Web Campaign Configuration
This section covers the personalization building blocks you configure in the Salesforce Personalization application to deliver personalized web experiences. By the end of this section, you'll know how to set up every component needed to go from a configured Data Cloud environment to live personalized content on your website.
📝 Note: Acronyms used in this section — WPM = Web Personalization Manager, DG = Data Graph, DMO = Data Model Object, CI = Calculated Insight, CTA = Call to Action.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you've completed the following from the Data Capturing & Modeling section:
- Salesforce Interactions SDK is installed and capturing events on your website
- Data streams are deployed and mapping DLOs to DMOs
- Identity Resolution is configured and running
- Profile Data Graph (real-time) is built with engagement objects, segments, and CIs
- Item Data Graph (standard) is built for the items you plan to recommend (products, articles, etc.)
The Building Blocks
Configuring a personalized web experience involves several interconnected components. Here's the order you'll work through them:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Personalization Building Blocks │
│ │
│ 1. Personalization Types ─── Manual Content or Recommendations │
│ │
│ 2. Recommenders ─────────── Rules-Based or Objective-Based │
│ ├── Engagement Signals │
│ ├── Engagement Signal Metrics │
│ └── Recommender Filters │
│ │
│ 3. Response Templates ───── Define what data is returned │
│ │
│ 4. Personalization Points ─ Where decisions are requested │
│ │
│ 5. Decisions ────────────── Who gets what (targeting + priority) │
│ │
│ 6. Experiments ──────────── A/B test different strategies │
│ │
│ 7. Web Templates ───────── Convert JSON responses to HTML │
│ │
│ 8. Web Personalization Apply experiences to your website │
│ Manager (WPM) via a WYSIWYG tool │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
💡 Tip: You don't need all of these components for your first personalization experience. A simple Manual Content experience (like an infobar or banner) only requires a response template, a personalization point, a decision, and the WPM — no recommenders or item data graphs needed. Start simple and layer in recommendations later.
Section Index
| Sub-Section | What You'll Learn |
|---|---|
| Personalization Types | The two types of personalization — Manual Content and Recommendations — and when to use each |
| Recommenders | Rules-based and objective-based recommenders, engagement signals, metrics, filters, and training |
| Response Templates | How to define the shape of data returned in a decision response |
| Personalization Points | Creating the decision endpoints that map to parts of your experience |
| Decisions | Configuring targeting rules, priority, and content for each personalization point |
| Experiments | Setting up A/B tests to compare different decisioning strategies |
| Web Templates (Transformers) | Building Handlebars templates to convert JSON decision responses into HTML |
| Web Personalization Manager | Using the WYSIWYG tool to apply personalization experiences to your website |
Recommended Reading Order
For your first implementation, we recommend following the sub-sections in order from top to bottom. Each section builds on concepts introduced in the previous one. If you're looking to ship a quick win, jump directly to:
- Personalization Types — understand the difference between Manual Content and Recommendations
- Response Templates — create a Manual Content response template
- Personalization Points — create your first personalization point
- Decisions — configure a decision with targeting rules
- Web Personalization Manager — apply the experience to your website
You can return to Recommenders, Experiments, and Web Templates when you're ready for ML-powered recommendations and A/B testing.