Activate Data to a Destination
Use cases such as media activation or enrichment may require segments created during collaboration to be exported to a third-party location, called a Destination, such as media or technology platforms, walled gardens, supply- side platform (“SSP”), demand-side platform (“DSP”), customer data platform (“CDP”), ad server and/or cloud environment.
This article outlines how to create an Activation Segment and Destination, how to connect the two to create a successful export, and how to automate the export (optional).
Table of Contents
Getting automation failure updates
Exporting to a third-party location
Exporting back to your data storage
(Beta) Private Path Activations
Pre-requisites
Please review this short article on Destination trouble-shooting to avoid common errors when setting up Destinations and Activations.
Export Columns available in the Dataset
You will need to have Export Cloumns selected in your Dataset or have permission to use a partner's Dataset to create any type of data export from the platform. For most use cases, it is the media owner’s or identity provider’s Dataset that is used for exporting, and the advertiser’s Dataset for segmenting audiences.
Destination Credentials
For each destination you will need to enter certain information related to the endpoint location and security. You might need to ask your data or IT team to provide you with this information.
The right activation Keys for your Destination
The Dataset should contain both the identifier(s) required for export (i.e. first-party ID, mobile advertising ID) and common identifier(s) to match with other Datasets (i.e. email). During the import process, you can specify which identifiers can or cannot be exported.
Each Destination has different ID requirements, please ensure you are selecting the correct key in your activation query.
Maximum 15 keys
The data in the Dataset can contain up to 15 key types. For example, if your Dataset had email and mobile advertising IDs, that would count as 2 key types.
Tutorial video
Activation Overview
Activations can be managed from the Activate section on the left-hand menu.
To export a segment you will need :
- A valid Destination that has been added to the collaboration (yours or a partner’s)
- An activation segment first that includes a Dataset with Activation permissions and Export Columns
- To configure an export of that segment to your desired Destination
Please ensure you have selected the correct Collaboration using the collaborations dropdown at the top of each page, so the relevant activations and destinations are visible.
Destinations
On the Destinations page, you can manage or delete existing Destinations and create new ones. Saved destinations are available to all users in your company and can be reused indefinitely. This page is not filtered by a collaboration context and only lists owned Destinations. To view the destinations available for a specific collaboration, please go to the relevant collaboration view. You will need to add a Destination to a Collaboration to be able to use it.
Please see this page for a list of our current supported Destinations and instructions on how to create the destinations. Some destination platforms must be authorised via OAuth prior to creating a Destination.
Note: when creating a new destination, think about which settings might be useful to have as editable for each export, for example the segment name or the action (if available). Multiple destinations can be created to the same endpoint.
Activation Segments
On the Activation Segments screen you can find all of the historic segments that have been created by your team for that collaboration, alongside basic information such as the name and created date, and the total rows which shows you the size of the audience that has been returned from the query.
A ‘ready’ status shows that the query has been successful and is ready to be sent to a Destination. Activation segments are only ‘Ready’ for 36 hours, this is to ensure that you are always exporting the freshest data. You can easily refresh a segment by clicking ‘refresh’ in the details panel of each segment.
Clicking on any activation segment, will show you a details panel. Double-clicking will open the details panel for that activation where you can see expanded details and historical metadata about previous runs.
On this activation segment list screen, you can manage all activation tasks:
- Create new activation segments
- Refresh existing activation segments - if it has expired or you or partners have republished a dataset, the activation segment volume may change once refreshed
- Export a segment to a destination
- Automate an export on a schedule
Create an activation segment
Activations Segments can be created from a Segment using the Segment Builder (click New Activation when you are happy with your segment) or directly from the Query Tool (by selecting the query type as ‘Activation’)
At this point you will need to select the Activation key that you will export to the Destination. Please note that each Destination platform accepts certain keys only - you can confirm the accepted keys on each of the supported Destinations how-to pages.
Please note that you won’t be able to update the query syntax after creating the Activation Segment, but you can always create a new one and delete the ones that you don’t want to use.
Exports
When you select an Activation segment, an information panel appears on the side of the page allowing you to view the segment and export it to a Destination with the correct permissions for that Collaboration.
You can click ‘Export’ to start a new export, or click ‘View’ / double-click on the activation segment name to view all exports associated with this segment.
Creating a new export
Click ‘Export’ to start the process. A new pane will appear with a list of the destinations available for this segment. Select your destination, and configure any custom fields. Review the info article for each destination for more information on how to complete these fields.
Click ‘export activation segment’ to start the export.
This will take you to the exports section of that activation segment, where you can see the status of your export:
Re-running an export
If you wish to manually export again using the exact same push variables, you can set up a manual automation (frequency: manual) as described below.
To trigger it, go to the automations tab, select the manual automation and click ‘run automation’.
Automating an export
Automating an export allows you to deliver a segment to a destination on a given schedule.
On the exports list, select the export you wish to automate and click on ‘automate’ in the details panel.
This will open the automation screen where you can configure the frequency of the export automation.
You will also be auto opted in to automation failures. You can untick the checkbox if you don't want to be subscribed.
Here, you will also be able to confirm or edit the push time variables that relate to this export. The automation will reuse these settings for every run.
Please note:
- S3 and SFTP server exports will fail when automated as the automation uses the same file name for each run. To avoid this, please use the ‘Override existing file’ setting for each destination.
- For other destinations, the action of the automation can be updated to reflect the best setting if this field is marked as editable by the destination owner (e.g. add/remove/replace)
Once configured the automation will show in the automations tab of your Activation Segment
You can pause/resume, edit, or delete it by clicking on the three dots in the info panel:
Getting Automation Failure updates
You can subscribe to automation failure updates directly when you create a new automation. The checkbox on that form is ticked on by default, you can untick it to avoid subscribing.
Alternatively, you can navigate to the Notifications page on the left side navigation to manage all your optional notifications. Turn on the 'Automation failed' checkbox to subscribe to automation failure emails. Unticking this box will unsubscribe you from all notifications related to automations.
You will need all the relevant activation and automation right to receive these emails.
These emails will contain all automation failures for the company, including Automations you might not own directly.
You will receive emails such as the one below:
API Documentation
You can leverage Destinations using the UI or via API implementation. You will need to create an API key to be allowed to use the API.
You can find the API documentation here https://infosum.github.io/infosum-docs/api/v2/
The relevant sections for Destinations are under the Export section in the left-hand menu.
Please reach out to your InfoSum rep if you want to use API to ensure that your account has all the necessary settings and permissions.
Activation Set-up Examples
Working with a partner
When working with a media partner, they will usually manage the clean room operations, and activate any matched or expanded segment to their media platform for media activation. The activation will include a subsegment of their own data that matches your targeting criteria (not your original data)
You will need to add your Insights Dataset to the Collabroation and include activation permissions.
Exporting to a third-party location
If your preferred media partner is not part of the InfoSum ecosystem or is an off-Dataset platform such as a walled garden, you can still activate your own data (and sometimes, depending on the Destiantion, third-party data). Aside from enabling consistent planning ans activation across bunkered and off-bunker destiantions, there are two core use cases:
Enrichment for better lookalikes
For this use case, we recommend running an enrichment and segmentation exercise with a data provider or a complementary brand that can help you create higher-quality seed segments that can be used for lookalike modeling
Obtaining the right key
If you don't currently have the appropriate activation key for your chosen destination (e.g., you have only email, but your destination accepts only an IP address), you might use a third-party Dataset, such as a data provider, to translate the keys.
Exporting back to your data storage
For enrichment and media activation use cases on your owned channels, you might wish to activate back to your own data storage. We have several CRM and CDP partners with which we’ve scoped a data ingestion protocol, and most other platforms can ingest data using one of the connector protocols listed above. Please speak with your InfoSum representative if your partner is not listed so they can recommend or scope the best workflow.
(Beta) Private Path Activations
Please note that Private Path is a new product currently in Beta and not available to everyone in the InfoSum platform. When scoping your use cases, your InfoSum representative wil help you find the most appropriate activation option and might recommend Private Path.
Private Path leverages InfoSum’s privacy-enhancing technology and replaces PII on activation with private, non-reversible, point-in-time synthetic IDs. This enables businesses to securely exchange enriched intelligence for advanced analytics and measurement.