Adobe Audience Manager: Data Management Platform Product Review

Adobe Audience Manager is a marketing-focused data management platform (DMP) that uses data analytics, automation, and strategic audience building to help companies reach a likely pool of buyers. 

Adobe is a top software provider that enterprises turn to for many different marketing and creative needs, and as Audience Manager continues to expand its capabilities with top-tier security and support, the platform continues to gain new followers. 

This review offers a detailed analysis of Adobe Audience Manager and what makes this software different from similar data marketing platforms:

A Closer Look at Adobe Audience Manager DMP

• Adobe and the DMP market

• Key features of Adobe Audience Manager

• Key benefits of Adobe Audience Manager

• Adobe Audience Manager use cases

• Pros of Adobe Audience Manager

• Cons of Adobe Audience Manager

• Adobe Audience Manager ratings

• Cost of Adobe Audience Manager

• Conclusions

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Adobe and the DMP market

Adobe Audience Manager administers audience and campaign targeting across large swaths of customer and prospective customer data. With its focus on big data prepared for digital marketing and advertising, this Adobe solution falls squarely between the data management platform (DMP) and marketing analytics markets.

The data management platform market was valued at $2.15 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach a value of $5.65 billion by 2027, according to Maximize Market Research. The marketing analytics market was valued at $2.83 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $7.43 billion by 2027, according to Grand View Research.

Adobe uses artificial intelligence (AI), metadata-driven audience segmentation, and connections to other Adobe Experience Cloud and marketing software. Some other top competitors in this space include:

• Amazon DSP
• Adzooma
• Oracle BlueKai
• Google Marketing Platform
• theTradeDesk
• Salesforce CDP
• MediaMath
• Marketing 360
• Bonzai

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Key features of Adobe Audience Manager

Audience Manager is an audience and data management platform that focuses on four core areas: developing a strong data management platform; offering intelligent audience segmentation; delivering accurate audience insights; and making digital advertising pivots happen with real-time action.

Within those four focus areas, Adobe offers these key features to Audience Manager customers:

• Real-time data ingestion and analysis
• Behavioral audience segment builder
• Integration with Adobe Experience Cloud software
• Online and offline data collection and management
• Integration with Adobe Sensei for similar audience discovery
• Integration with Adobe Sensei Intelligence for lookalike modeling
• Integration with Audience Marketplace for relevant audience trait identification
• Data Explorations feature for signal discovery in raw data
• Integration with Audience Lab for A/B segment testing
• Audience reporting
• Server-to-server data transfer

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Key benefits of Adobe Audience Manager

Works well with newer retail channels

Audience Manager is designed to work with newer retail channels, and Adobe developers frequently update the platform to meet the needs of these channels as they mature. Some of the newest channels that Adobe supports include retail beacons, the Internet of Things (IoT), and over-the-top (OTT) devices.

Integrations with other Adobe Experience Cloud tools

Among other tools, Adobe Audience Manager integrates with these strategic Adobe Experience Cloud solutions:

• Adobe Sensei
• Adobe Analytics
• Adobe Advertising Cloud
• Adobe Campaign

Quick and simple platform training

Many marketing data platforms have a high learning curve, especially for digital marketing professionals who might have limited data science experience. Experience League is how Adobe brings step-by-step learning and recommended events to first-time Audience Manager users.

Advanced application of AI

Adobe Sensei is the primary AI tool used to automate different features within Audience Manager. Sensei uses AI and machine learning (ML) strategies to find new audiences and more closely estimate audience segment reach. It also includes the Data Science Workspace feature, so experienced data scientists can run their own AI/ML algorithms.

Implement strategic initiatives for data security and privacy

Audience Manager includes several security and privacy elements for users, including:

• User-level management and preference settings
• Opt-in and opt-out controls
• GDPR compliance
• Data export controls

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Adobe Audience Manager use cases

Audience Manager is frequently used to identify, target, and analyze campaign success for new customers. However, many customers have also applied Adobe’s mature audience metrics to existing audiences to improve customer retention and experience.

For the ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, Audience Manager has helped them target specific ice cream flavors and products to customers who are most likely to purchase, based on previous website browsing behavior. This kind of targeting helps the company by leading customers directly to what they want and making sure customers aren’t deterred by unwanted ads.

“We think it’s important to use technology, digital channels, and content to provide value to our fans — not post things customers would find annoying to their newsfeed for the sake of being seen,” says Mike Hayes, Ben & Jerry’s global head of digital and technology, in a review of Adobe Audience Manager. 

Another organization that is looking for more data-driven personalization for existing customers is the London Heathrow Airport:

“Adobe Audience Manager is a game-changer that allows us to bring together all of our data and create a unified experience for our customers no matter how or where they engage with us. We’ve just started our journey with Audience Manager, but we’re expecting that it will drive personalization and contextual experiences at every touchpoint with customers, from websites to mobile to digital displays in the airport,” says Stuart Irvine, analytics and optimization lead for London Heathrow Airport, in a review of Adobe Audience Manager.

Pros of Adobe Audience Manager

• Strong security backbone: Audience Manager reportedly helps many customers stay compliant with GDPR and several other security and regulatory protocols.
• Powerful AI automation: Many customers compliment the AI-powered automation that goes into the creation of new target groups.
• Focused first-party data preparation: Customers appreciate that Audience Manager does more than collect, store, and analyze first-party data. It also prepares that data, so it can be used for lookalike building, suppression, and frequency capping across channels.
• Simple external integration process: Users comment on the general ease of use for this tool, especially when it comes to integrating with paid and social media channels, like Facebook and Google’s DV360.

Cons of Adobe Audience Manager

• Mobile usability issues: Some users report problems with loading and navigating the mobile version of Audience Manager.
• Works better with other tools: A few customers believe this tool can only function as intended if it’s integrated with other Adobe Experience Cloud solutions.
• High cost: Although Adobe’s site does not mention prices for this platform, several users indicate that it is an expensive solution that might be out of budget for smaller companies.
• Lagging UI: Some reviewers report frequent lags when loading the UI.

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Adobe Audience Manager ratings

Cost of Adobe Audience Manager

Adobe does not list pricing online for Adobe Audience Manager. To learn what pricing and feature packages are available, prospective customers will need to contact the Adobe sales team directly for more information.

Conclusions

Adobe stands out in the marketing data management market by pioneering solutions that put data security, regulatory compliance, and complex AI automation to use. 

Customers frequently praise Audience Manager for the support it provides in building and protecting customer trust, and many users call out that Adobe offers regular and strong updates to this platform to keep it aligned with enterprise digital ad team needs.

Adobe Audience Manager offers valuable marketing data and actionable insights to users; it becomes an even better solution when it’s used in combination with other Adobe Experience Cloud tools. The web of integrations that Adobe offers in this area gives customers a holistic approach to data-driven digital marketing.

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