Using Custom Columns

There are times when the standard Contact Event Data columns do not capture all the data elements you want to report on, or you might need to feed additional information back to your System of Record. For example, you might use the !MasterData/CONTACT_LIST COUNTRY_ISO3 list column and want to include this information in the Contact Event Data output file.

Each account can have up to twelve custom columns. All custom column information per event must fit within a field defined as varchar2(4000), and must account for XML meta-data used to store the custom-column name-value pair information in the given column. Custom column values are drawn from the Campaign’s List or associated Personalization Data sources as defined in the Campaign Dashboard.

For more information about the Contact Event Data output files that support custom columns, see Contact Event Data Output Files.

The source Event determines how custom column information is captured.

For this kind of data	Custom Column values come from
Sent, Skipped, and Failed Events	The Worklist based on the recipient profile in the List
Form Submission Events	The incoming name-value pair passed during the form post
Clicked and Converted Events	The value of the click or convert event's querystring name/value pair. This is because values set in the click tracking URL at the time of launch for a campaign are typically better for campaign and recipient tracking and attribution projects. Similarly, conversion parameter values determined and set at conversion time are typically the appropriate source of custom field data.

For this kind of data

Custom Column values come from

Sent, Skipped, and Failed Events

The Worklist based on the recipient profile in the List

Form Submission Events

The incoming name-value pair passed during the form post

Clicked and Converted Events

The value of the click or convert event's querystring name/value pair.

This is because values set in the click tracking URL at the time of launch for a campaign are typically better for campaign and recipient tracking and attribution projects. Similarly, conversion parameter values determined and set at conversion time are typically the appropriate source of custom field data.

When tracking custom field values for click events and convert events, the name in the name-value pair must be the target custom column name. These are the expected formats for links in email campaigns:

$clickthrough(link name, cid, vid, oid=somevalue)$
http://brandxyz.com/path/to/page?cid=$campaignid()$&vid=$versionid$&oid=$offerid$

For example, if cid, vid, and oid are defined as custom fields, these incoming values are persisted for this click event and available for export as Clicked Event data. Similarly, custom fields for Converted Events should be passed as name-value pairs in the conversion tracking URL and would be specified by website code at conversion time.

To enable custom columns in the Contact Event Data output file(s):

Make sure the desired custom data element/column exists in the List or a Supplemental Data table associated with the campaign.
If a column of the same name exists in more than one Supplemental Table for a campaign, make sure the custom column value is the same everywhere it’s used.

Log in as an admin user and click the Admin link.
Click Define custom columns.
Click Add new column.
Enter a name and description (optional) for the new custom column.
Make sure the name is the same as the column name in the List table/object.
Click Save.
The configuration will apply for all future launches.

Next steps

About Contact Event Data output files

Learn more

File Layouts