Getting started

The general workflow for using MCDP is as follows:

This topic uses an interactive marketing campaign as an example. It also explains basic concepts and the resource allocation rules for ad spaces.

Related concepts

Before you connect to and use MCDP, you must understand the following basic concepts:

• Campaign unit: A collection of marketing campaigns created for a single marketing objective. A campaign unit can contain multiple campaigns with the same theme.

• Campaign: Also known as a marketing campaign. It controls when and how often materials are displayed in an ad space. It also defines the rules for ad delivery, such as the delivery location, platform, application version, and target audience.

• Audience: In MCDP, an audience is the target group for a marketing campaign.

• Ad space: An area on a client page that displays delivered content (ad materials). A single ad space can be used by multiple campaigns. Ad spaces are divided into two types: dynamically configured ad spaces and client-preconfigured ad spaces.

  • Dynamically configured ad space: You can create an ad space and configure all its properties in the console.

  • Client-preconfigured ad space: You can preconfigure some properties of the ad space in the client project using code. Then, you can create the ad space in the console, enter the preconfigured ad space ID from the client project, and configure the remaining properties.

• Ad slot: A position within an ad space for displaying ad materials. An ad space can contain multiple ad slots, but each ad slot can display only one material.

• Material: The content displayed in an ad. It can be a static image, a GIF, or an animation.

• Freshness: A measure based on time. Content closer to the current date is considered 'fresher'. For campaigns, a later launch time means higher freshness. For materials, a later upload time means higher freshness.

• Fatigue: A limit on the total number of times a single user or device can be reached within a specific period.

Connect to a client

The procedure for connecting to MCDP varies depending on the client. For more information, see the connection instructions for your specific client.

Connect to Android

The procedure is as follows (click each step to view the instructions):

1. Complete the connection preparations

2. Create an mPaaS application in the console

3. Add the configuration file to the project

4. Select a connection type and baseline

5. Connect the MCDP component to the project

Connect to iOS

The procedure is as follows:

1. Create an mPaaS application in the console

2. Select a connection type and baseline

3. Install the developer tools

4. Connect the MCDP component to the project

Connect to H5

To connect to MCDP, see the Connect to H5 document.

Prepare campaign resources

Create an audience

Log on to the mPaaS console and select the application that you created. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Intelligent Delivery > Audience Management. Click Create Audience, select an audience type, add users, and then save the audience.

For more information, see the Create an audience document.

Create a booth

The following steps describe how to create a pop-up ad space using dynamic configuration.

1. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Intelligent Delivery > Resource Management > Ad Space Management. Click Create Ad Space.

2. Configure the basic information for the ad space. This includes the ad space name, custom ID, page address, and validity period (cache time). For descriptions of these parameters, see Ad space basic information.

3. After you configure the basic information, configure the details for the ad space. For descriptions of these parameters, see Ad space configuration information.

4. After you confirm that all information is correct, click Submit to create the ad space.

For information about how to create preconfigured ad spaces and launch screen ad spaces, see Create an ad space.

Create a material

You can create materials in advance and use them directly from the material library when you create marketing campaigns. This simplifies the campaign creation process.

In the navigation pane on the left, choose Intelligent Delivery > Resource Management > Material Management. Click Create Material. Configure the material information, including the name, type, and the ad space type where it will be used. Then, upload and save the material.

For more information, see Create a material.

Create an event

Interactive marketing triggers targeted campaigns when a user performs one or more specific actions. Therefore, before you configure interactive marketing, you must create an event in Mobile Analysis Service (MAS) to record these user actions. For more information, see Configure an event. Proactive marketing campaigns do not require marketing events, so you can skip this step.

First, create a mobile analysis event on the Custom Configuration page by navigating to mPaaS console > Mobile Analysis > Custom Analysis. For more information, see Configure an event. Then, connect the MAS component to your client (see Connect to Android or Connect to iOS) and complete the custom instrumentation (see Android client instrumentation or iOS client instrumentation).

Create a campaign unit

Create a campaign unit to manage your marketing campaigns.

In the navigation pane on the left, choose Intelligent Delivery > Campaign Management. Click Create Campaign Unit, enter a name for the campaign unit, and select a conversion rate metric. The conversion rate metric can be set to an associated MAS event. The occurrence of this event indicates that the campaign goal has been achieved, which completes the conversion.

For more information, see Create a campaign unit.

Create a marketing campaign

Create an interactive marketing campaign to deliver ads or push messages to a target audience.

After you create the campaign unit, the Select Campaign Type dialog box appears. This starts the campaign creation flow, which lets you create a campaign directly.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Configure the basic information for the campaign.

2. Configure the target audience for the campaign. You can select a target audience, a whitelisted audience, or the default audience of all users. You can also further filter the selected audience based on criteria such as platform, city, and version.

3. Set the marketing event that triggers the campaign when a user performs a specific action.

   For example, from 2020-09-08 to 2020-10-08, if a user clicks the wealth management entry point once, an ad delivery or message push is triggered.

4. Set the marketing actions, which include ad space delivery and message push.

   • Ad space delivery: Select a pre-created ad space and material. You can select a material from the material library or upload one from your local computer. You must also set the fatigue control policy and the ad space display priority for the campaign. For more information about resource allocation based on the priority policy, see the ad space resource allocation rules below.

   • Message push: Set the title, content, and validity period for the push message.

Ad space resource allocation rules

Materials from multiple campaigns that use the same ad space compete for the ad slots within that space.

The rules for allocating ad slots within the same ad space are described below in descending order of priority:

• Campaign priority: Determined by the ad space display priority, which is manually configured in the console. Campaigns with a higher priority are displayed first.

• Campaign launch time: When campaigns with the same priority compete for the same ad space resource, they are sorted by campaign freshness. The most recently launched campaign is displayed first.

• Additional rule: Campaigns in the last day of their validity period are displayed first. If multiple campaigns have the same priority based on the two preceding rules, the materials from the campaign in its last day of validity are displayed first. For campaigns that meet this condition, the "Campaign launch time" rule is temporarily suspended.

Campaign material display:

• If the number of ad slots in an ad space is greater than or equal to the number of materials to be displayed, all materials are sorted and displayed based on a combination of campaign priority, campaign freshness, and material freshness. For example, this determines the display order of ad materials in a carousel.

• If the number of ad slots in an ad space is less than the number of materials to be displayed, all materials are sorted based on a combination of campaign priority, campaign freshness, and material freshness. The top N materials, where N is the number of ad slots, are then displayed.

Launch a marketing campaign

After you create a marketing campaign, it does not become active automatically. You must manually launch the campaign to activate it.

After the campaign is active, if a user from the specified audience clicks the wealth management entry point in the application, the application displays the corresponding campaign ad and pushes a marketing message to the user the next time they open the application.

The procedure is as follows:

1. On the Campaign Management page, in the Campaign Unit List, click the name of a campaign unit to open its configuration page.

2. On the target campaign card, click Launch to launch the campaign.

View campaign performance

After a campaign is launched, if marketing data is generated during the delivery period, MCDP analyzes the data that is reported by behavioral instrumentation and generates T+1 marketing data charts. In the Operations column of the campaign unit list, click Performance to view the marketing data for all campaigns or a specific campaign within that unit.

When you view a specific campaign, you can also view its performance across all marketing channels or a specific marketing channel.

The campaign data metrics are described as follows: