March 4, 2024

Future of Adobe Campaign Standard and where AJO and ACv8 plays in

In the marketing automation space, Adobe has four similar offerings: Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO), Adobe Campaign Classic (ACC), Adobe Campaign Standard (ACS) and Adobe Campaign v8 (AC v8).

If you are wondering why so many options and what the difference between them is, you are not alone.

However, when you understand them, you realize that they make a lot of sense and each one has its own space in the Adobe stack. Sure, there are overlaps, but there are also important differences we need to address to get the full picture.

Jonas Guldberg Pabst, Principal Consultant

I hope this post will help you better navigate these options and help you choose the best offering for you and your company.

If you are looking for the a comparison do not want to read all the details and conclusions, go directly to the comparison by clicking here.

Platform Question

When talking about the Adobe Campaign platforms, there are currently three in the list there is originated from the same system, but with years of development between them.

The AJO platform is the newest automation offering from Adobe, which is built on top of Experience Platform with the ability to combine online and offline data at a granular event level creating a real-time customer profile.

When I am saying there currently are three platforms, the oldest ACC platform is being decommissioned within 2027* and the ACS platform is being decommissioned in 2026*.

This is to make room for the new kid in the stack called Adobe Campaign v8 also referred to as - Adobe Campaign Managed Cloud.

The new AC v8 is a good combination of the two older Adobe Campaign platforms, with an injection of features from AJO.

So we have the strength and speed from ACC, the marketer-friendly web UI from AJO (with added features) and the 360 profile view known from ACS.

AC v8 can be controlled from a web UI, which is created in an extended design from the current Experience Cloud UI, used in Experience Platform and Journey Optimizer, through a powerful user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.

You are also able to connect from the console as you have done until now in ACC, where all you do will be automatically reflected in the web UI, including the folder structure which is a totally neat feature.

AC v8 is placed as a standalone product with all the strengths and weaknesses that come with this and it's a more siloed, but powerful database structure.

AJO is a full web solution which is intertwined with AEP and can leverage all the cool functionality that AEP has to offer. Taking advantage of the rtCDP and the streaming segments we can create journeys that can be joined when data from an action is added.

There is a large number of sources that can add data through the edge network, which all will be combined into the profile.

AJO is placed on top of AEP as a service and will share its data directly and will also leverage the power of the more simple rtCDP and the segmentation features.

So, which platform should we invest our money in, when departing from ACC/ACS?

That question is after my belief, the most important question we need to ask ourselves and is something that we need to have an answer on, within the first half of 2024, or we will be left in the dark age when ACC and ACS are gone.

Put the tech on the sideline

To start the conversation on the subject, I will take us a bit back from the tech and look at the platforms from a cleaner perspective, where we can define our business rules before settling on the tech and investing in a platform that does not quite fit all of our future needs or has to much to offer.

So, we need to talk about how we would like to place the marketing automation platform in the solution architecture, and if it should be a headless or more controlling factor of the automation in terms of how we collect and use the data.

The headless will be AC v8 would be running primarily on offline data and sending batch-based experiences. Where AJO will be leveraging offline and online data in batch and real-time communication.

In a few non-tech separations you should go with AJO for the real-time trigger experience and pick AC v8 for advanced offline batch communication through planned experiences.

Working with data

We can say that the biggest difference between the two is that AJO is a service on top of the Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), where AC 8 can be acquired as a standalone platform, just like ACC or ACS was placed in the Adobe automation stack.

In AJO we are leveraging on the AEP XDM data model which works with having a flat profile model with many fields and few relational schemas, whereas we in AC v8 are working with a postgres relational database where the profiles can be linked to data in a nested model rather than the flat model as we see in AJO.

From a non-tech perspective, this will mean that in AJO, we are publishing the same data on several profiles whereas in AC v8 we are linking the profiles to a schema containing all the data needed e.g. company. In AJO we have faster access to the profile data and the real-time or event updates there will be combined into the 360 customer profile.

Cool features

Both AJO and AC v8 will deliver the coolest features to help you deliver a heck of a customer experience, personalized at many data points for delivering the best customer experience.

Each of the platforms will have a bit different view on how we can deliver that experience, even if they are quite similar when looking at them from a big perspective, there are small but larger differences.

AJO will keep a good focus on having a finger on being able to trigger experiences based on online and offline behaviour, where at the same time they can create custom actions sending event data for internal usage in another system.

All of the above can trigger communication in real-time using both offline and online data arriving in batches or through real-time events.

AC v8 will use its power to have a relational data model, create complex user journeys with advanced workflow elements, leverage powerful built-in web apps, ability to send attachments in emails and export modulated data from the platform.

AC v8 can trigger communication through API or make use of the data placed in the database from various custom sources.

Comparison table

When we have looked a little under the hood on the two platforms, we have made this table with a few simple one-liners about the two platforms.

Journey Optimizer (AJO)Campaign v8 (AC v8)
Ability to combine online and offline data at a granular event level creating a real-time customer profile  Offline data, limited view of online data to trigger communications
Real-time segmentation and activation based on big data architectureBatch segmentation and activation reliant on traditional SQL database
Powerful segmentation capabilities across online and offline data inputsStrong segmentation capabilities using offline data. If including online behaviour, there is a delay in absorbing online data.
High personalisation capabilities – online content into offline (e.g showing the last product viewed but didn't purchase in emails) and vice versaPersonalization is possible with what data is imported into the daily or delta loads. Limited online or real-time behavior-driven personalization is possible
High-scale sending capabilities (millions in minutes)More limited sending capabilities (20 million per hour)
Offer decisions across all channels.Offer decision capabilities limited to email, direct mail and SMS
Ability to talk to all customers at once through 1:1 behavior-driven communicationsBatch communications and limited web-triggered communications

If you can see yourself and your organization in one of the below bullets, AJO is not the right choice for you.

- Will only use on-premise data

- No plan to use a Customer Data Platform (CDP)

- Looking for a "lift & shift" of existing campaigns

- Teams and processes are not aligned in achieving the organization's goals at a bigger and no need for an extensive automation setup

Make the decision

It is known, that it can be hard to pick the next platform and have your organization with you in understanding the need for a “new” platform, but this decision must be, as mentioned earlier, made within the first half of 2024.

If you need help making the decision and have the advantage of seeing the platforms in action, you can contact Accrease to get you started.

What about the development

If you are interested in the history of the Campaign platform, and how it developed from ACC into AC v8 and AJO, I will roll out a few details about it here below.

The original product was called Neolane and was owned by a French company called Neolane Inc. until it was purchased by Adobe in 2013 for $600 million.

The Neolane product was released in 2001 and has from 2001 till 2013 gone through 4 major releases with new revolutionary features for a cross-channel platform of that era.

It was first released by Adobe as Campaign Classic in 2013, and the original product has kept that name up until today where its in final years as version 7.

During the years, Adobe released its “little brother” in 2017, called Campaign Standard which was released as a cloud version of Campaign Classic there was more marketer-friendly than the big brother ACC was.

Campaign Standard did gain a lot of market reputation and many customers made the jump from Campaign Classic to Campaign Standard due to the lightweight possibilities that marketers saw in the new platform.

With Campaign Standard came a new email editor, the introduction of Fragments and a simple but advanced editor fully based on drag-and-drop functionalities.

Later in 2019 AEP was announced and unveiled at Summit to everyone's excitement, a full-blooded CDP, created from Adobe's own hands (and not bought as earlier products).

With the release of AEP, we also got Journey Orchestration, which was a marketing tool that could leverage the power from AEP and trigger communication through various automation tools eg. ACC and ACS.

In 2021 AJO was announced to the public and will be a tool placed on top of AEP which could leverage the AEP CDP power and put it into automation with its built-in actions for email, SMS and push.

In the same year as AJO was announced Adobe also unveiled that they will continue the ACC lane and build a new version of the ACC platform that will be better implemented in the Experience Cloud and have the power of Snowflake from their new partnership with Microsoft.

In 2024 the new web user interface was released, which was a revolution since marketers now easily can create experiences in an advanced automation tool like ACC without the technical console and old-looking platform.

* Dates are as currently mentioned by Adobe, but they can change in the years to come.

February 22, 2024

Top Picks for the Adobe Summit ’24 from Our Experts

Summit US is around the corner, so like everyone else, we here at Accrease prepare for which sessions are relevant for us and what announcements we will see to ensure we can include these when working with our clients. 

If you have yet to hear, then 'rumours' are that there won't be a Summit in London this year. This only means that there will be more focus on the US one and potentially more EMEA-based clients attending the US one.

Currently, 249 sessions are available if you're attending in person and 28 online. As in previous years, I expect recordings to be available for everyone post-summit. So regardless of whether you'll be attending in person or expecting to watch the recordings afterwards, I've asked our Specialists which sessions they would recommend to help you prioritise in the large selection of sessions. So, let's jump straight into the recommendations:

Fulton Yancy

He has experience in digital analytics since 1996 and spent the last decade getting his hands dirty digging for insights in Adobe Analytics. Remember to check out his blog on www.webbanalys.se.

Session: 
2024 Adobe Analytics Rockstars: Top Tips and Tricks [S104]

Reason: 
Meeting the rockstars of Adobe Analytics is always a great way to boost inspiration and learn new ways to work with Adobe Analytics. This has always been my all-time favourite session at Summit as - regardless of my experience in the tool - I always walk away having learned something new. You should definitely take advantage of this session!

Jonas Nielsen

Former Consulting Manager at Adobe and Founder of Accrease. Jonas is a Swiss army knife for the Adobe stack, particularly AEP, and often finds himself by a whiteboard drawing the client's architecture around AEP.

Session: 
How Adobe Real-Time CDP Impacts Full Funnel Marketing [VS513]

Reason: 
I usually focus on sessions that give a deeper understanding of the architecture behind the solutions. I tried looking for a relevant one this year but found no one. Instead, I personally find this session really interesting. 

Often, a CDP is only thought of as something for bought media strategies, but to take full advantage of a CDP, it needs to be thought into the entire marketing funnel.

Sharath Kumar

Former Consultant at Adobe - Well experienced in Adobe Campaign and migrations to/deployments of Adobe Journey Optimizer.

Sessions: 
Adobe Journey Optimizer Roadmap and Innovations [S801] & 
Making the Leap with Generative AI to Scale Personalised Experiences [S911]

Reason: 
At Accrease, we collaborate directly with the product teams for the different solutions we support. And especially when it comes to AJO, as the solution is evolving extremely fast with new releases every month. They can only give us some insights, so the roadmap sessions at Summit are my favourite ones. Understanding the product's direction will allow us to ensure the implementations we plan take any new features into account.

I find optimising the flows and scaling the personalisation using AI fascinating, so my second recommendation is precisely this. Many clients we work with don't have huge teams, so the efficiency and scaling of personalisation come down to working smarter, and I have no doubt AI is a big part of the solution for this.

Samuel Rajkumar

Marketo specialist unlike any other. Experienced in building digital strategies using technologies like CDP and combining them with Marketing Automation.

Sessions: 
Adobe on Adobe: Marketo Engage and Best Practices for Global Marketing Ops [VS215] & 
GenAI-Powered B2B Marketing: Crafting a Roadmap to Excellence [S205]

Reason: 
I always find it inspiring to hear from clients about what they have achieved using Adobe Stack. What I find even more inspiring is the Adobe on Adobe sessions. I recall they started doing these years ago, and I love seeing how Adobe are using their own solutions - simply because they know all the ins and outs of its products to ensure it fully gains the most from them.

This is an excellent opportunity to gain insights directly from industry experts who have successfully set up a Global Marketing Ops.

My second recommendation is similar to Sharath's. Regardless of whether you have a large team, AI will be part of your workflow one way or the other. I don't necessarily believe that AI will be able to fully automate personalisation or something similar in the near future. But I 100% believe AI will make you and your team more efficient.

Jonas Guldberg Pabst

Campaign specialist, who was raised - not by wolves - but alongside Neolane, which later became Adobe Campaign. A companion of his ever since.

Sessions: 
Unveiling Adobe Campaign's New User Interface and Innovative Features [S803] & 
Scaling Customer Journey Capabilities for Global Digital Experiences [S809]

Reason:
Adobe has announced that they will unveil their new Campaign v8 web user interface (UI) as part of Summit. These two sessions introduce the new interface and how to leverage the power to build customer experiences. As for the new UI, you may have noticed that the documentation has been updated with a few previews.

The new interface is a revolution for marketers and is a good blend of the more sophisticated UI from Campaign Classic and the simple marketer-friendly UI from Campaign Standard.

It will embrace new powerful features and help you elevate campaigns, build audiences, and unleash the true potential of cross-channel experiences through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.

This is super exciting news. We here at Accrease look forward to introducing all the new features it gives our customers.

Kasper Andersen

Former Manager at Adobe for Proof of Concepts in EMEA & JAPAC. He has been working with Adobe Analytics since it was known as SiteCatalyst; however, his favourite solution is and always will be Adobe Target.

Session: 
Top Tips to Maximise Value with Adobe Target [VS817] & 
How Adobe.com uses AI-powered Recommendations for Personalization at Scale [S814]

Reason:
With Target as my favourite solution, how can I recommend anything besides Target sessions? 

The top tips session is my clear winner - if I could watch only one session, it would be this one. Ryan Roberts is a former colleague and friend, and he's been doing similar sessions in previous years and always received high ratings from the attendees. I love his sessions.
During my time with Adobe, I ran a similar session at Summit in London. Needless to say, it was with great sparring and input from Ryan.

Just like Samuel, I enjoy watching the Adobe on Adobe sessions. Combine that with AI, and you have my second favourite session. Not many Adobe Target customers have Target Premium, which allows for using the Recommendation add-on. Most think that it is only relevant if you're an e-commerce site. However, that certainly isn't the case. I'm working with B2B companies that have successfully promoted training videos and FAQ articles.

There you go. These were the recommendations. Check back after Summit, as we'll be providing a summary of the biggest and most important takeaways.

March 28, 2023

Personalizing the Customer Journey: The Power of Lead Lifecycle Model and Scoring Model

Providing an exceptional customer experience is crucial for the success of any business, and lead lifecycle and scoring models can help achieve this. These strategies offer a comprehensive approach to understanding and engaging with potential customers, providing valuable insights into their behavior and preferences to create a more personalized and effective customer journey.

In this post, we'll explore the key benefits of lead lifecycle and scoring models and provide steps on how to implement these strategies as a foundation for creating a better customer experience.

Benefits of lead lifecycle and lead scoring models

Implementing a lead lifecycle and scoring model can offer several benefits, including:

🤝 Improved marketing and sales alignment
🔮 Better customer insights
📬 Personalized and consistent communication
📈 Higher conversion rates, ROI, and increased sales
😀 Improved customer retention

Implementing a lead lifecycle and scoring model can offer a range of benefits to businesses looking to optimize their marketing and sales efforts. One significant advantage is improved alignment between marketing and sales teams. By providing a clear framework for lead handoff and ensuring that both teams work towards the same goals, a lead lifecycle and scoring model can help bridge the gap between the two departments. Assigning scores to leads based on their engagement and fit will make the lead qualification process more efficient, and sales and marketing can prioritize efforts on leads more likely to convert.

In addition to better alignment, businesses can gain valuable customer insights by implementing a lead lifecycle model. By tracking and analyzing leads throughout the buying journey, businesses can gain valuable insights into their customer's behavior and preferences, allowing them to tailor their marketing and sales strategies more effectively.

Personalization is another key benefit of lead lifecycle and scoring models and a key driver for customer satisfaction. By understanding where a customer is in the journey, businesses can tailor their messaging to provide the right information at the right time based on the customers' interests and needs. This not only improves the customer experience but also helps build trust and rapport with the customer, improving retention efforts.

By focusing on leads that are most likely to convert, businesses can increase their conversion rates, generate more revenue from sales and marketing efforts, and improve their ROI. The lead qualification process becomes more efficient by assigning scores to leads based on their engagement and fit, enabling sales and marketing teams to prioritize their efforts on leads more likely to convert.

Ultimately, the goal for a business is to increase sales. By identifying the most promising leads and targeting efforts accordingly, businesses can increase their win rates and close deals faster, resulting in increased revenue and profitability. A clear and cohesive journey from lead to customer can significantly improve the overall experience, leading to a more positive perception of the business and increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

How to implement lead lifecycle and lead scoring strategies

Implementing a lead lifecycle and scoring model can be a game-changer for businesses looking to optimize their marketing and sales efforts. However, it can be challenging to know where to start. Below are some steps for implementing lead lifecycle and scoring strategies:

1. Identify and define the lead lifecycle stages

Start by identifying the stages of your lead lifecycle, such as lead capture, marketing qualified, sales qualified, and lead nurturing. Assign specific criteria for each stage, such as lead source, engagement level, and behavioral actions. This will help you create a structured framework for managing and prioritizing leads.

2. Assign lead scores

Use lead scoring to assign scores to each lead based on their behavior and level of engagement with your brand and their fit with your ideal customer profile. For example, a lead who visits your website and downloads a whitepaper might score higher than a lead who simply opens an email. Lead scoring helps businesses identify the most promising leads and prioritize their efforts accordingly.

3. Use automation

Implement marketing automation tools to help streamline the lead lifecycle process. For example, set up automated workflows to send targeted messages to leads based on their stage in the lifecycle and lead score. Automation can help move leads through the different stages of your lead lifecycle, save time, and improve the efficiency of your lead qualification process.

4. Monitor and analyze

Track and analyze customer interactions at each stage of the lifecycle to gain valuable insights into their behavior and preferences. Use this information to refine your lead scoring and communication strategies. Continuously monitoring and analyzing your lead data can help identify trends and inform ongoing improvements.

5. Personalize communication

Use lead lifecycle and scoring data to personalize your communication with leads. Tailor your messaging to their interests and needs, and provide relevant content and offers to keep them engaged. Personalization is key to building strong relationships with leads and improving conversion rates.

6. Continuous optimization:

Optimize your lead lifecycle and scoring strategies based on performance data. Identify areas for improvement and make adjustments to ensure you are providing the best possible customer experience. Continuously testing and refining your strategies will help ensure that you are meeting your business goals.

Remember, lead lifecycle and scoring strategies will vary depending on your business and industry, so it's important to adapt these steps to your specific needs and goals. By implementing a lead lifecycle and scoring model, businesses can improve their marketing and sales alignment, gain valuable customer insights, and improve conversion rates, ultimately leading to increased revenue and profitability.

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NO: +47 75 98 71 01

 

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