Salesforce Marketing Cloud Deep Dive: Configuration Settings in Contact Builder
Learn a better way to manage your marketing campaign contacts in SFMC
What is Contact Builder and why do you need it?
Keeping track of contacts (with a lowercase ‘c’) is a struggle for every direct marketer who reaches out to individuals. Common challenges include understanding:
- How many distinct people will see your campaign?
- How many individuals do you have information for?
- How do you know that if you send an advertisement to a house, you’re reaching Jane, and not John (who both live at the address)?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) has faced many challenges trying to solve for these types of questions.
Previously, there was a ‘Subscriber’ model, which used email address as the identifier (like a building address on an envelope). But, how can you know if that email box (or building address) is shared? What if someone had a business account and a personal account, but shared the same email address?
This question is one of the reasons Contact Builder was introduced. In essence, Contact Builder added the ‘ATTN: Jane Doe’ to that address label and opened the door to Contact-based (this time with a capital C) communications.
Now, Jane Doe, John Doe, and Doe, LLC. are each recognized as the individual entities (and use cases) that they are. It makes SFMC more powerful. And, as with most things Salesforce, more powerful equates to more complex. Each Contacts (Jane, John, and Doe, LLC.) are counted and interacted with separately. Before Contact Builder, you may have had one Subscriber. After Contact Builder, you now have three Contacts.
Luckily, this Contact Builder doesn’t just fan out your targets. It also consolidates the different ways you reach out to your customer. Rather than an Email Subscriber, an SMS Subscriber, and a MobilePush subscriber, the three Subscribers are now one Contact — because ultimately, no matter what channel you use to reach Jane Doe, she’s still just Jane.
SFMC charges on a per-Contact basis, so it is important to know what your current Contact count is, and to be able to manage it.
Overview of ‘Contacts Configuration’
Managing your Contact count is where the Contact Configuration page comes in. It controls how Contact Builder functions, how it interacts with SFMC, and (most importantly) how Contact Deletion takes place.
NOTE: Use caution when changing the settings outlined below. They can have large impacts on your SFMC instance!
The major components of Contacts Configuration include:
- ContactID Mapping,
- Contacts Events,
- Data Source Loading, and
- Contact Delete
An explanation and discussion of the use case for each option is further discussed below.
1. ContactID Mapping
What is it?
A way to output the SFMC ContactID into your data. This is not the same as the SFDC ContactID.
If you are also using Salesforce ContactIDs, please read the Important Note at the end of this article.
When should I use it?
If you are planning on using the SFMC API, and it calls for the SubscriberID (e.g., Mobile Studio subscriptions).
Does the average SFMC user need to have it turned on?
No; you will know if you need it activated, because the documentation would say you need that ID.
Will anything bad happen if I turned it on?
While possible, it is unlikely. The two issues that arise are
- Using ContactID can be slightly less secure, due to the exposure of a system-generated ID, but
- The larger issue has to do with confusion due to the complicated nomenclature of Marketing Cloud contact and subscriber keys (I generally avoid using this setting unless you have a direct plan for it).
2. Contacts Events
What is it?
It was a way to trigger activities based on what a contact did. It’s being retired.
When should I use it?
You shouldn’t! It’s being retired.
Does the average SFMC user need to have it turned on?
No. Because, (say it with me) it’s being retired.
Will anything bad happen if I turned it on?
I honestly don’t know. Because it is being retired, unless you have previously built functionality that depends on this setting, don’t turn it on.
If you inherited an SFMC instance that uses this feature, read through any documentation on your setup and transition away from the feature.
3. Data Source Loading
What is it?
This setting affects the way that SFMC loads the information into Contact Builder. There’s a lot of information to be loaded, and depending on this setting, it can speed up, or slow down, your day-to-day workflow.
When would I use it?
Does the average SFMC user need to have it turned on?
No. If you have many Contacts, or very detailed Contact data models, it may help load times.
Will anything bad happen if I have it turned on?
No. You can just turn it back off, if load times get long or performance degrades.
4a. Contact Delete
What is it?
It allows the ability to delete Contacts in the system. Turning it on doesn’t delete contacts but grants the ability to do so.
When would I use it?
Since Salesforce charges per SFMC Contact, you may find yourself in the position where you want to delete low quality or historical contacts. You may also need to delete contacts for compliance reasons. For example, GDPR requires you to be able to delete every trace of a contact.
Use this feature if you or your users need to permanently delete Contacts, and all data related to those Contacts, from your SFMC environment. Deleting Contacts should be handled very carefully. If done incorrectly, it can hamper your ability to send mail to legitimate contacts — as well as destroy important historical data.
Does the average SFMC user need to have it turned on?
Most environments will have this turned on, but the permissions for deletion should not be available to most users.
Will anything bad happen if I have it turned on?
Possibly. If you do not also adjust the permissions of who is allowed to delete Contacts, then any user you have in SFMC can delete any contact — introducing operational risk.
4b. Managing your Contact Delete settings
When a contact is deleted, SFMC can suppress the contact for a period (i.e. soft delete) before permanently deleting it.
Contact Suppression means:
· No contact with that SFMC ContactID can be re-uploaded within the period specified.
· No emails, SMS, or journey activities will be received by the contact (or their email addresses, phone numbers, etc.)
· Contacts will be hidden in the system.
Since Contact Deletion removes almost all records of a Contact in the system, it does take some time. One of the reasons you may want to suppress Contacts is to ensure that they do not receive any messages while they are processing.
Generally, you should not change this setting, unless you have a specific use-case to do so.
An important note
ContactID (SFMC) vs ContactID (SFDC) vs SubscriberKey (SFMC)
There are a lot of confusing things about SFMC, but one of the most is related to ContactID (SFMC), ContactID (SFDC), and SubscriberKey (which can also be called SubscriberID and ContactKey).
For the sake of this article, what you need to know:
If the unique identifier seems to be a 9 or 10 digit number, then it is the ContactID (SFMC). If the unique identifier starts with 003, and contains letters and numbers, it is a ContactID from SFDC.
Conclusion
With great power comes great responsibility — and Contact Builder is more powerful than the ‘All Subscribers’ system in Email Studio. Be careful when changing the Contacts Configuration and, when in doubt, do not change the default settings. I hope this guide helps you understand what settings are available to support and empower you!
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