Example Use Cases

The following examples describe typical use cases for the Pimcore personalization engine combined with CMF.

Use Segments 1:1 as Target Groups

The simplest use case is to use segments 1:1 as target groups. Create customer segments and link them to corresponding target groups by activating the Use As Target Group checkbox on the segment objects. This automatically creates a target group with the same name and links it to the segment.

A targeting rule using the Assign Target Group action can, besides assigning the target group to the current visitor, also store the connected segment on the current customer and track activities.

Storing the segment on the customer persists this information for the customer's later visits, especially when they visit from a different device.

See the targeting rules profiling_new-customer, profiling_regular-customer, and profiling_vip-customer in the demo.

See the details page for the configuration options.

Initialize Target Groups Based on Customer Object Data

Once segments are stored on customer objects, pre-initialize the visitor storage on the customer's next visit, so the connected target groups get assigned again, even on another device.

Use an initialization targeting rule for this, like the init_target_groups rule in the demo.

This action only runs when a customer is logged in. Use the [CMF] Customer Segments have changed condition, and set the action scope to Session (with variables), to ensure initialization runs only once per session and only after the customer object's segments have changed.

Use Customer Segments as a More Fine-Grained Profiling Entity

Some situations call for customer segments that are more fine-grained than target groups, without a 1:1 link between them, and where the customer object's own persisted state should not update every single time a target group is assigned.

Typical use cases:

• Track that a visitor opened certain pages, without assigning a target group.
• Assign a target group and a customer segment not on every page visit, but for example every fifth time.

To do this, split the visitor profiling process into two steps:

1. Track customer segments.
2. Calculate target groups based on the tracked customer segments.

1. Tracking Customer Segments

Tracking customer segments means collecting segments based on visitor behavior. For example, when a customer visits pages containing certain information, CMF can track the corresponding customer segments. The collected segments are stored per customer, for use in further calculations or personalization.

There are two ways to track customer segments:

1. Tracking segments when visiting Pimcore documents. The Segment Assignment feature assigns segments to documents:

   

   Once assigned, segments are tracked automatically when a visitor opens the document's page. For examples, see pages like /en/More-Stuff/Landingpages/Chevrolet and /en/More-Stuff/Landingpages/Ford-Musclecars in the demo.

2. Tracking segments with targeting rules. Targeting rules can also track segments, for example instead of assigning target groups, using the [CMF] Track Segment action:

   

   See the rule profiling_sports-car-fan in the demo as an example.

2. Calculating Target Groups Based on Tracked Customer Segments

Once segments are tracked, use them to calculate target groups. For example, assign a target group every fifth time a segment is tracked, using a targeting rule with a [CMF] Has Segment condition and an Assign Target Group action.

See the details page for the configuration options, and the rule profiling_sports-car-fan_apply-targetgroup in the demo.

Apply Tracked Segments to Customer Objects

The last use case saves tracked segments to the customer object without assigning any target group to the visitor. This is especially useful for extracting relevant behavior information from the visitor's behavior and persisting it on the customer object for later segmentation and personalization.

Create a CMF Action Trigger rule with [Targeting] Segment Tracked as its trigger, a [Targeting] Tracked Segments Count condition, and a [Targeting] Add Tracked Segment action.

See the Visit Counter rule in the demo as an example.