Custom parameters vs Visitor Profile

[kathys75015221]

Hello,

I'm reading help documentation regarding creating audiences and am a bit confused:

If I want to target mbox profile attributes (which I think = profile parameters?), should I choose Custom or Visitor Profile when adding a rule? What's the difference between them when it comes to target profile.xxx=yyy

In Visitor Profile doc, it says You can target custom profile parameters and profile script (user.parameters) but I see no problem doing it in Custom category?

Thank you!

[Shruthi_N]

Hi kathys75015221​

In-page profile attributes are (also called "in-mbox profile attributes) . These are name/value pairs passed directly through page code that are stored in the visitor's profile for future use.and you can call them like profile.membershipLevel or profile.visitCount.

Where as  Custom parameters are mbox parameters. If you pass any mbox parameters to mboxes, or use the targetPageParams function, those parameters appear here for use in audiences.

So if you want to target the profile parameters you can target them from the visitor profile  .

For more information on the same please refer to Methods to get data into Target

Hope this helps answer your question.

[kathys75015221]

Thank you Shruthi. Understand that I can use visitor profile. My confusion is that the profile parameters are also passed via targetPageParams, so why cannot I use Custom parameters here? Thank you

[Shruthi_N]

kathys75015221​ The  targetPageParams function can be used in two ways  as mentioned here If you use the syntax like,

function targetPageParamsAll() {

return "param1=value1&param2=value2&p3=hello%20world";

}

then it appends the parameters to all mbox calls on the page . (also known as mbox parameters ) .Where as if you use the syntax like,

function targetPageParamsAll() {

return "profile.param1=value1&profile.param2=value2&profile.p3=hello%20world";

}

then it stores the name/value pairs in the visitor's profile for future use . (also known as profile attributes  )So if you are using mbox parameters then you can define the audience by selecting Custom in the audience builder.  If you are using profile attributes, then you can select the visitor profile option in the audience builder.Hope this helps clarify your question.

[kathys75015221]

Hi Shruthi,

sorry I still cannot get my head around this. Since mbox parameters and profile attributes are all done via function targetPageParamsAll() , why cannot I select Customer for profile attributes as well? Thank you

[Eric_Vidana]

Visitor Profile can be used for any data that comes into target as profile.something aka profile params on the target call which get set as Shruthi states above. Profile scripts are also available in the Visitor Profile dropdown by prepending user. the beginning of the field name, ex. user.groupB.

Custom can be used for any data that comes into target as standard params (day=wednesday or page=bike) that you do not want to stick to the user's profile. They also get set the same way as mentioned above with the absence of the profile. portion in the request params that go to target.

[Shruthi_N]

kathys75015221​ To clarify, as Eric mentioned, yes you can use the Custom option to target the profile attributes as well. The 2 options in the UI was provided to make it more intuitive when setting up the audience to differentiate between the profile attribute vs mbox parameter . If you prefer to use Custom to target the profile attribute, then you can surely do so. I myself have not tested it but I don't see any problems in doing so as long as you reference the attribute correctly as Eric mentions.

[kathys75015221]

Thank you Eric and Shruthi Naomi​ - so just to confirm, I can choose to use Customer for profile attributes (profile.something) then?! I thought that I couldn't hence raised this question...Thanks

[Shruthi_N · Accepted solution]

Yes I believe that you should be able to. But make sure to test the same. If it doesn't work then make sure to use the visitor profile option.

[abhinavs3505546]

There is a major difference between profile and custom parameters that i dont see being pointed out in earlier replies.

Custom or Page parameters are name/value pairs passed in directly through page code that are NOT stored in the visitor's profile for future use. Page parameters are useful to send additional page data to Target that does not need to be stored with the visitor's profile for future targeting use. These values are instead used to describe the page or the action the user took on the specific page.

whereas, In-page profile attributes (profile.x) are name/value pairs passed directly through page code that are stored in the visitor's profile for future use. In-page profile attributes allow user-specific data to be stored in Target's profile for later targeting and segmentation.