. An example of an audience that includes two segments would be users that are in-market for a Toyota OR a Honda (segment 1) AND are 20 to 29 years old (segment 2).
The Oracle Data Cloud platform features a simple, intuitive audience builder tool that lets you select first-party categories from your private taxonomy, second-party categories other DMP clients have shared with you, and third party categories in the Oracle Data Marketplace. After you create your audience, you can deliver it and set options such as the schedule, maximum bid price, budget, and other configurations, and it includes the destination.
Alternatively, you can use the Oracle Data Cloud APIs to programmatically build and deliver audiences.
The method you use to send your data out of the Oracle Data Cloud platform depends on your system. The platform provides delivery via real-time server-to-server transfer, downloadable hourly or daily batch files, an image pixel, a JavaScript object direct to your web page, and an API. Select a data delivery method based on your user data storage capacity and the format required by your system:
| Delivery method | Description |
|---|---|
| App partners | Deliver your first- and third-party data to the app vendors that have integrated their data activation solutions into the Oracle Data Cloud platform. |
| User data API | Programmatically transfer category-level user data out of your Oracle Data Cloud profile store via a server-side API. This method is ideal if you do not have any user storage capacity, but your system supports ID swaps. |
| Image pixel | Transfer campaign data to your cookie or profile store in real-time via an image pixel. |
| Server data transfer (SDT) |
Transfer campaign data to your server-side profile store via real-time POST requests, or hourly/daily batch files that you download via SFTP or Amazon S3 buckets. SDT is the preferred data transfer mechanism because it sends data only for your known users (site visitors that have been ID swapped) and does not consume site bandwidth. Note: You can receive mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) in your platform via SDT so you can offer marketers and advertisers the ability to target mobile app users based on their online and offline attributes and behavior. See accepting mobile advertising IDs in your media platform for more information. |
| JSON return | Transfer campaign data in a JSON object directly to your web page that is hosting a JavaScript tag. This method is ideal if you do not have any user storage capacity. |
Oracle Data Cloud APIs
The Oracle Data Cloud platform provides a complete set of APIs for programmatically classifying your ingested user data, analyzing it, sharing it, and delivering it out to your system and to media execution platforms. The APIs are RESTful web services that use standard HTTP methods for transferring JavaScript object notation (JSON) data. Each API is detailed in its own page that includes an interactive API tool for executing live calls to the API. This helps you understand how to make calls to the API to get the data you need to integrate into the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
The platform provides the following APIs that support the data ingest and data delivery integrations.
| Data ingest API | Description |
|---|---|
| Containers API | Create a container for passing site data or unique user IDs (UUIDs) to the Oracle Data Cloud platform. |
| Categories API | Independently add first-party categories to your private taxonomy. |
| Rules API | Independently create classification rules that map the user data collected from your site with your categories. |
| Data delivery API | Description |
|---|---|
| Categories API | View the first-, second-, and third-party categories that you can use to create your target audiences. |
| Audiences API | Add first-, second-, and third-party categories to add to your target audience. |
| Campaigns API | Create instructions for delivering your target audience. |
Ingesting and Receiving EU Data
To ingest and receive data for user profiles located in the European Union (EU), you must have signed Oracle's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) agreements. Contact your Oracle Account Representative to obtain and sign the agreements.