AEM Personalization By Creating an Offer Vs Adobe Target

[nsvsrk]

Hi all,

AEM has inbuilt Personalization by Creating an Offer, brand and activity.

Then why do we need to integrate with Adobe Target for personalization?

What are its limitations that lead us to use Adobe Target?

I highly appreciate all your responses.

Thanks,

RK.

[EstebanBustamante]

Hi, 

First of all, you need to know that you are not comparing apples to apples. ContextHub is just a "feature" on top of an application, whereas Adobe Target is a full and standalone application. 

On one hand, ContextHub is a framework used to personalize based on information collected in its data layer. It is meant for presenting data in "context", but that's its limit.

On the other hand, Adobe Target provides a comprehensive set of tools not only for delivering enhanced "experiences" but also for understanding and preparing how your customers react to such experiences. I would recommend checking out this video that explains all the types of activities that you can achieve with Target: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/target-learn/tutorials/activities/understanding-the-types...

So, the main question you need to ask yourself is what type of marketing control you need around your "experiences". In most cases, solely personalizing is not what you are looking for. Instead, understanding what to personalize (even using AI), how your personalizations are performing, and how they are converting is what really matters the most.

Hope this helps

[nsvsrk]

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I understand that Target is a product and has many more features.

But please help me understand ContextHub a bit. 

Presenting data in "context" means what?

At least mere personalization is something it attains completely or with some limitations?

If the user starts a session on desktop, abandons it in between, and logs in on mobile, it still shows personalization?

I also see that ContextHub does not involve any coding.

Thanks,

RK.

[EstebanBustamante]

Presenting data in "context" means that you personalize based on the data you were able to collect. This concept brings a limitation on the type of personalization you can achieve, you can use contexthub to personalize based on the things that are known of your user or things that you were able to collect and reference in future. You use this type of personalization when you are sure of the type of personalization your site will have, you don't need to measure, nor figure out what type of experiences you would need. Adobe Target goes beyond that, by leveraging AI to understand and personalize beyond what you know of your customer, e.g. recommendations, etc.

If the user starts a session on desktop, abandons it in between, and logs in on mobile, does it still show personalization? That's a good question, again the answer depends on which data is available on mobile at the moment the page shows up to show the experience.

I also see that ContextHub does not involve any coding. Not necessarily, true, but if you stick to OOTB segments it may be true, but you could still need some extra custom segments https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/sites/authoring/....

Additionally, I would like to mention that, in my opinion, ContextHub appears somewhat outdated and has been somewhat neglected. There are some known issues regarding performance, and the documentation on how to customize it can be quite messy.