Use activation templates to define and save reusable activation configurations. These configurations include settings for contact point selection, source priority, filters, enrichment data, and membership filtering. Use these templates to create activations with consistent, predefined settings across all supported activation platforms.
Required Editions
| Available in: All Editions supported by Data 360. See Data 360 edition availability. |
Activation features such as contact point and membership filtering, source priority, and enrichment data have made creating activations more complex. Teams often reuse the same filtering, priority, and enrichment logic across many campaigns, especially for consent compliance and contact point selection.
Activation templates solve this problem by letting you save common activation configurations once and then apply them when creating activations. Instead of configuring the activation logic from scratch each time, you select a template, and Data 360 prefills your activation with the template's stored settings.
Benefits of Activation Templates
- Define contact-point-selection logic, enrichment data, and filters one time and reuse them across multiple activations.
- Apply source priority rules, contact point filters, and membership filters consistently without manual reconfiguration.
- Standardize consent and contact-point-filter configurations to meet regulatory requirements, such as GDPR.
- Use templates across diverse platforms, including Amazon S3, Marketing Cloud, AppExchange, and Ad Audiences partner destinations.
- Segment-triggered flows can use contact-point-selection logic, a feature that was exclusive to the activation UI.
How Activation Templates Work
Activation templates are reusable configurations that store metadata such as contact point channels, source priority, enrichment data, and membership filtering logic.
Each template is associated with a specific data space and data model object (DMO), such as Individual or Unified Individual. The DMO and platform association determines which activations and flows can reference the template.
When you create an activation and select a template, Data 360 uses the template as a blueprint to prefill the activation's configuration. You can then review and edit the prefilled fields before saving. After you create an activation from a template, Data 360 removes the link. Subsequent changes to the template don't affect existing activations.
Template Components
An activation template can include these configurations.
- Contact point channels: Preselected channels such as email, phone (SMS), or WhatsApp.
- Source priority: The evaluation order for contact point values when multiple values exist for the same channel. Each row in the source priority table represents a combination of source, source object, contact point type, and active status. Rows higher in the table take priority.
- Contact point filters: Filter criteria applied to contact point DMOs or consent DMOs to ensure only compliant, valid contact points are selected.
- Enrichment data: Direct attributes and related attributes to include in the activation output.
- Activation membership filtering: Criteria to filter which segment members are included in the activation.
Supported Platforms
Activation templates support these activation platforms:
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Data Cloud
- Cloud storage platforms such as Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and SFTP
- External platforms such as Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn, and DV360
To comply with GDPR consent regulations, a global company operating in Europe needs to ensure proper compliance across multiple activations to different platforms. The marketing operations manager creates an activation template named "GDPR Email Compliance" that includes:
- Email as the contact point channel
- A source priority configuration where a primary email from the Marketing Cloud source with a Lead source object is priority, followed by a primary email from Marketing Cloud with a Prospect source object, and then a business email from Amazon S3 as the lowest priority
- Contact point filters requiring explicit email opt-in consent
- Enrichment attributes for personalization
When a marketer creates a new activation to Marketing Cloud, they select the "GDPR Email Compliance" template. Data 360 prefills the activation with the template's contact point, source priority, filter, and enrichment configurations. The marketer reviews the prefilled settings, makes any campaign-specific adjustments, and saves the activation without manually re-creating the GDPR compliance logic.
- Create an Activation Template
Create an activation template to define reusable activation configuration logic, including channel selections, source priority, contact point filters, enrichment data, and membership filtering. Apply this configuration when creating new activations or reference it in segment-triggered flows. Templates are created based on the combination of DMO and the activation destination, which allows you to reuse the same template across all activation targets for a given destination. - Use an Activation Template When Creating an Activation
Use an activation template when creating an activation to automatically fill in settings like contact points, source priority, filters, and enrichment data. You can then review and adjust these settings before saving your activation.