Build real-time audiences in ODP

Optimizely Data Platform's (ODP's) real-time audience builder uses the ODP GraphQL API, letting you segment customers in real time and further personalize your customer's web-based experience. You can create custom-built, real-time audiences using the ODP Real-Time Audiences API or through the Audiences page in the ODP application.

Use real-time audiences:

• For customer events within the last 28 days.
• To integrate with Optimizely Feature Experimentation, Optimizely Web Experimentation, Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) 11 and 12 visitor groups, or Optimizely Campaign. See Use ODP real-time audiences in other Optimizely products.

Real-Time Audiences API

All audiences created using the Real-Time Audiences API display on the Audiences page in addition to all pre-defined and custom-built audiences. You cannot edit, copy, or delete audiences that were built with the API in the real-time audience builder. When you view an audience built using the API, a message displays above the code for that audience.

If you need an audience ID to use in the Real-Time Audiences API:

1. Go to Customers > Audiences.
2. Select the desired real-time audience.

3. Click Copy Audience ID.

   

Data latency and freshness

Data latency is the time it takes for data to become available to you after an event occurs. The data latency for real-time audiences is less than 90 seconds, with most requests taking under 10 seconds, which means your customer data refreshes in real-time, giving you the most accurate view of your audiences. Only 0.001% of requests experience a data latency greater than 90 seconds.

Create a real-time audience

1. Go to Customers > Audiences. 

2. Choose Real-Time Audience from the New Audience drop-down list.

   

3. Enter an Audience Name and click Create. You are redirected to the real-time audience builder. 

4. Click Add Attribute Conditions or Add Event Conditions. You can use the search bar to find specific attributes or events.

   This creates a condition group for whichever type you select (attribute or event).
   • Attribute Conditions – Anything that identifies a customer, such as their name, age, city, last seen email, user ID in ODP, and so on.
   • Event Conditions – Actions that a customer takes with your brand. For example, opening an email, adding items to their cart, viewing a page on your site, viewing product details on your site, and so on.

5. Complete the condition as desired. You can also add more attributes or events within the condition group by clicking Add Attribute or Add Event.

   Within each group, you can only add conditions of the same condition type you originally selected for the group (attribute or event). For more information on how to build your desired conditions, see Real-Time audience components.
6. Click Save Audience when you are done. The summary and status of your audience displays.

Real-Time audience components

Real-Time audiences have a variety of grouping and filtering options. For information on the structure and filtering options for a real-time audience, see the sections below:

• Condition groups
• Individual event or attribute conditions within condition groups
• Options only available for event conditions:
  • Define order of events
  • Add additional filters to individual event conditions
  • Add exclusions

Condition groups

At the highest level, conditions are organized in groups. Add Attribute Conditions creates an attribute condition group. Add Event Conditions creates an event condition group.

Each condition group starts with one of the following filters, depending on the condition group type (attribute or event):

• Attribute conditions – [Include/Exclude] people who match [all/any] of these attributes
• Event conditions – [Include/Exclude] people who have done [all/any] of these events

For both of the previous filtering statements, select if you want to include or exclude customers who match all or any of the filters in the condition group.

Selecting all uses "and" logic for the rest of the filters in the condition group, meaning customers must match all of the filters in the condition group. It also populates an additional drop-down list only for event condition groups, with in any order and in this order options. Select in any order if it does not matter in which order customers match each event. Select in this order to define the order in which customers must match each event.

Selecting any uses "or" logic, meaning customers must match at least one of the filters in the condition group.

Add events or attributes within condition groups

After you select the desired include/exclude, all/any, and in this order/in any order filters, complete the rest of the conditions in each condition group. For each condition:

1. Select an attribute or event from the first drop-down list.
2. Select the qualifying term from the second drop-down list (for example, is exactly, is at least, is, is not known, in the last, between, contains, and so on).
3. Enter the desired value for the attribute or event that you selected in step 1.

4. Select the time unit (minutes, hours, or days).

   Only available for event conditions. The maximum is 28 days.

As described in step 6 of the Condition groups section, you can continue to define attributes or events within condition groups by clicking Add Attribute or Add Event.

You can also continue to add more condition groups to your audience by clicking Add Attribute Conditions or Add Event Conditions.

Additional filters for event conditions

For each event condition, you can click the filter icon to Add Count or Add Filter.

Select Add Count to define the number of times you want customers to match the corresponding event. For example, if the event is App View, you can define how many times you want customers to view the app to qualify for the audience.

Select Add Filter to define a specific property to further filter customers that match the corresponding event. For example, if the event is App View, and you define a filter on that event for Campaign ID, then customers who have viewed the app within your specified time and belong to the defined campaign would qualify for the audience.

Add exclusions for event conditions

When you set a specific order for your event condition group, an additional option displays to Add Exclusion.

1. Click Add Exclusion and select the desired event from the drop-down list.
   
2. Select one of the following options in the next drop-down list:
   • with anything – Excludes customers who have not matched the selected event since step 1. For example, if you select App Uninstall success for your exclusion event, the audience does not include customers who have uninstalled the app at any point, even if they qualify for the other conditions in the audience.
   • with the same – Excludes customers who have matched the selected event and property since your chosen step. This option displays two additional drop-down lists: Select a property and step. For example, if you select App Uninstall success for your exclusion event, Email Sent for the property, and step 1, the audience does not include customers who have uninstalled the app with the same email sent from step 1.
3. Continue to add exclusions as desired, or remove any that you no longer want.

Edit a real-time audience

1. Go to Customers > Audiences.

2. Either click the name of the real-time audience or select the options menu (...) > Edit. If you click the name of the audience, you must click Edit Audience to begin editing the audience. If you select (...) > Edit, the edit view displays automatically.

   

3. Edit the audience as desired. For example, you can delete conditions or entire condition groups, add attributes or events within condition groups, add new condition groups, and so on.
4. Click Save Audience. The summary and status of your audience displays.

Copy a real-time audience

1. Go to Customers > Audiences.

2. Click the name of the audience and select Copy Audience from the Edit Audience drop-down list.

   

3. Click Copy Audience.

Delete a real-time audience

1. Go to Customers > Audiences.

2. Either click the name of the audience or select the options menu (...) > Delete. If you click the name of the audience, you must select Delete Audience from the Edit Audience drop-down list to delete the audience. If you click (...) > Delete, click Delete in the conformation message to confirm the deletion.

   

Access custom events in your real-time audience

If you created a custom event-action pair that only displays in ODP reports and customer profiles and does not display in the real-time audience builder, follow these steps:

1. Create or edit a real-time audience on the Customers > Audiences page.
2. Click Add Event Conditions.
3. Select Connect New Event-Action Pair.
   • If your custom event-action pair uses an existing event type, select Choose from existing events and select your event type from the drop-down list. Otherwise, select Connect new event type and enter the same event name you used when you originally created the custom event-action pair.
   • If your custom event-action pair uses an existing action, select Choose from existing actions and select your action from the drop-down list. Otherwise, select Connect new action type and enter the same action name you used when you originally created the custom event-action pair.
4. Click Connect Event-Action Pair.
5. Continue editing the audience as desired. When done, click Save Audience.

When you connect the new event-action pair in your real-time audience, it matches the event and action name to your previously created event-action pair. If the names do not match, it does not create a new event-action pair.

For example, if you created the following custom event:

zaius.event('web_form', {
  action: 'impression',
  form_name: 'Opticon Newsletter',
  campaign: 'Opticon Newsletter'}); 

And you do not see it as an option in the real-time audience builder, follow the steps above. For step 4, select Connect new event type and enter web_form. For step 5, select Connect new action type and enter impression.

Use real-time audiences in ODP web campaigns

After you create real-time audiences, you can use them to target customers in web campaigns. For more information, see Configure campaign enrollment.

Use ODP real-time audiences in other Optimizely products

The following integrations are currently available for ODP real-time audiences:

• Optimizely Web Experimentation – Use ODP real-time audiences as audiences in your Optimizely Web Experimentation experiments.
• Optimizely Feature Experimentation – Use ODP real-time audiences as audiences in your Optimizely Feature Experimentation experiments.

• Optimizely CMS 11 and 12 – Use ODP real-time audiences in the Visitor Groups feature in Optimizely CMS 11 and 12. You must have the visitor group package installed.

  This is a third-party integration and is not an Optimizely sub-processor. See Optimizely's Third-Party Add-Ons & Platform Integration Terms.

• Optimizely Campaign – Use ODP real-time audiences as audiences in your newsletter, transactional, and marketing automation campaigns.

  The Optimizely Campaign integration is only available for the EU region.