The Digital Marketing Architect

In my post on Flicker, Personalization and Page Speed, I mentioned the obsession with the Google Lighthouse scores. The LinkedIn comments I received suggested that I was not alone in my views. I planned to write another post, deepening my point of view, but recent developments have significantly changed the landscape.

I have been dodging the profile merge policies bullet for quite some time, mainly because I never needed to dive deep into it. In fact, I still inadvertently say profile merge rules, from my Adobe Audience Manager days. However, this week I needed to provide a solution that involved creating a new merge policy. So it is high time I explained this capability.

Today’s post is going to be different from my typical post where I explain how to solve for something or I explain my point of view. I will just list the Adobe tools based on a particular order, the order defined by the conversion funnel. It is just a reference, a mental map of tools, and very personal.

It has been more than three years since I wrote my first post on AEP identities. I think it is time to revisit this topic. Not only have I learned a lot about AEP since then, but there were many questions in that post which clearly indicated that it is a complex topic not well understood.

Almost 20 years ago, I started learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I even attended a conference on the topic, where one of the most reputable SEO agencies was presenting. I soon realized that it was not easy and it required a lot of effort. I just scratched the surface, although I understood it well enough. A classmate from my primary school is a real expert in this area. Well, there is a new kid on the block: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

When working with Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), sooner or later you will need to decide which datasets should be enabled for profile. It is not a good practice to enable all datasets for profile. In fact, doing so will likely get you into trouble. In this post, I will explain what non‑profile-enabled datasets are, why they are essential in a healthy AEP implementation, and some practical patterns.

One of the most painful issues that all our Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) customers have faced is the profile collapse. The only comment I received on that post started with: “This is a giant problem.” Well, the wait is over — a solution has been implemented and is now generally available: Identity Graph Linking Rules. If you have suffered from this issue, keep reading.

I came up with this name while I was preparing for my Summit 2025 session. Perhaps I was simply having a good day and my neurons made the right connection. Since then, I have engaged in conversations where the same concept has emerged and resonated with others. Let me explain.

One of the comments I received in my last blog post asked for more details about CJA sessions: tips, tricks, and pitfalls. That was a very good question and, since I have it fresh in my memory, I decided to write about it immediately.

I am currently working on a project where my client is in the process of transitioning from Adobe Analytics (AA) to Customer Journey Analytics (CJA). A few months ago, I helped another customer with their CJA implementation. While AA and CJA are similar, they are definitely not the same beast. Of the many differences that they have, I will start today with the basic metrics.

Now that I have addressed the Experience Cloud ID (ECID) from a 2025 perspective, I can proceed to write a post on the First Party ID (FPID). It has remained on my list of future posts for some time, but until recently, I had not encountered it in a client scenario. Now that I have sufficient context, I can provide an explanation of this feature, how to use it, and the typical use cases for it.

I was in the process of writing a blog post on the FPID and I realized that my post on the Marketing Cloud ID was very outdated. Even that name has not been used in many years. So I decided that I needed an update to this feature. If you are familiar with it, I do not think I will explain anything new to you. However, if you are just starting with the Adobe ecosystem, this post is for you.

Picture the following scenario: you and your marketing team invest countless hours analyzing your total population, building an audience for a campaign and crafting content tailored specifically for them. The campaign launches and becomes a resounding success. Then, out of the blue, executives decide you should double the audience. Their logic is simple: double the audience, double the revenue. No further thought is given to the complexities involved. Does this sound familiar? What could possibly go wrong?

I have written a few times about flicker, it is a recurring topic that I hear more often than I would like. Fortunately for me, in the last few weeks it has not been a major concern for my clients but this luck can change at any time. To get ahead of the curb, I want to be ready with a different approach - an alternative solution for this issue.

I have already written about the Unified Profile. In that post, I explained how the Real-Time Customer Profile (RTCP) manages profiles. However, I did not delve deeply into the internal process of how a profile is created or, more accurately, projected. This is a widely misunderstood topic and not easy to grasp. Therefore, I have decided to write about it again, with an emphasis on profile projection.

The Adobe Summit 2025 is now a distant memory. If you had followed my LinkedIn posts, especially the last one, you would have seen that I had an amazing time there, so much so that I would have done it all over again. I know it is not for everybody, as a coworker told me that she could not wait to get back home.

Tomorrow, I am flying to Las Vegas to participate in the Adobe Summit 2025. My focus in the last couple of weeks has been preparing my session with Anish. I will also be manning the booth and I will share my schedule there so that you can visit me.

I have recently written about testing, where I explained that everything in digital marketing should be tested. There are a couple of reasons for this: first, because you can test nearly everything, you have the means to do so; and second, because it is a scientific approach. Now, you might be wondering: how do I run those tests? The answer is simple and, again, scientific: by creating holdout groups. Let me explain.

Just a quick note today. I am happy to announce that I will delivering a session titled “Before the Login: How Sling TV Turns Anonymous Visitors into Customers”, with Anish Raul from Sling TV at the upcoming Adobe Summit. Last year I could not go, but this 2025 I will be again in Las Vegas. I am excited!

If you have watched Mad Men, you will notice one detail about the marketing campaigns they created: it had to be a success right from the beginning, there was no room for errors. One of the reasons the main character (Donald Draper - Jon Hamm) is so successful, is because his campaigns are almost always perfect: they convince the client and be public alike. He could even convince the public to smoke more when health organizations were advocating for the opposite.