Deploying Demandbase with Tealium IQ: A Comprehensive Guide to Integrating API Data Across Multiple Profiles

In the evolving landscape of digital marketing, personalization and targeted marketing have become essential components for businesses to engage their audiences effectively. Demandbase offers a powerful API that allows businesses to identify and engage with high-value target accounts. By integrating Demandbase with Tealium IQ, you can enrich your customer data with firmographic insights before passing it to analytics platforms like Adobe Analytics.

This article will guide you through the process of deploying Demandbase using Tealium IQ. We will focus on a structured approach that leverages a parent-child profile setup in Tealium IQ, where the parent profile manages a single code base deployed across three child profiles for US, CAN, and UK websites.

1. Understanding the Tealium IQ Profile Structure

In Tealium IQ Tag Management, profiles are a way to manage different configurations for the tags and settings applied to your digital properties. This feature is particularly useful when you need to handle different versions of your site, different geographic regions, or distinct user experiences.

Overview of Profile Management in Tealium IQ

Profiles in Tealium IQ allow you to create and manage multiple sets of tag configurations within the same account. This is useful for scenarios where different parts of your site or app require different tag implementations or settings. For example, you might use profiles to handle:

• Different Versions of a Website: Manage configurations for a staging site versus a production site.
• Geographic Variations: Apply different tags or settings based on user location.
• User Segments: Customize tags based on user behavior or other attributes.

Managing Profiles

To manage profiles, you typically interact with the following features:

• Creating and Configuring Profiles: You can create a new profile within Tealium IQ, specifying a name and purpose. Each profile can be configured independently with its own set of tags, extensions, and data mappings.
• Switching Profiles: The active profile determines which set of configurations is currently in use. You can switch between profiles to test different configurations or deploy changes to specific environments.
• Testing and Validation: Before making a profile live, use the preview mode to test the profile’s configuration. This allows you to verify that tags fire correctly and data is collected as expected.
• Versioning and History: Tealium IQ allows for version control and history tracking, providing insights into configuration updates and enabling rollback if necessary.
• Permissions and Access: Manage user permissions to ensure only authorized users can view or edit profiles.

In this screenshot, you can see how a single parent profile is configured to deploy common tags, extensions, and mappings, which are then inherited by the child profiles for the US, CAN, and UK websites. This structure ensures consistency across regions while allowing for localized customizations if needed. Below is a visual representation of the Tealium IQ interface that demonstrates this hierarchy.

2. Setting Up the Demandbase API in Tealium IQ

?Integrating Demandbase with Adobe Analytics allows clients to gain deeper insights into customer behavior on their websites. By amplifying customer identification on key landing pages, this integration significantly improves the ability to recognize high-value visitors, ultimately leading to better optimization of media spend and more targeted marketing efforts.?

Mapping Demandbase Data to Adobe Analytics

When integrating Demandbase with Adobe Analytics, it's essential to ensure that the correct attributes are mapped to provide valuable insights. Some recommended attributes for integration include the following, though additional attributes can be found on Demandbase's firmographic attribute reference page:

• db_sid_ID(eVar100): Demandbase ID
• db_company (eVar101): Grouping company attributes delimited by a colon (:) company_name industry sub_industry employee_range revenue_range
• db_audience (v102): Grouping audience attributes delimited by a colon (:) audience audience_segment marketing_alias web_site

To ensure a smooth implementation, map these variables in Tealium IQ to appropriate Adobe Analytics variables (eVars). For example, company attributes could be grouped and mapped to an eVar in Adobe Analytics to track and report company-related insights.

To deploy Demandbase using Tealium IQ, follow these steps:

a. Create a New JavaScript Extension in the Parent Profile

• Navigate to the Tealium IQ interface and select the parent profile.
• Go to the "Tag" tab and create a new "Tealium Custom Container" extension.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the "Extensions" tab and create a new "JavaScript Code" extension. However, for this article, I will demonstrate how to implement it using the "Tag" approach.

• Name the Tag "Demandbase | All Pages " for clarity.
• Insert the two Demandbase scripts provided by Demandbase into the code editor. This script will typically include a call to Demandbase's IP lookup service, which returns firmographic data.

// Your Tag UID and API Key will be provided to you by Demandbase team?during the implementation.

• Wait for Demandbase Tag to complete, which is represented as “Wait Until Exists” in the diagram. Navigate to the "Extensions" tab and create a new "JavaScript or Advanced Code" extension

The code sets up a mechanism to monitor the session storage for a specific ID (db_sid_ID) and trigger Adobe Analytics when the ID is detected.

I. Initial Check: If db_sid_ID is not found in the session storage and the interval counter hasn't been set (db_interval_counter), it starts an interval loop.

II. Data Layer Copy: The b object (Tealium data layer) is copied into data_layer_copy for later use.

III.? Loop Setup: A loop runs every 250 milliseconds to check if db_sid_ID has been set in session storage or if the loop has executed 10 times.

Note: Adjust the milliseconds and loops to optimize load time and view the results in Adobe Analytics eVars accordingly.

IV.?Condition Handling:

a.?If db_sid_ID is found or the loop runs 10 times, the interval is cleared.

b.?Depending on the value of the ut.profile in the data layer, the corresponding Adobe Analytics tag (with a specific UID) is retriggered using utag.view().

c. UIDs (Unique Identifier) can be found by visiting the corresponding profiles in Tealium IQ, see below screenshot for your reference.

V. Loop Counter: After each iteration, the loop counter (db_interval_counter) is incremented.

VI. Return: If no ID is found within the loop, the Adobe tag is killed, and the function exits

b. Mapping Demandbase Data to Adobe Analytics

1. In the parent profile, go to the "Tags" tab and select your Adobe Analytics tag.

2. Map the Demandbase variables (e.g., db_company, db_industry, db_revenue) to corresponding eVars, props, or events in Adobe Analytics.

if (window.sessionStorage.getItem("db_sid_ID") !== null) {

??? s.eVar100 = window.sessionStorage.getItem("db_sid_ID");

??? s.eVar101 = window.sessionStorage.getItem("db_company");

??? s.eVar102 = window.sessionStorage.getItem("db_audience");

? }

3. Save and publish the tag on parent profile to production environment. Since, tag was published on parent profile this tag will now prompted to all the child profiles (US, CAN, UK)

4. Visit each child profiles to then publish the libraries to the respective environment.

5. Test the setup by ensuring the Demandbase data appears in Adobe Analytics reports.

c. Implementing in Child Profiles

Because the child profiles inherit configurations from the parent, the Demandbase API integration will automatically apply to the US, CAN, and UK websites. If needed, you can customize the implementation further within each child profile, but the core logic remains centrally managed.

3. Testing and Validation

After deploying the integration, it's essential to test it thoroughly:

• Lookup the Live Events by using Tealium's Trace feature.

• Use browser developer tools to monitor network requests and ensure that the Demandbase API call is being made correctly.

Tip: Open an incognito browser, navigate to the website, and access the developer tools' network tab. The first Adobe Analytics beacon should capture Demandbase values, which represent the user's first visit to the site and values are stored in session storage.

• Check the Tealium data layer to verify that the Demandbase data is being captured.
• Validate data in Adobe Analytics by running reports to ensure the data is flowing through as expected.

After deploying the integration, it's essential to test and validate the health of the Demandbase deployment, particularly in how the data is captured and reported within Adobe Analytics.

Quantifying Data Coverage in Adobe Analytics

To measure the effectiveness of the Demandbase integration, one of the key metrics to monitor is the "Unspecified" value in the eVar100 or eVar101 or eVar102, Report for page views. The "Unspecified" row represents the percentage of page views where Demandbase data was not captured due to factors such as:

• Slow network connections
• Demandbase scripts not being present on certain pages
• Ad blockers or bots
• JavaScript racing conditions

If the "Unspecified" row falls within 10-30% of page views, it is generally considered an acceptable range. However, if the percentage is higher, it may indicate potential issues that need to be addressed, such as improving script deployment or optimizing page load times.

For additional information and deeper insights into how to measure data coverage in Adobe Analytics, refer to Demandbase's Quantifying Data Coverage article.

Tip: Configuring the Tealium Customer Container Tag for Different Events

By default, the Tealium Customer Container tag is set to fire on page views with the configuration:

·????? u.ev = {view: 1};

To make the tag fire on click events as well, you need to update the u.ev configuration to:

·????? u.ev = {view: 1, link: 1};

Explanation:

• u.ev Object: This object specifies which events the tag should respond to. view: 1 indicates that the tag should fire on page views. link: 1 adds the capability for the tag to fire on click events (or other link-related events).
• How It Works: The u.ev object is checked at the start of the u.send function. By updating u.ev, you adjust the tag’s response to different event types, ensuring it fires under the conditions you need.

Example Use Case: If you want the tag to handle not only page views but also user interactions like clicks, update the u.ev configuration to include both events.

Conclusion

Deploying Demandbase using Tealium IQ in a parent-child profile structure allows for streamlined management and consistent data collection across multiple web properties. By implementing the Demandbase API before passing data to Adobe Analytics, you can enhance your customer insights and improve the targeting capabilities of your marketing efforts. Integrating Demandbase with Adobe Analytics allows clients to gain deeper insights into customer behavior on their websites. By amplifying customer identification on key landing pages, this integration significantly improves the ability to recognize high-value visitors, ultimately leading to better optimization of media spend and more targeted marketing efforts. Additionally, understanding and managing profiles in Tealium IQ is crucial to ensure that the right configurations are applied across different environments, regions, or user segments, thus maximizing the effectiveness of your digital strategy.