Contact filtering

In Audience Manager, you can segment and target audiences (Contacts) using filters. A filter defines extended detail fields or Keywords that you want to filter Contacts on.

You use the same filters to define Dynamic Address Books, Dynamic Distribution Lists and Segments. You can base a Dynamic Address Book, Dynamic Distribution List or Segment on another Dynamic Address Book, Dynamic Distribution List or Segment to create a chain of filters. Each filter in a sequence further refines the filtered Contacts on which it is based.

Chaining filters allows you to create generic filters and use these to create more specific filters. You can create a chain of filters as follows:

  • You can base a Dynamic Address Book on another Dynamic Address Book
  • You can base a Dynamic Distribution List on a Dynamic Address Book, on another Dynamic Distribution List, or on a Segment
  • You can base a Segment on another Segment

Each filter in a chain of filters is applied sequentially. For example, if you apply the following filters in a chain:

  1. Filter A "Subscription status=Subscribed"
  2. Filter B "Nationality=Italian"
  3. Filter C "Gender=Women"
  4. Filter D "Age=18-30"
  5. Filter E "Preferred Clothing=Jeans"

Filter B is applied to the result set of Filter A, Filter C to the result set of Filter B and so on down the chain. Filter E will therefore filter a list of Contacts on Italian women aged between 18 and 30 who have subscribed to e-mails and who have stated a preference for wearing jeans.

The following sections provide a detailed example of Contact filtering.

Administration
A System Administrator adds Address Books in Administration. Address Books contain Contacts, for example Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Dynamic Address Books contain a subset of filtered Contacts and can be based on a single Address Books or on All Contacts. For example, Nordic Dynamic Address Book filters (All Contacts) on the Keyword Nordic. A Dynamic Address Book can also based on another Dynamic Address Books to further refine the filter. For example, Nordic (subscribed) Dynamic Address Book is based on Nordic and filters these Contacts on whether they are subscribed to receive e-mails.
Publications
A System Administrator adds Address Books to Publications and defines rights and permissions for users. For example, the Denmark Publication has Denmark and Nordic (subscribed) Address Books assigned to it. Users with access to this Publication and Contact Management rights are allowed to read, write and delete Contacts within the Denmark Address Book, but do not have any permissions for the Nordic (subscribed) Address Book and therefore cannot view Contacts within this Address Book.
The (All Contacts) node "contains" all Contacts within the Publication but only displays the Contacts (in the Publication) for which a user has read access (so therefore in this case not Contacts in the Nordic (subscribed) Address Book:
Dynamic Distribution Lists
Users with Distribution List Management rights and Read and Write permissions can create Distribution Lists. Distribution Lists filter Contacts in a single Address Book or All Address Books available within a Publication. You can create a Dynamic Distribution List based on a Segment, Address Book or Dynamic Address Book:
  • If you select a Segment, the filters defined in the selected Segment are used in addition to other filters you may define and act on all Contacts within the Publication.
  • If you select a Dynamic Address Book, the filters defined in the selected Dynamic Address Book are used in addition to other filters you may define and act on Contacts within this Address Book.
  • If you select a regular Address Book, the filters you define act on Contacts within this Address Book.
  • If you make no selection (none), the filters act on all Contacts within the Publication.
For example, the Nordic Skiers Dynamic Distribution List is based on the Nordic Subscribed Address Book and uses the Keyword Skiers to filter these Contacts. The complete filter therefore filters Contacts on Nordic->Subscribed->Skier. Additionally, the Nordic Skiers Downhill Dynamic Distribution List filters the Nordic Skiers Dynamic Distribution List on the Keyword Downhill. The complete filter therefore filters Contacts on Nordic->Subscribed->Skier->Downhill.
It is important to understand that when you select (All Contacts) and make a filter using the Keyword Skiers you will only see Danish Skiers (subscribed and unsubscribed) because you do not have read access to Nordic (subscribed). However, if your create a Dynamic Address Book based on this search the Distribution List will contain:
  • Swedish subscribed Skiers
  • Norwegian subscribed Skiers
  • Danish subscribed and unsubscribed Skiers
In other words, when you select a Distribution List you can see all Contacts in it, regardless of whether you have permissions to read the Contacts or not.