Salesforce Marketing Cloud - Einstein Engagement Frequency
In the coming weeks, we want to focus on an SFMC area that has been around for quite some time, but experience has shown that relatively few users are aware of: The Marketing Cloud Einstein AI module. We're kicking off this Friday with Einstein Engagement Frequency (EEF).
EEF determines the optimal number of emails that a recipient should receive. On the one hand, this allows EDF to make recommendations as to the overall frequency of email dispatches. On the other hand, EDF can identify two groups of email recipients: Those who receive too few emails (Undersaturated subscribers) and those who receive too many (oversaturated subscribers). The contacts assigned to these groups by EEF can be saved in data extensions. These data extensions can in turn be used in email mailings: Undersaturated subscribers can be used specifically with additional communication; the data extension with the oversaturated subscribers can be used as an exclusion data extension for regular shipments.
But how is it actually defined what is too much or too little communication? Here, the user can make some settings himself in the interface that affect the AI-based calculation of the optimal email frequency. The following parameters can be configured:
- How many shipping days should be evaluated retroactively (days to review)? You can choose between 30, 60 and 90 days.
- Which types of communication should be included in the evaluation? Only commercial mailings or all emails, including transactional communication?
- Which KPI should be optimized? Open rate, click rate or a self-defined combination of both with freely configurable weighting?
- How many emails should be sent to a contact at least/maximum in the observed period of time?
There are therefore a number of ways to adapt this feature to your own needs. However, there are also a few points to consider: Shipping data must first be collected over at least 90 days in order to achieve reliable results. In addition, Einstein Engagement Frequency is not to be understood as completely automated frequency capping, which automatically excludes contacts who exceed a certain threshold from being sent. Rather, the data extension must be combined with the oversaturated subscribers be excluded every time you send them, either as an Exclusion Data Extension for ad-hoc emails or in Automations, or via Exclusion Script in Journeys. A high degree of thoroughness is therefore required on the part of end users, as they must always remember to exclude each time they send, so that effective frequency capping takes place. Another important point for accounts with several business units is that EDF only works for one BU at a time. If contacts are contacted across the BU, the calculation of the optimal dispatch number from EEF no longer applies.
So who is EDF interesting for? We think the tool is useful for all users who want to get a feel for the optimal frequency of sending emails, do not use contacts across multiple BUs and take the generated data extensions into account when sending them.
Click here for the documentation of Einstein Engagement Frequency.
