Individualization at scale sounds sweet on a pitch deck. Then Black Friday hits, your push tool misses a segment, and a loyal customer named Ana gets a promo for a product she just bought. She replies with a screenshot and a skull emoji. Classic. The stack did what it was…
Category: Personalization & Targeting
Delivering personalized experiences at scale. Strategies for segmentation, A/B testing, individualization, and understanding the trade-offs of personalization vs. broad targeting.
Segmentation strategies that actually convert
Segmentation that converts is not about slicing everything. It is about picking a few cuts that move money now, then adding more only when the first ones pay for themselves. What actually works now Third party cookies are fading, Chrome is shuffling the deck, Mail Privacy Protection muddied email opens…
Personalization foundations for large sites
The night before a big promo, a retail team flips on a new set of audience rules. The goal is simple. Show repeat buyers a fast path to checkout. Nudge new visitors with social proof. Traffic surges. Pages start to feel sticky. One region loads a full hero video. Another…
When rules beat ai in personalization
Creation date: 2023-06-24T02:31:56 Story led opening The team met to ship a new product sorter for the homepage. The deck said AI would pick the best item for each visitor. The demo was slick. A week in, conversion went down for new visitors and support got flooded by people who…
Personalization versus segmentation
Personalization gets all the buzz. Segmentation gets the job done. Today I want to put both on the same table and look at what is hype, what is useful, and where to place your next dollar. We are in a weird moment for marketing teams. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency has…
When to stop testing and ship
Story led opening At 1 a.m. the Slack pings were still coming in. A junior QA found a flicker on the checkout button if the network tab was throttled to slow 3G. The fix was a one line change. The sprint was already stretched. We had a paid campaign scheduled…
How to avoid over personalizing
How to avoid over personalizing: perspective, decisions, and practical tradeoffs. Last week a friend sent me a screenshot of an abandoned cart ad. It said Hello mate we saved your exact cart with the blue hoodie in size M. Two minutes later he got a push that said the same…
Target governance and guardrails
Adobe Target can move a team fast and break your site just as fast. This is a note on governance and guardrails from the trenches, while consent prompts keep popping up and product teams are itching to ship. Start with a clear idea of what governance means for Target. You…
Scaling tests without slowing teams
Your test suite can grow without your team slowing down. Most teams do the opposite. They add tests and watch delivery grind. Right now a lot of teams are moving more code into containers, wiring services into Kubernetes, and cranking up automation in CI. The usual side effect shows up…
Journey aware experiences that adapt
Journey aware experiences that adapt: perspective, decisions, and practical tradeoffs. We keep making pages smart and forget the person is moving. People jump from ad to site to app to email to chat. If the experience does not move with them, we lose them. From page tricks to journey sense…