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Background
With SAP Marketing Cloud, there are various standard integrations for outbound channels available. Examples are SAP Digital Interconnect or Amazon for outbound mails and/or SMS, WeChat or Line for message campaigns or Google Ads for Paid Search or Display Ad campaigns (among others).
If you want to integrate additional third-party outbound channels, SAP Marketing Cloud offers different options to implement these:
-
- Campaign-based approaches (push)
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- API-based approaches (pull)
All of these options serve different purposes. This blog post serves as an overview and comparison about the options.
Comparison
| External campaign execution | Open Channel integration | Generic Email Service Provider integration | Generic Text Message Service Provider integration | Export File API | CDS View-based OData API | |
| Overview | Replicate campaigns for execution in external systems, e.g. for Ad campaigns (any DMP, DSP) | Transfer target groups to outbound channel which require custom processing | Integrate any Email Service Provider (ESP), e.g. Inxmail | Integrate any Text Message Service Provider (SMS, social, mobile messages), e.g. WhatsApp integration via MessengerPeople | Read content of export files based on Export Definitions | Read data from CDS views via generated OData API |
| Entity types |
Campaign (mandatory, incl. parameters) Target groups (optional, incl. personalization data) Campaign success (optional, see below) |
Campaign Target groups (incl. personalization data) |
Emails
|
Text messages
|
Target groups (incl. personalization data) | Any entity from standard or custom CDS view
|
| Personalization |
Performed in external system Transfer of personalized contact attributes via export definition (optional) |
Performed in external system Transfer of personalized contact attributes via Export Definition |
Performed in SAP Marketing Cloud Transfer of personalized emails |
Performed in SAP Marketing Cloud Transfer of personalized text messages |
Performed in external system Contact attributes are available via API |
Performed in external system Contact attributes are available via API |
| Maximum package size | 10.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | Packaging highly recommended | Packaging highly recommended |
| SAP Marketing Cloud custom logic support | – | Five enhancement implementation options:
|
– | – | – | – |
| Standard campaign success handling | SAP Marketing Cloud requests campaign success data in a periodic way (every 4 hours) | Enhancement implementation for writing outbound interactions |
SAP Marketing Cloud requests bounce information every 10 minutes, when the campaign has been executed within the last 48 hours. After 48 hours the bounces are collected every 4 hours Typically tracked by ESP: bounce, complaint Tracked by SAP Marketing Cloud: mail sent, mail opened, link click |
SAP Marketing Cloud requests status information every 10 minutes, when the campaign has been executed within the last 48 hours. After 48 hours the bounces are collected every 4 hours Typically tracked by message provider: bounce Tracked by SAP Marketing Cloud: message sent, link click |
– | – |
| Additional campaign success handling | On project basis (API-based) | On project basis (API-based) | On project basis (API-based) | On project basis (API-based) | On project basis (API-based) | On project basis (API-based) |
| Transfer messages / campaign content | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Instances per system | 1, more can be requested via ticket | Not limited | Not limited | Not limited | Not limited | Not limited |
| Communication scenario ID | SAP_COM_0037 | SAP_COM_0049 | SAP_COM_0234 | SAP_COM_0258 | SAP_COM_0311 | Derived from CDS view name |
Summary
This blog post has presented and compared the different options to integrate additional third-party outbound channels. While external campaign execution should be used to replicate campaigns and Open Channel to transfer target groups to a system which requires custom processing, the generic adapters for emails and text messages enable an integration with ESPs or text message providers. The two presented API-based approaches help to provide relevant data for external execution via APIs.
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Your SAP CX Services – Marketing Practice team.
