Unlocking the Power of Federated Audience Composition in Adobe Real-Time CDP

In today’s hyper-competitive market, understanding and engaging with customers in real-time is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. Enterprises are leveraging vast amounts of customer data from different sources to create dynamic, personalized experiences. To address this need, Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform (CDP) has introduced a powerful feature: Federated Audience Composition (FAC).

What Does "Federated" Mean in Computing?

In the context of computing, the term federated refers to a system or process where data from multiple, independent sources can be accessed and used without physically moving or copying that data to a central location. Instead, the system establishes connections to the individual data sources, allowing users to interact with the data as if it were centralized. This approach offers many benefits, including faster data access, reduced redundancy, and more control over sensitive information since the data remains in its original location.

For example, imagine an organization that has customer information stored in various databases: one for CRM data, another for purchase history, and yet another for customer support interactions. In a federated system, these databases remain separate, but the organization can still create unified customer profiles and insights by tapping into each data source directly when needed—without transferring the data into a new system.

What is Federated Audience Composition?

Federated Audience Composition is a feature that enables businesses to access and utilize customer data stored in their enterprise data warehouses—like CRM systems, product data, or external third-party sources—without moving or duplicating that data.

This is a significant advantage. In traditional systems, customer data often needs to be transferred to a central location to be analyzed and used. This not only leads to redundant data storage but can also introduce privacy risks, processing delays, and complexities in data management. With Federated Audience Composition, however, you don’t need to physically relocate or copy data into Adobe’s platform. Instead, Adobe Experience Platform connects directly to the enterprise data warehouse, allowing users to build actionable audiences on top of the existing data in real-time.

This means that the original data stays where it belongs—in your company’s secure, compliant, and organized data warehouse. The benefits of this approach include:

• Reduced complexity: No need to manage multiple data copies or move large data sets.
• Data security and compliance: Sensitive information remains in its original, secure location.
• Faster audience creation: You can quickly generate actionable insights without waiting for data transfers.
• Efficient data use: Only the relevant audience segments are pulled for activation, minimizing data processing and duplication.

Key Highlights from Adobe’s Webinar

During Adobe’s technical deep dive webinar on Federated Audience Composition, the experts shared the following key insights and use cases:

1. Market Context and Challenges

• Multiple Data Sources: Enterprises are increasingly integrating data from various sources—structured and unstructured, including CRM, contact centers, and external third-party data.
• Real-Time Activation: The need for real-time customer interaction is crucial for personalization and optimizing marketing campaigns.
• Privacy and Compliance: As the volume of data increases, enterprises must implement robust privacy practices, ensuring compliance with growing regulations.

These challenges align with the capabilities of Federated Audience Composition, designed to enable brands to access and activate their data while minimizing movement and duplication.

2. Why Use Federated Audience Composition?

Federated Audience Composition enables real-time CDP users to access critical enterprise data through Adobe Experience Platform’s user-friendly interface. By federating data, companies can:

• Enrich Existing Audiences: Refine audiences with additional data without duplicating the original data set.
• Activate Across Channels: Marketers can activate these enriched profiles across channels using Adobe Journey Optimizer.
• Optimize for Low-Latency: By minimizing data movement, marketers ensure that critical real-time experiences are not delayed, keeping pace with customer expectations.

Combining Real-Time CDP with Journey Optimizer: A Game-Changing Scenario

Federated Audience Composition integrates seamlessly with Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO), enabling businesses to engage customers across various channels in a highly personalized and dynamic way. This pairing is particularly powerful because it allows companies to create audiences from federated data sources, enrich them with real-time signals, and then trigger personalized journeys in response to customer behavior.

Real-Life Scenario: Personalized Marketing for an eCommerce Brand

Imagine an eCommerce brand—let’s call it LuxeStyle—that sells premium fashion products online. LuxeStyle uses multiple data sources: a CRM for customer information, a product catalog system for inventory, and an enterprise data warehouse (like Snowflake) that stores purchase history and marketing interactions.

Here’s how LuxeStyle can leverage Federated Audience Composition and Journey Optimizer to create personalized and timely customer interactions:

1. Federated Data Access for Audience Creation: LuxeStyle connects its enterprise data warehouse to Adobe Real-Time CDP via Federated Audience Composition. Without moving any data, the marketing team can access the following:

   • Customer purchase history (e.g., high-value customers who purchased luxury handbags).
   • CRM data (e.g., customers who signed up for the LuxeStyle loyalty program).
   • External data from a third-party source that tracks fashion trends.

2. Creating and Enriching Audiences: The marketing team creates a new audience: high-value customers who have purchased luxury handbags and are part of the loyalty program. Using the federated data, they enrich this audience with behavioral data—such as product views on the LuxeStyle website.

3. Real-Time Engagement via Journey Optimizer: LuxeStyle then pairs this enriched audience with Adobe Journey Optimizer. For example:

   • When a customer from this audience visits the LuxeStyle website and browses new handbag collections, their activity is tracked in real time.
   • Using Journey Optimizer, the system triggers a personalized email or SMS offering a limited-time discount on the new collection, tailored specifically to the customer’s browsing behavior and past purchases.

4. In-The-Moment Experiences: With Adobe’s real-time activation capabilities, LuxeStyle can deliver in-the-moment experiences. If a customer abandons their shopping cart, LuxeStyle can immediately send a push notification to their mobile app, encouraging them to complete the purchase with a personalized message: “Complete your purchase of the limited-edition handbag and receive 10% off!”

5. Cross-Channel Consistency: The marketing team can ensure that this personalized message is consistent across channels. If the customer doesn’t respond to the push notification, the same tailored offer can be delivered via email or even as a Facebook ad—all triggered through Journey Optimizer using real-time signals from Federated Audience Composition.

Benefits of This Approach:

• Real-Time Personalization: The combination of Federated Audience Composition and Journey Optimizer allows LuxeStyle to react immediately to customer behavior, such as browsing, cart abandonment, or engagement with marketing emails.
• Reduced Data Movement: By federating data from the warehouse, LuxeStyle avoids the complexities and delays of data duplication, ensuring that audience profiles are always current and actionable.
• Cross-Channel Activation: LuxeStyle can engage customers through their preferred channels, such as email, mobile apps, SMS, or social media, using consistent messaging that is directly informed by real-time customer interactions.
• Enhanced Customer Loyalty: By delivering relevant, timely offers based on rich customer profiles, LuxeStyle can deepen relationships with high-value customers and increase loyalty program participation.

This real-world scenario showcases the power of combining Federated Audience Composition with Journey Optimizer. LuxeStyle can create rich, actionable customer profiles without moving data, and then use real-time signals to deliver dynamic, cross-channel engagement at the right moment—driving better customer experiences and, ultimately, increasing sales.