The final stage is activation. We will use the segments created to send the data for our business use cases like marketing, analytics, and more. Before we can activate our segment, we need to create Activation targets.
To create an activation target, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Activation Target tab. If not visible on the home page, click the More dropdown and select the Activation Targets option.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. As of the day of the publication of this book, Data Cloud supports four activation targets: Data Cloud, Meta Ads, Google Ads, and Amazon S3 (see Figure 6.27). Salesforce keeps adding new activation targets, so you may see more options when you are reading this book.

Figure 6.27: Data Cloud Activation Target

  1. Provide an activation target name and click Save. You will be redirected to the login page for your Google Ads account. Login with the correct credential and the activation target will be set.

Once the Activation Target is created, we can proceed with Activations by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Activation tab. Click the New button.
  2. Enter the segment and the Activation Target and Activation Membership and click the Continue button.
  3. Select your contact points.
  4. Selecting contact points is optional for S3 activations. In S3, the order of attributes in the activation doesn’t match the order in the CSV file output.
    a. When contact points are mapped, select an existing path or click Edit to add, reorder, or delete sources and change source types and priority for each contact point.
    b. Click Next.
  5. To activate additional attributes, click Add Attributes.
    a. Drag up to 100 additional attributes to the canvas and click Save. When activating additional attributes, primary or foreign key fields aren’t available as an option as they aren’t exposed for activation. To see primary or foreign key fields during activation, create a formula field that copies those fields. This formula field is included as an additional attribute for activation.
    b. To add a unique preferred attribute name for any attributes, click the pencil icon.
    c. Click Next.
  6. Enter a name and description for your activation, and click Save.

Your segment publishes on the next publish scheduled for the selected activation target.

Once the segments are activated, it completes the flow in Data Cloud. Now you have to use the activation platforms to run campaigns, perform analytics, and more on the data. Your workflow in Data Cloud is complete.

Although there are more details to the workflow than what we covered in this book, we have not gone into the specific technical details. The objective of this book is to give you an overview of the steps you need to perform in Salesforce Data Cloud to successfully go-live. There are other technical details in each step, which were beyond the scope of this book. For detailed instructions on the technical details, please refer to the Salesforce Data Cloud technical documentation. The reference to the documentation is provided at the end of this chapter.

For each of the steps we covered in this chapter, there are many considerations to take care of. Each step has many other options that need exploring. We have covered the happy path from start to finish with enough detail to get you started on Salesforce Data Cloud. For more details, it is advisable to go through the technical documentation, watch the series of videos listed in the resources section, or consult with a Salesforce Data Cloud implementation partner.

Conclusion

Implementing Salesforce Data Cloud can be a transformative step in your organization’s data-driven journey. By avoiding common pitfalls such as inadequate data governance, poor integration planning, and neglecting data privacy and security, you can leverage the full power of Salesforce CDP to gain a holistic view of your customers, enhance personalization efforts, and drive meaningful interactions. With clear objectives, thorough data preparation, and ongoing monitoring and measurement, you can harness the potential of Salesforce CDP to deliver superior customer experiences, make data-driven decisions, and achieve long-term success in today’s highly competitive business landscape.

By following the flow mentioned in the chapter and referring to the Salesforce Data Cloud documentation, you can implement Data Cloud and harness the true potential of the customer engagement data.

In the next chapter, we will understand the concepts of data security and data privacy and explore these in the realm of customer data platforms. We will go through best practices to ensure data security and privacy and understand the different laws that ensure companies adhere to the best practices.

References