How does AudienceStream work?

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AudienceStream is a visitor segmentation and audience discovery platform. The segmentation tools built into it allow digital marketers to follow visitor activity, discover audiences, and take action—all in real time. In other words, AudienceStream gives digital marketers the real-time capability to put their marketing plans in action.

This article covers the following topics:

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Overview

Enabling AudienceStream

To use AudienceStream, make certain you have activated it for your Tealium account. Contact your Account Manager to find out how to enable AudienceStream for your Tealium iQ account. When you sign up for AudienceStream on your account, it is available to all of the profiles for that account. In order for a Tealium iQ profile to send data to AudienceStream, you must add the Tealium Collect Tag (formerly DataCloud Tag) to that profile.

Using AudienceStream

Using AudienceStream is a three-step process. Each step builds on the previous step.

1. Enrich - Define the visitor and event Attributes you want to collect.
2. Discover - Use Attributes to identify different types of visitors and events and group them into Audiences and Streams.
3. Act - Trigger actions in real-time using Audiences and Streams.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the default screen for all AudienceStream profiles. Here you can see a visual summary of the various elements that make up your AudienceStream implementation with up-to-the-hour graphs of correlations between your Actions, Audiences, Badges, and Metrics, and Badge and Audience activity summaries.

Learn more about the AudienceStream Dashboard.

Enrich

The Enrich tools available in AudienceStream will enable you to create valuable customer segments and audiences.

Attributes

The first step in using AudienceStream is to define your Attributes. An Attribute includes information about the visitor's habits, preferences, actions, etc. Through the Attributes tab you can create, configure, and manage different types of Visitor Attributes (see list below).

Learn more about Attributes.

Badge: Identifies segments of users.
Example: Frequent Visitor badge assigned to the visitor

Metric: Stores numerical data.
Example: Return Visit Count is 32

Tally: Stores a set of metrics.
Example: Favorite

Trait: Stores string properties.
Example: Active Browser Type: Chrome

List: Stores a unique set of traits.
Example: Active Browser Types are Chrome, Firefox

Flag: Stores 'true' or 'false' values.
Example: Returning Visitor: true

Date: Stores a date value.
Example: Last Visit: January 1, 2014

Funnel: Stores a predefined, ordered list of events.
Example: Payment Funnel

Timeline: Stores an ordered list of events.
Example: Path through Site

Visitor ID: Stores the visitor's unique identifier, which is used for visitor stitching.
Example: Customer Email Address 

Rules

The data contained in Attributes can be further modified—or enriched—to make it more valuable to your marketing initiatives. By applying Rules conditions to your Attributes, you can specify when that information should be modified or updated. Choose a Preloaded Rule or build you own.

Learn more about Rules.

Audiences

An Audience is a collection of Attributes you use to identify distinct groups of visitors. In this tab, you create an Audience by putting together one or more Attribute filters. The more Visitor Attributes you select as filters, the more specific your Audience becomes. Once created, an Audience can be targeted with an email campaign, coupon, or some other actions.

Omnichannel

Normally, AudienceStream can only act on data when the visitor is actively on your website. With Omnichannel Enrichment, AudienceStream can act on data generated offline, such as brick-and-mortar store sales, call center activity, and much more.

Discover

The Discover tools provide a number of ways for uncovering new Audiences and tracking events in real time.

Live Events

Live Events display a live feed of events resulting from current visitor activity. The events are collected by the Tealium Collect Tag (formerly DataCloud Tag). The events appear in the Live Events timeline at one-minute intervals.

Audience Discovery

This tool is designed for discovering targetable Audiences in real time. To view an Audience, you have to select a perspective from which to view it. For example, setting the perspective to 'Browser Types' groups the visitors based on the browsers they use, like Chrome, Firefox or Safari. By default, the perspective is set to Badges. Adding Attribute filters from the left panel further refines the Audience.

Visitor Trace

True to its name, the Visitor Trace traces, and simultaneously logs, how AudienceStream evaluates your configurations, monitoring its performance behind the scenes.

API Sampler

The API Sampler provides you with the raw data that AudienceStream uses to build your visitor profiles. You can review this data to make sure that AudienceStream is populating your visitor profiles properly. The data is presented in JSON format.

Act

These features enable you to take action on your Audiences and Streams. You can also gain access to the underlying data.

Connector Marketplace/My Connectors

Setting up Connectors from the Connector Marketplace is how you take action on the visitor in real time. You can trigger a connector for retargeting visitors with promotional emails, managing leads, or exchanging data between APIs. After your connectors have been configured you can access them from the My Connectors screen.

Audience Sizing Jobs

Audience Sizing Jobs allows you to take action on historical data based on audience segments. A job is what you assign to a Segment for targeting it with Actions such as sending promotional emails, adding to contacts, updating leads, etc. Think of it as an action item for configuring the Connector-Action.

Learn more about Audience Sizing Jobs.

DataAccess Console

The DataAccess Console gives you access to an enterprise data hub solution that extends the power of iQ Tag Management, AudienceStream, and other integrations by allowing you to access data collected from web and mobile touchpoints, online and offline channels, and real-time audiences.