Everything You Need to Know About Salesforce Audience Studio (Formerly Salesforce DMP)

k booth

Everything You Need to Know About Salesforce Audience Studio (Formerly Salesforce DMP)

Digital advertising is officially bigger than traditional advertising, which means if it hasn’t already, it may soon start consuming a larger share of your ad spend. It also means that having technology that effectively pulls in and analyzes your customer data from digital platforms is essential to your advertising success. 

Enter: Data management platforms (DMPs). 

DMPs like Salesforce Audience Studio (formerly Salesforce DMP) are the backbone of data-driven marketing efforts. A DMP collects, organizes, and activates first-, second- and third-party audience data from any source — online, offline, mobile, and beyond. These platforms allow your company to gain unique insights into your customers and effectively segment and reach your audience. 

As a Solution Architect at RelationEdge, I help clients install and learn how to use tools like Audience Studio every day. Read on to learn more about Audience Studio and how you can set it up to maximize your digital advertising efforts.

How Does Salesforce Audience Studio Work?

A powerful Marketing Cloud feature, Salesforce Audience Studio is a customer data marketplace that only other platform users can access. Audience Studio can also be paired with Data Studio, which gives you the chance to sell data and purchase look-alike audiences. 

Audience Studio helps companies offer their customers more valuable advertising and media experiences. The cloud-based data platform operates in real time, unifying customer data from all screens and sources into a single view of the individual. This allows you to analyze the data, better understand unique customer preferences, and then activate the data across any delivery channel.

To understand the opportunity and security of using data through Audience Studio, keep the following things in mind:

  • Your company doesn’t have to sell its data. What’s more, you can pick the data you’re willing to share. 
  • Data in the marketplace is anonymized. First-party data with details like people’s names cannot be sold or purchased — only second- and third-party layers are available to be shared.
  • It’s a closed marketplace. Only Salesforce Audience Studio customers can purchase and buy data. 

Audience Studio incorporates both a supply-side platform (SSP), to help with ad inventory, and a demand-side platform (DSP), which helps marketers maximize the efficiency of their ads. The diagram below shows how the SSP and DSP come together to fuel the ad exchange process.

Audience Studio increases the effectiveness of your media spend because your ads are served to the consumers who are most likely to convert — but only if you’re using this powerful tool with a plan.

How Can You Make the Most of Salesforce Audience Studio?

Audience Studio is especially effective for B2C companies in the retail industry, but many other industries can benefit from it, too. 

Audience Studio is available to companies with a large enough ad spend to get a valuable return on investment from the tool. If you meet the minimum ad spend, you can start taking advantage of this powerful tool to make more impact with your advertising dollars. There are a number of helpful elements you should have in place before you dive into Audience Studio. 

Here are a few of my top recommendations:

1. A Media Plan

It’s critical to develop a media plan before working with Audience Studio. This tool provides so much data that it’s easy to get lost without a thoughtful approach. A media plan gives you a strong foundation for your Audience Studio strategy because you have a budget, timeframe, and goals to guide your efforts. 

If you need help getting started, check out our blog for resources on creating strategies to boost your social posts, target your audience, supplement your blog efforts, and more. 

2. A Skilled Team with a Data Architect

Audience Studio can get pretty technical, so it’s key that you have a data architect or data scientist on your team. A data professional can help you accurately interpret and identify the data that will make a difference to your digital advertising efforts. If you don’t have an in-house data professional, it’s worth looking into outsourcing this to a contractor or partner that can help you set your business up for success.

3. A Full-Service Implementation Partner 

Salesforce Audience Studio draws on both the creative and technical sides of marketing. It uses technology and hard data to support your advertising decisions, and also requires marketing concepts — like understanding the customer and their buyer’s journey — to create an effective strategy. Given the complexity of this platform, it’s wise to work with a full-service implementation partner that can cover all your bases. 

RelationEdge Understands the Art and Science of Marketing

As a full-service Salesforce Platinum Consulting partner, RelationEdge brings together technology implementation, data analysis, and digital marketing strategy. We can show you how to combine data modeling with marketing tools like buyer personas in order to direct your ad dollars toward the most impactful channels to reach your audience. 

Our expert technology team can help your business implement Marketing Cloud with Salesforce Audience Studio. Our Process First. Technology Second.® approach ensures we implement the best solution for your needs and goals. Our digital marketing team offers you ongoing support to refine your digital strategy and ensure your marketing efforts line up with your data-driven insights.

Get in touch with our team of technology and marketing experts to get started with Salesforce Audience Studio today.