Use Your Hierarchy Export To Build Better Audiences

What is a Hierarchy Export

A hierarchy export shows the classification of all of your products within Audience Builder. With this knowledge, you can confidently create audiences using higher level classification than 'Product/Item Description' as you'll know which products have what classification. Paired with consistency when building new products in your POS you will have new products automatically added to the correct audience.

This article will help you do the following:

• Locate and build audiences based on any product in your database
• Optimize audience builds by simplifying audience structure

How to Access Your Hierarchy Exports

You can ask your CSM or submit a helpdesk request to provide a hierarchy export for you. There are 2 types of hierarchy exports available:

1. Product Hierarchy - These are for data in the 'Purchase Details' category in Audience Builder.
2. Generic Hierarchy - These are typically for the data under the 'Lodging' category in Audience Builder. Depending on your integrations and business model this may be different, or not available.

Understanding Your Hierarchy Export

The product hierarchy export provides a snapshot of the products with a transaction during a specific timeframe that exist in the CDP along with their source. In your hierarchy export you will find:

• Product Hierarchy Export in the first tab
  • This tab includes a list of all products that were purchased and synced to the CDP during the specified time frame
  • This is not a representation of cumulative transactions or customer records
• Pivot table in the second tab
  • This tab includes a visualization of all products organized according to the product hierarchy
  • The product hierarchy is constructed as follows:

Finding a Specific Product in Your Hierarchy Export

Although some audience building is intuitive, it’s always best to refer to the product location in the hierarchy export, especially when you are not familiar with the product or if it’s new to the CDP.

1. Navigate to the “Product Hierarchy Export” tab
2. Filter the “Product Description” column and search for the product in question
3. Once you have found the product that is from the correct Source Type, take note of the Department, Class, and Subclass Name values
4. You can then reference the pivot table in the next tab and find the location of the product within the hierarchy based upon the Department, Class, and Subclass Name values

Verifying Your Audience Using Your Hierarchy Export

If you are building an audience for a group of products (i.e. Adult Single Day Ski School Lessons), you can use the directions for finding a specific product to see if you can use a value higher in your hierarchy to include all of the products you want in the audience easily. One of the many benefits of building an audience using values in the hierarchy above 'Product Description' is that new products that fall into that hierarchy will automatically be added to your audience.

1. Reference your pivot table tab and find the products you're looking to add to an audience.
2. If all products under the lowest level of the hierarchy fit the audience you're looking for, move up a level to see if all products falling under the higher level all fit your audience.
3. Continue moving up the hierarchy until you find products you don't want in your audience.
4. Creating an audience at the highest level in the hierarchy possible makes audience building more efficient (i.e. selecting 1 Sub-Class vs 35 individual products). It will also automatically include any new products that are built in the future that fall under the hierarchy you've selected without any additional action in the CDP.