Activating Kenshoo Search Data
You can ingest your search data from the Kenshoo search solution into the Oracle Data Cloud platform and then activate it to enhance your audience segmentation and optimize your digital media campaigns.
Kenshoo search data helps you to evaluate the behavior and demographics of your key search user groups, extend audience reach with audience analytics and lookalike modeling, and optimize your media campaigns across search, display, site optimization, and other media execution platforms.
Integrating Kenshoo search data into your taxonomy in the Oracle Data Cloud platform enables you to do the following:
- Retarget users that have demonstrated high brand affinity (for example, clicked on your branded search terms), but have not yet converted with a specific message.
- Retarget non-branded users that are in-market for your competitors' brands or products.
- Categorize the gender, demographics, and interests and lifestyles of your search customers based on your keywords.
- Profile the attributes of key search groups such as their in-market behaviors, demographics, and interests.
- Perform reach extension to expand your target audience to include more users that are like your high-value customers.
To ingest your Kenshoo data and activate it:
- In your Kenshoo account, apply dimensions to your search campaigns that you want to send to the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
- Pass your Kenshoo dimensions in the base URL or the referrer URL of your tags.
- In the Oracle Data Cloud platform, create categories and rules corresponding to your Kenshoo dimensions.
- Activate your Kenshoo data in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
Getting started with Kenshoo
Adding Kenshoo search data to your taxonomy in the Oracle Data Cloud platform entails the following steps:
- Selecting which Kenshoo search data to add to your taxonomy.
- Ingesting your Kenshoo search data into your taxonomy.
- Testing the integration setup.
- Activating your Kenshoo search data with the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
- Analyzing the attributes and behavior of your Kenshoo search users.
Selecting Kenshoo search data
To select the Kenshoo search data to be included in your taxonomy in the Oracle Data Cloud platform, follow these steps:
- Identify which search users you want to ingest into your taxonomy.
- Apply Kenshoo dimensions to the search users that are driving the desired target audience to your Web site.
- Create a preliminary classification sheet listing the Kenshoo dimensions that you want to use in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
Identifying the search users to be ingested
You can retarget users who are clicking on brand keywords; users who are clicking on specific products, product categories, or promotional ads; or users performing some other action.
Applying dimensions to search campaigns
You can tag your search data with Kenshoo dimensions and then use the dimensions to identify the search campaigns that are driving users in your desired audience to your Web site. For example, if you want to retarget "Brand clickers", you could apply a dimension indicator for all campaigns tagged with the "Brand" dimension.
Kenshoo provides three types of dimensions that you can apply to your search campaigns: standard, custom, and tagging. The standard dimension is required; the custom and tagging dimensions are optional. You use the standard dimension to generally categorize the intent of the search campaign, which may either be trademark, brand, non-brand, or product. Optionally, you can use custom dimensions for more granular classification of a search campaign's intent. For example, you can associate a search campaign with a specific product or brand.
You can use the Kenshoo URL Automation system to apply dimensions to your relevant search campaigns/ad groups. You can then append the dimensions to your landing page URL or pass them in the referrer URL.
Tip: Select high-volume and strategic search data sets. Oracle recommends that all selected search categories get at least 5,000 clicks per month. Consult your Kenshoo Client Services representative to help identify the most valuable dimensions within your search campaigns
Standard dimensions
You need to apply a standard dimension to the search data you want to ingest to identify its general intent. The following table lists the values provided by Kenshoo that map to their standard intent categories. You will pass one of these values in a ks_d1 key.
| Dimension value | Intent category |
|---|---|
| 1 | trademark |
| 2 | brand |
| 3 | non-brand |
| 4 | product |
| 5 | uncategorized (this is the default value) |
Dimension Syntax: ks_d1=<dimension value>
Example (Landing Page URL): http://www.site.com?ks_d1=2
Example (Referrer URL): http://www.redirect.com/….=ks_d1=2&ks_d2=4&....url=http://www.example.com
Custom dimensions
Optionally, you can add a custom dimension after the standard dimension to further classify search campaigns into more granular brand, product, market, or other types of intent categories. You can pass custom intent category values using the ks_d2 key as demonstrated in the following table:
| Dimension value | Custom intent category |
|---|---|
|
1 |
uncategorized (default) |
|
2 |
your custom category A |
|
3 |
your custom category... |
|
4 |
Non-Branded C |
|
n |
ks_d1=3 |
Dimension Syntax: ks_d2=<dimension value>
Example (Landing Page URL): http://www.site.com?ks_d1=4&ks_d2=2
Example (Referrer URL): http://www.redirect.com/….=ks_d1=4&ks_d2=2&....url=http://www.example.com
Creating a preliminary mapping table
After you have identified the Kenshoo search dimensions you want to classify, consult your Kenshoo client services representative to create a preliminary mapping table that lists the following items:
- The Kenshoo dimensions (search categories) you want to use in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
- The proposed mapping between the key-value pair for the Kenshoo dimension and the human readable name for the dimension in your taxonomy. For example, if you pass "d=NB" in your URL string, rules can be created that map the "d=NB" key-value pair to the "Non-Branded" node in your taxonomy.
- The estimated size of the category (clicks per 30 days).
The following example demonstrates a proposed mapping table:
| category | Kenshoo dimension | Size (clicks per 30 days) |
|---|---|---|
| Product | ks_d1=4 | 400,000 |
| ks_d1=4& | ks_d1=2& | 900,000 |
| Luxury Travel | ks_d2=1ks_d2=1 | 150,000 |
| High Performers Ad Group | ks_d1=3"ks_d1=2 | 75,000 |
When you complete your preliminary mapping table, send it to your Oracle Data Cloud account manager to review your mapping table and provide feedback on your proposed key values.
Ingesting Kenshoo search data
To ingest Kenshoo search data into the Oracle Data Cloud platform:
- Add the tag to your landing pages.
- Configure Kenshoo dimension encoding on the URL.
- Update URLs for the keywords in the selected search data.
- Map your Kenshoo search parameters to categories in your Oracle Data Cloud platform taxonomy.
Adding the tag to your landing pages
Add the Oracle Data Cloud core tag to those landing pages where Kenshoo directs search traffic and is able to access the page's URL. Insert the Oracle Data Cloud core tag directly above the closing <body> tag in the Web pages.
Configuring the Kenshoo data encoding
After your classification sheet has been finalized, you can configure the Kenshoo data encoding.
Update URLs for keywords In selected campaigns
To update the URLs for all the keywords to be passed through as parameters for identifying your search clickers:
- Manually update the URLs:
- Perform a bulk export of the keywords and URLs from Kenshoo.
- Make the changes offline.
- Upload the modified URL back into Kenshoo.
- Add the relevant key-value pairs using the URL builder settings (if you are using dimensions to identify keywords and campaigns):
- Create a new dimension (or use an existing dimension) and tag all campaigns with the dimension and the appropriate parameter to be passed in the URL.
- Use URL builder to add the new or existing dimension to the required parameters (for example, dmp=[dimension]).
- In theKeywordsgrid, select all of the keywords in the campaign and then clickBuild URLfor each selected campaign.
- After your URLs have been updated, apply the changes to publishers.
Mapping Kenshoo search parameters
You can use the Taxonomy Manager or APIs to ingest your Kenshoo search categories into your taxonomy. You will create rules that state when the landing page URL or referrer URL contains a key-value pair representing a Kenshoo dimension, add the user to a specific search category in your taxonomy. For example, if a "ks_d1=4& key-value pair is included in the referrer URL, add the user to a Non-Branded Data category in your taxonomy.
To map your Kenshoo search categories to the platform categories:
Use the Taxonomy Manager or the Categories API and rule APIs to create phint-based rules that map your Kenshoo search categories to the Oracle Data Cloud categories, and the platform you created. Use the following syntax to create the phints in your classification rules:
Phint Syntax (Kenshoo dimension in landing page URL): __bk_l contains key=value
Phint Syntax (Kenshoo dimension in page referrer URL): __bk_pr contains key=value
Landing page URL example: __bk_l contains ks_d2=1
Page referrer URL example: __bk_pr contains ks_d1=2
Testing the integration
Before implementing the integration in your production environment, you should verify that your Kenshoo search parameters are being passed to your taxonomy in the Oracle Data Cloud platform.
To test the integration:
- Create an HTML page and insert the same Oracle Data Cloud core tag code you added to your landing pages where Kenshoo directs search traffic.
- Simulate a search click to your test page by doing one of the following:
- Open your web browser and navigate to the test page. Verify that you have added the necessary parameters in the query string of the request.
- If you are using a redirect (ad server or Kenshoo tracker), simulate the click as if it was coming through the redirect. Verify that the URL of the landing page points to your test page using the required parameters in the query string of the request.
- Start HTTPFox, FireBug, or other comparable debugging tool to view the tags on your test page.
- In the landing page redirect or the referring URL redirect (depending on your integration), verify that there is a URL with the dimensions you encoded. For example:
http://yourlandingpage.com/something?d=NB&d=HP
Activating Kenshoo search data
After you have implemented the integration in your production environment, you can create a target audience that includes the new Kenshoo search-based categories within your taxonomy. You can then deliver the audience to the vendors in the Oracle Data Cloud platform. For more information on creating audiences in the Oracle Data Cloud platform, see creating an audience.
The use cases for targeting users with your Kenshoo search data includes the following:
- Search retargeting: You can retarget users that have, for example, clicked on your branded terms but have not converted.
- Enhanced segmentation: You can combine Kenshoo search data with Oracle Data Cloud first-party and third-party data to create precise target audiences. For example, you can retarget search users that have not yet converted by selecting users from one of your Kenshoo search campaigns in one segment and then exclude converters in another segment. You could also retarget non-branded users that are in-market for your competitors' brands or products by selecting non-branded users from a Kenshoo node for one segment and then select the applicable third-party category for another segment.
Analyzing Kenshoo search users
After you deliver and audience using your Kenshoo search data, you can use audience analytics and discovery reports in the Oracle Data Cloud platform to further understand your Kenshoo search customers. You can then use the attributes to extend the reach of your audience based on performance or to segment and message based on their behaviors.