Preferred approach to ingest customer data in Audience Manager

[harshit_a_pande]

Greetings,

We wish to onboard offline data in our AAM instance. The article mentions the pre-requisites but I could not find any step-by-step article which will guide me through the process.

For starters, I was able to achieve "ID synchronization" using the method mentioned in this article. Can anyone confirm if this approach for id-sync is valid to achieve offline data upload too? If not, the other methods mentioned here are not intuitive and I am not able to understand from where to even begin.

Coming to the second process of file upload. I can see there are ways using FTP and S3 but no proper documentation on how to even begin with? I did come across a forum post where one of the rep mentioned file uploading via "People" section under the 9-dot drop down on the top, is that the way to go if not S3/FTP?

I would really appreciate if someone could break down the process of uploading offline data in simple steps. I am very new to the tool so please excuse me if I missed on some trivial details or if my understanding is incorrect

Thank you,

Harshit Pandey

[kumarp68326620 · Accepted solution]

Hi Harshit,

I think you are on the right track. If you have already implemented the ID sync as per your link, you are good on the pre-requisite for the CRM onboarding. The other ID sync link that you have shared is another approach to do ID Sync that is file-based ID Sync (less used compared to the ID Sync on the web properties).

Here's to give you more details and answer your question.

The onboarding process consists of 2 core components:

• ID synchronization (You seem to have completed this already)
• Inbound Data File Transfer(.sync file or .overwrite file)

Process for onboarding offline CRM data (You seem to have completed the Step 1 and Step 2 from below list already):

1. Expose CRM ID – A form of customer ID (ideally hashed) should be declared in browser, upon authentication
2. Implement the ID Sync – AAM DIL will need to be configured to refer the customer ID and associate it to a AAM UUID
3. Prepare CRM File & Upload – Customer ID to be referred in server side CRM Transfer. Understand the attributes to be sent
4. Create Traits – Use a “data dictionary” to create trait & segment taxonomy for CRM data

For Step 3, here's what you need to do:

• Prepare a CRM file based on the naming convention and content format - Inbound Data File Contents: Syntax, Invalid Characters, Variables, and Examples https://marketing.adobe.com/resources/help/en_US/aam/inbound-file-contents.html
• Raise a Client Care ticket to provision you/your customer the FTP/S3 bucket (Once provisioned, Adobe will provide you the credentials/details to log in)
• Create the onboarding file keeping in check file naming convention and content requirements and upload the file in the FTP/S3 location

Step 4 - Create traits to start collecting the audience data.

Cheers,

Kumar Pritam

[harshit_a_pande]

Hello Kumar,

Thank you for your response. I will proceed with the steps mentioned by you and will share my findings.

Also, is there any other way to upload files other than the bucket way? I want to know if it could be done via "People" tab too?

I may be wrong but I believe Jantzen.Belliston mentioned in a similar post that another way could be via uploading the file to "People" tab. Apologies in advance Jantzen if I am getting confused but what is the exact purpose of that tab?

Thank you,

Harshit Pandey

[kumarp68326620]

Hi Harshit,

As per my knowledge, the onboarding works via the FTP/S3 bucket that I described earlier.

Regarding the "people" tab to onboard file, is this feature already available in AAM or is it a feature to come in future? I am unaware of this. Also, could you please share the post/article on the "people" tab that you are referring to?

Cheers,

Kumar Pritam

[harshit_a_pande]

Hello Kumar,

Apologies, I couldn't seem to find that post else I would have hyperlinked it earlier but I do remember reading about it.

The "People" tab is available under the 9 dot drop down menu in the upper right corner. I couldn't find any supporting document about it's exact functionality either.

I am awaiting my bucket activation though, hope I will get through soon.

Thank you,

Harshit Pandey

[jantzen_b]

Hi Harshit,

The People tab is part of the People Core Service. I'm not sure which post you saw specifically, but yes, you can upload data for use with Customer Attributes. This is not the same as uploading data into AAM. Customer Attributes is primarily used with Analytics and Target as a way for customers that do not have access to AAM to use some of their offline data in reporting and Target audience creation.

Importing the data into AAM provides a lot more capabilities then what is possible via Customer Attributes.

Cheers,
Jantzen

[harshit_a_pande]

Thank you Jantzen.Belliston​ for clearing that out.

kumarp68326620

I have received my S3 credentials which has the following information:

1.) Secret Name 2.) AWS User Name 3.) Access Key ID 4.) Secret Access Key 5.) Folder

Again, there is no clear instruction on how to upload the data to S3 using the above information? Is there a URL where I go to and do a simple login and then upload or is there any other tool/approach?

Thanks,

Harshit

[Varun_Kalra]

Hello Harshit,

You can use any s3 client like s3 browser or cyberduck.

In S3 browser, you need to follow these steps:

1.  Click on Accounts > Add New Account > Enter the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

2. Go to buckets add external bucket and add the bucket host URL like this : demdex-s2s-clients/bucketname (bucketname is the name of your bucket):

Add bucket and then upload the inbound file that you have created.

In Cyberduck, you can follow these steps:

1. Click on open connection and select Amazon s3 from the drop down:

In server enter this address for inbound: demdex-s2s-clients.s3.amazonaws.com

Enter the Access ID and Secret in username and password. Then expand "More Options" and enter the complete path of your inbound bucket:

Thanks,

Varun Kalra

[harshit_a_pande]

Thank you so much for the detailed procedure Varun. You have always been a savior to us. Much appreciated.

I will try out the steps tomorrow and hopefully will get through

[harshit_a_pande]

Hello Varun,

We uploaded a file with name "s3ndemdex-s2s-clientsaccenture-partneraccenture-partnerdate=2018-04-24ftp_dpm_266295_2312_1524562611.sync.1" and I used the exact syntax depicted in the page here.

I am also attaching a screenshot of my file which we used. It does not have any sensitive data and everything is dummy so it is safe to share. I have added new key=value pairs.

My question is that upon uploading the S3 browser returned with an .invalid file.

How do I verify that my file was correctly uploaded or not and when should the created traits start populating data since I have already started activities on my website for id-sync to begin and the traits should now qualify.

Thanks,

Harshit Pandey

[Tof_Jossic]

Hi Harshit,

as already replied in our support ticket, the filename was the issue here.

I'll reply to your additional questions through the ticket itself.

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Christophe