Getting live with your Customer Data Platform (CDP) doesn’t have to take months or drag into a year-long slog. With the right approach, you can start seeing value in under 30 days. That might sound far-fetched, but stick with me as it’s not only possible, it’s something I’ve done repeatedly.
Let’s rewind. Remember WebSideStory? Visual Sciences? Maybe Omniture? Odds are, you know Adobe Analytics. Here’s how they all connect. WebSideStory acquired Visual Sciences in 2006 and rebranded itself as such in early 2007. Omniture then acquired Visual Sciences later in 2007, and Adobe picked up Omniture in 2009.
That journey is the origin story of Tealium. Our co-founders were in the thick of those transitions. In 2008, they launched Tealium as a consultancy to help companies migrate from Visual Sciences to Omniture. By 2009, after the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe, they saw the bigger opportunity: to simplify data collection with a tag management system (TMS) that works for marketers, not just vendors. The result was Tealium iQ.
No more memorizing cryptic values like s.prop42. With Tealium, marketers could work with clean, business-friendly data definitions like product_category, then leverage a UI that handles the translation and mapping of data to vendors
That same team, including our current CEO, shared a vision: take real-time event data and turn it into actionable visitor segmentation. That vision became AudienceStream, launched in 2013. While I joined Tealium in 2011, I was still drawn by that mission, and happily led our AudienceStream services upon launch, including: deployments, documentation, training, API feedback, connector prioritization, and more.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I’ve spent over a decade helping brands quickly launch real-time CDPs. And I can get a tailored Tealium AudienceStream demo running live on your website in a few days.
Here’s how to get there quickly and effectively.
- Start with Website Data Collection
The easiest place to start collecting customer data is a website. Most modern websites already use a TMS, primarily to manage measurement for analytics and social/paid media, as previously mentioned. Tealium integrates with all manner of data layer objects, so you can quickly leverage existing data to power Tealium’s CDP. No need to reinvent the wheel, just steer your data flow into Tealium with the Tealium Collect Tag or API.
- Capture Consent Signals
You’ll need to include consent data in your payload. Whether you’re using a commercial platform like a native CMP, your own custom solution, or Tealium’s consent manager, this step is relatively lightweight. It’s necessary for compliance, but doesn’t have to be a heavy lift.
- Evaluate Available Web Data
Every vendor will tell you that you need a rich set of data to get started, but not every use case requires a full taxonomy of user behaviors. Your ability to go live in 30 days depends on two main elements: how your site is structured (i.e., your URLs), and how your existing data is stored (e.g., data layer, metadata, local storage). You probably have more than enough to get started with a few simple use cases if you already have a thorough analytics implementation in place.
- Start Small With Your CDP
It’s easy to get excited about all the things your CDP could do. But starting with a narrow scope allows you to get value faster and scale smarter. Focus on use cases that require minimal setup and deliver quick wins. This starts with thinking about it in the context of systems of data you already have access to, and vendors that don’t require new pieces of content, etc. Most of the time, it’s media retargeting/suppression use cases, along with personalization. With these simple use cases, you are actually fine-tuning and automating your marketing efforts.
Here are 3 simple use cases that are quick to build yet provide valuable customer experiences.
Use Case 1: Anonymous User Retargeting & Personalization
Even if a user is unknown, you can capture behavioral signals to drive real-time personalization and ad retargeting. And even if you’re already familiar with these efforts, so many are done in batches.
What you need:
- Pre-requisites
- Choose a Programmatic Vendor such as Google Ad Manager 360, DV360, The Trade Desk, or Criteo, that already has ad campaigns running
- Choose the Personalization tool or CMS that can read JavaScript variables on page to dynamically manage content
- For each channel, determine what existing creative can be reused for engagement
- TMS
- Capture the Ad vendor’s device ID, e.g., the Google ID, via Tealium’s cookie matching tags. Note: This is for Chrome only.
- CDP
- A method to calculate content affinity, perhaps via Tealium’s Tally attribute E.g., to output the site content category with the most page views
- An API connection or user to enable API triggers to your selected Programmatic vendor
- The user list or segment name to manage within the vendor
- Vendor requirements
- Programmatic: No additional requirements
- Personalization/CMS: Read the required JavaScript variables on page to dynamically manage content
Why it works fast:
- Real-time audience updates ensure users enter and exit Programmatic user lists or segments dynamically
- Returning site visitors are served the most up-to-date visitor data for better content personalization
- You’re improving your media spend and customer experience using data you already have and leveraging creative already in place
Use Case 2: Abandonment Recovery for Known Users
A classic and highly effective CDP use case: recover revenue by identifying users who begin a journey (like a purchase or form fill) but do not complete it.
What you need:
- Pre-requisites
- Choose your Social Ad vendor, such as Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, or Pinterest, that already have ad campaigns running
- Determine what existing creative can be reused for engagement
- Think of ways to expand existing simple audiences, such as “Abandoner” to more targeted audiences such as “High Value Abandoners” or “Abandoners with High Propensity to Return”.
- TMS
- A listener to capture email or login identifiers
- A listener for start-of-funnel actions (e.g., add to cart or form input start)
- A listener for conversion events (e.g., purchase or form submit)
- CDP
- An end-of-session rule to check if a start-of-funnel action was taken but a conversion event was not taken
- An API connection or user to enable segment/list management within Social
- The user list or segment name to manage within the vendor
- Existing creative for ads
Why it works fast:
- Abandoners are identified in real time, with no batch delays
- Segmentation can add nuances (e.g., loyalty vs. first-timer)
- Completed conversions are automatically removed and suppressed from targeting
Use Case 3: AI-Powered Targeting from your Cloud Data Warehouse (CDW)
Let’s be real, your data science team is probably cranking out some legit predictive models in Snowflake. Churn risk, lifetime value (LTV), next-best-product – these scores are pure gold, yet most of them just sit in a table somewhere, gathering digital dust. That’s where your CDP steps in and turns passive potential into active performance.
What you need:
- A scheduled or triggered job in your CDW to output model results (e.g., churn score, LTV score) to a table or view
- A connection from your CDP to the CDW to ingest those scores (e.g., Snowflake Connected App)
- Attributes in your CDP to map those scores to visitor profiles
- Audience rules based on those scores (e.g. churn risk <30% and >80%; churn risk > 80%)
- Activation connectors to Paid Media, CRM, or On-Site Personalization tools
Why it works fast:
- You don’t need to build new models, just connect to what already exists
- Model scores are updated on a predictable schedule (e.g., by the minute, hourly, daily) and pushed to your CDP
- Your CDP can use those scores within real-time segmentation, as well as campaign orchestration
- You immediately get value from your data science investments without waiting for a full AI pipeline to be rebuilt
The bottom line is that you don’t need a deep data layer or months of prep to launch a CDP. With the right focus, existing marketing tools, and real-time capabilities, you can stretch your budget, get live quickly, and start exploring the power of personalization, all within 30 days.
