Marketing Cloud Personalization | Controlling Segments and Campaigns Triggered by Specific URL Access

1. Creating a Segment Based on a Specific URL

Marketing Cloud Personalization does not provide a feature to directly use URL visit history as a segment condition. To extract users who visited a specific page, consider the following alternative approaches.

1. Use Site-Wide JavaScript (Sitemap) to define a visit to a specific URL as an Action.

2. Create a segment using the occurrence of the Action defined in step 1 as the condition.

Reference:

For an example of implementing an action when a specific page is visited, refer to the following documentation. The example includes setting the name attribute of the interaction to "Homepage":

Web Integration | B2B

2. Configuring Campaign Targeting Based on a Specific URL

Campaign targeting rules allow you to specify a URL directly as a condition. Note the following considerations when configuring this:

• Rule combinations: When multiple rules are configured, the campaign is shown only to users who satisfy all conditions (AND logic). OR logic is not supported.

• Wildcards: Wildcards (*) cannot be used in URL specifications. Instead, use Contains to match on a partial URL string for partial matching.

Reference:

• Campaign Targeting Rules and Rule-based Tests

• Rule Categories

  • Visit Behavior rules show the campaign based on specific user actions.

  • RULE: URL — The user visits a specific URL.

3. FAQ

Q: I want to control the number of times a web campaign is displayed.

A: No feature is provided to directly control the display count of a web campaign. Instead, consider the following implementation example to indirectly control this by excluding users who have already been shown the campaign a specified number of times.

Implementation example:

Step 1: Create a segment to track the display count.

• Go to [Segments] and create a new segment.

• Select [Campaigns] > [Campaign Stat Count] as the condition.

• Configure the condition as follows to create a segment of users who have been shown the campaign the specified number of times:Example: User [did] [View] [target web campaign] [SPECIFIC/ANY EXPERIENCE] at least [N] times

Step 2: Configure the campaign targeting rule.

• In the settings screen for the target web campaign, configure [Campaign Targeting].

• Click [Add Rule] and add Audience > Segment as the rule.

• Select [excludes] and specify the segment created in Step 1.

With this configuration, users who have been shown the campaign the specified number of times are automatically added to the segment created in Step 1 and subsequently excluded from the campaign audience.

Note: This is just one example implementation. Modify the details to suit your use case and verify that the expected behavior is achieved.

Q: Can the Originating Referrer field be used to target campaigns triggered by access to a specific URL?

A: Originating Referrer records the referring URL when a user first accesses the target site from an external site. Once set, it does not change. Therefore, it is not suitable for the use case described above.

Note: There is a similar field called Referral URL, but at the time this article was written, there is a known issue with this item. Exercise caution when considering its use:

Referral URL Not Properly Applied to Campaign Targeting With Exit Intent