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joerg_steinmann
Employee
Employee
Chapters:

  1. Email content and usage of personalization attributes

  2. Campaign definition

  3. Campaign execution


3. Campaign execution


After campaign is defined completely you must push the button “Start”. If approval workflow is active the button “Submit for Approval” must be pushed first. More details can be found in “Application Help: Business Features -> Campaigns -> Managing Campaigns -> Approval Workflow

After pushing button “Start” the campaign status changes from status “In Preparation” to “Released”.

The execution status changes to “Running” because the trigger based campaign is listening to incoming interactions immediately after it has been started.

 

Campaign is listening


Campaign management has a technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER which runs every minute and collects those interactions where the type fits to the type of the start trigger of the trigger based campaign.

This technical background job selects all those interactions that have been created since its last run. For this it compares the stored information of “its last run” (stored in an own database table) with the Created_At timestamp of the interaction.

Note:


The technical background job collects only newly created interactions. Changed interactions are not collected.


The technical background job uses the Created_At timestamp of the interaction. This is an internal timestamp set at this date&time when the interaction was created in the system. It is no identical with the Interaction Timestamp field offered in some segmentation objects.


 

The technical background job runs with the context of a special user of type “System”. It schedules the execution of the all actions of a trigger based campaign. Hence all actions run with the context of that system user that executes the technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER.

Note:


The system user executing the technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER must have the needed authorizations. Read installation and upgrade guide in order to use the correct role and authorizations. If this system user has not all needed authorizations the actions of a trigger based campaign will not executed correctly and the execution may end with errors.


The technical background job collects all newly created interactions fitting to trigger based campaign and puts the found interactions into an internal target group. The internal target group is used because all campaign actions process always target group members, either members of a dynamic or static target group or members of an internal target group. Because the technical background job knows which trigger based campaign is listening to the collected interaction it knows also the actions assigned to the start trigger of these campaigns. Hence the job schedules the corresponding actions, either for immediate execution or with certain delay, depending on the advanced scheduling options of every action.

 

As long as the execution status is “Running” the button “Pause” is available. If the button is pushed the execution status changes to “Paused”. The button “Pause” will not stop currently running action jobs. More details can be found in “Application Help: Business Features -> Campaigns -> Managing Campaigns -> Execution Status

A paused trigger based campaign can be started again by pushing the button “Start”.

The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER will NOT process the start trigger of a paused campaign. Newly created interactions will not trigger the execution of start actions of a paused trigger based campaign. But the technical background job will process all follow-up triggers of a paused trigger based campaign.

Note:


You cannot capture a just running action job and stop it. It will run until all target group members have been processed.


Pushing button “Stop” means that the campaign with all its follow-up triggers and actions is stopped and that no next executions will be planned anymore. A stopped campaign cannot be changed or paused or restarted anymore.


 

If the action execution failed it will reprocess all not-processed interactions again if the action is executed again. Such a “restart” is done automatically, either because the technical background job has collected again newly created interactions and scheduled again the action. Or by another technical job which collects all aborted actions of a trigger based campaign and restarts them if their last execution is older than a certain period of time.

 

 

Start actions and follow-up actions


Note:


Every execution of a start action which has follow-up triggers and actions produces a kind of “swimlane” which is active as long as the campaign is not stopped.


For the explanation of processing of the actions of a trigger based campaign we used the above sketched example campaign. We use an example where the technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER collects fitting interactions of type “Website Download” over several days and where it collects the interactions for the follow-up triggers. The example uses also seconds in the timestamps in order to make clear that the difference between the steps can also be less than 1 minute.

 






























































































Interaction 1 Interaction 2 Interaction 3
Interaction Type Website Download Website Download Website Download
Interaction Contact John Doe Jenny Public John Doe
Interaction created at 04 March 08:01:00 04 March 16:20:45 05 March 05:21:16
Technical job executed at 04 March 08:02:00 04 March 16:21:00 05 March 05:22:02
Email EM1 sent at 04 March 08:03:00 04 March 16:22:01 05 March 05:22:58
Email EM1 opened at 05 March 12:12:30 ---- 08 March 05:15:00
Technical job executed at 05 March 12:13:10 ---- 08 March 05:15:26
Email EM1_1 sent at 05 March 12:14:05 ---- 08 March 05:16:04
Technical job executed at ---- 07 March 16:23:05 ----
Email EM1_2 sent at ---- 08 March 07:20:00 ----
Email EM2 sent at 11 March 13:30:09 12 March 13:30:01 12 March 13:30:00
Link in EM2 clicked at 13 March 18:42:25 12 March 13:41:42 13 March 09:49:19
Technical job executed at 13 March 18:43:06 12 March 13:43:01 13 March 09:50:00
Email EM2_1 sent at 15 March 18:42:26 14 March 13:41:49 15 March 09:49:25


 

Processing of Interaction 1 and its follow-up triggers and actions (= swimlane 1)



  1. Contact John Doe downloads a whitepaper for SAP Cloud Platform.

  2. A corresponding interaction “Website Download” is written into the system on 4 March at 08:01:00.

  3. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 4 March at 08:02:00.

  4. It collects the interaction "Website Download" of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM1 and another internal target group TGi_EM2 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1 immediately and for email EM2 for 11 March 13:30 (delay of 7 days).

  5. Email EM1 is sent on 4 March at 08:03:00.

  6. John Doe opens EM1 on 5 March at 12:12:30, a corresponding interaction “Email Opened” is written into the system.

  7. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 5 March at 12:13:10.

  8. It collects the interaction "Email Opened" of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM1_1 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1_1 immediately.

  9. Email EM1_1 is sent on 5 March at 12:14:05.

  10. On 11 March at 13:30:09 the email EM2 is sent.

  11. John Doe clicks a link in email EM2 on 13 March at 18:42:25, a corresponding interaction “Click Through” is written into the system.

  12. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 13 March at 18:43:06.

  13. It collects the interaction "Click Through" of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM2_1  and schedules the execution of action for email EM2_1 with a delay of 2 days = on 15 March at 18:42:25.

  14. Email EM2_1 is sent on 15 March at 18:42:26.


 

Processing of Interaction 2 and its follow-up triggers and actions (= swimlane 2)



  1. Contact Jenny Public downloads a whitepaper for SAP Cloud Platform.

  2. A corresponding interaction “Website Download” is written into the system on 4 March at 16:20:45.

  3. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 4 March at 16:21:00.

  4. It collects the interaction "Website Download" of Jenny Public, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM1 and another internal target group TGi_EM2 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1 immediately and for email EM2 for 12 March 13:30 (delay of 7 days).

  5. Email EM1 is sent on 4 March at 16:22:01.

  6. Jenny Public does not open email EM1.

  7. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 7 March at 16:23:05.

  8. It detects that the email EM1, sent to Jenny Public on 4 March at 16:22:01, was not opened for 3 days (= 3 x 24 hours).

  9. The technical background job puts the interaction “Email Outbound EM1” of Jenny Public into internal target group TGi_EM1_2 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1_2 for 08 March at 07:20:00.
    Explanation:
    The email EM1_2 shall be sent with a delay AND at a certain time. The 3 days of delay are 72 hours of delay (3 x 24 hours). The technical background job adds 72 hours to the creation date of the interaction “Email Outbound EM1” =  72 hours + 4 March at 16:22:01 = 7 March at 16:22:01. Because the time is 16:22:01, but the action shall be executed at 07:20, the technical background job must move the day to 8 March and the time to 07:20.

  10. On 8 March at 07:20 the email EM1_2 is sent.

  11. On 12 March at 13:30:01 the email EM2 is sent.

  12. Jenny Public clicks a link in email EM2 on 12 March at 13:41:42, a corresponding interaction “Click Through” is written into the system.

  13. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 12 March at 13:43:01.

  14. It collects the interaction "Click Through" of Jenny Public, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM2_1  and schedules the execution of action for email EM2_1 with a delay of 2 days = on 14 March at 13:41:42.

  15. Email EM2_1 is sent on 14 March at 13:41:49.


Note:


The email EM2_1 is sent in swimlane 2 ca. one day earlier than in swimlane 1.



Processing of Interaction 3 and its follow-up triggers and actions (= swimlane 3)


In this swimlane 3 the same contact John Doe is processed as in swimlane 1. This is possible because the trigger based interaction processes every interaction. There is no deduplication logic built in. If the trigger based campaign shall not process a new interaction for the same contact (where the trigger based campaign has processed already an older interaction for this contact), you must use a Live Target Group as filter for the start trigger or the start actions.

 

  1. Contact John Doe downloads another whitepaper, this time he downloads a whitepaper for SAP HANA.

  2. A corresponding interaction “Website Download” is written into the system on 5 March at 05:21:16.

  3. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 5 March at 05:22:02.

  4. It collects the interaction "Website Download" of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM1 and another internal target group TGi_EM2 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1 immediately and for email EM2 for 12 March 13:30 (delay of 7 days).

  5. Email EM1 is sent on 5 March at 05:22:58.

  6. John Doe opens EM1 on 8 March at 05:15:00, a corresponding interaction “Email Opened” is written into the system.

  7. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 8 March at 05:15:26.

  8. It collects the interaction "Email Opened"of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM1_1 and schedules the execution of action for email EM1_1 immediately. Email EM1_1 is sent on 8 March at 05:16:04.

  9. On 12 March at 13:30:09 the email EM2 is sent.

  10. John Doe clicks a link in email EM2 on 13 March at 09:49:19, a corresponding interaction “Click Through” is written into the system.

  11. The technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER is executed on 13 March at 09:50:00.

  12. It collects the interaction "Click Through" of John Doe, puts it into internal target group TGi_EM2_1  and schedules the execution of action for email EM2_1 with a delay of 2 days = on 15 March at 09:49:25.

  13. Email EM2_1 is sent on 15 March at 09:49:25.


Note:


John Doe receives email EM2_1 of swimlane 3 ca. 9 hours earlier than the same email sent by swimlane 1.


 

 

Restart


If the execution of an action failed it will reprocess all not-processed interactions again if the action is executed again. Such a “restart” is done automatically, either because the technical background job has collected again newly created interactions and scheduled again the action. Or by another technical job which collects all aborted actions of a trigger based campaign and restarts them if their last execution is older than a certain period of time. More details can be found in “Application Help: Business Features -> Campaigns -> Managing Campaigns -> Restarting Campaigns”

 

 

STOP button


If you push the button “Stop” the campaign with all its follow-up triggers and actions is stopped and no next executions will be planned anymore. A stopped campaign cannot be changed or paused or restarted anymore.

The “Stop” button will not stop a currently running action job.

 

 

End date of campaign


A trigger-based campaign is listening until it is paused or stopped.

All follow-up triggers and actions are processed and executed, even if the campaign has reached the end date. Only if the campaign is stopped, all follow-up triggers and actions are stopped too. Even if campaign is paused, all follow-up triggers and actions are processed and executed.

If the action assigned to the start trigger is executed and the end date of the campaign is in the past, this execution fails and an error message "Please adapt the end date of campaign "<ID of campaign>". It must lie ahead." is shown in the log.

 

How can an execution happen AFTER the end date?

Example:

  • On 22. February the trigger-based campaign is started, it has an end date of 26. February.

  • It reacts on all interactions of the given start trigger type, which are newly created after its start on 22. February.

  • It reacts on all interactions as long it is not paused or stopped.

  • On 27. February the campaign reacts on a newly created interaction.

  • But due to passed end date of the campaign its execution fails and an error message “"Please adapt the end date of campaign "<ID of campaign>". It must lie ahead."” is shown in the log.

  • If the end date is adapted accordingly and moved to a future date, the automatic restart functionality would restart this failed execution and it would be finished successfully because the end date is now a future date.


 

 

Retrieval of personalization values for the personalized emails


The retrieval depends on the used personalization attributes of the email content.

If only attributes of the interaction contact are used the values are retrieved from the root table of the interaction contact = Golden Record.

If attributes of a segmentation object are used these values are retrieved by usage of an API of segmentation engine. Because a trigger based campaign has no target group assigned there is also no segmentation model in place (compare it to a target group based campaign). For that reason there is no difference if the action is assigned to the start trigger or a follow-up trigger. The retrieval of the personalization values is done always without applying any segmentation filters (because there are no filters).

Note:


If your email content uses personalization attributes of a segmentation object and the personalization attribute can have several values (= multi-value), the personalized email will show all these values, separated by comma.


 

 

Recipient’s email address


The email address of the recipient is taken from the root table of the interaction contact = Golden Record. That is the reason why all involved and processed interactions must have a valid interaction contact.

 

 

Marketing Permission Check


The action “Send Email” checks for every interaction contact that the contact has valid marketing permissions. Only if this check is successful the interaction contact will receive the email.

You can skip this check by setting the flag “Ignore Marketing Permission” for the campaign. In this case the execution log shows the message “Check for marketing permission is suspended by a campaign setting”.

 

 

Messages in execution log



  • No interaction data found for interaction "<UUID of interaction>"


This warning message is raised if the campaign execution cannot find the interaction. This can happen if the technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER has collected the interaction, put it into an internal target group and scheduled the execution of the action “Send Email” for a particular date or time. In the timeframe between the collection of the interaction and execution of the action this interaction has been removed again from the database. Hence the executed action cannot retrieve details of the given interaction and cannot process it.




  • No contact key "<UUID of interaction contact>" found for execution of campaign action


This warning messages is raised if the campaign execution cannot find the interaction contact. Either the processed interaction has no relation to an interaction contact. In this case the UUID would be initial. Or the processed interaction points to an interaction contact which has been removed. This can happen if the technical background job SAP_CUAN_MKT_EXEC_LISTENER has collected the interaction, put it into an internal target group and scheduled the execution of the action “Send Email” for a particular date or time. In the timeframe between the collection of the interaction and execution of the action the interaction contact within this interaction has been removed, e.g. by a merge with another interaction contact. Hence the executed action cannot retrieve details of the interaction contact (e.g. email address) and cannot process it.




  • No dynamic content found for contact "<UUID of interaction contact>" (segmentation object "<ID of segmentation object>").


This information message is explained in SAP note 2528524


 

Previous chapter Campaign definition