CDP Domain Knowledge Skill

Purpose

Provide comprehensive CDP domain knowledge for analyzing requirements in customer data unification, segmentation, and marketing activation.

What is a CDP?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a packaged software that:

• Collects customer data from multiple sources
• Creates unified customer profiles (360-degree view)
• Enables segmentation and audience building
• Activates data to marketing channels

CDP vs DMP vs CRM

Capability	CDP	DMP	CRM
Data Type	First-party + Third-party	Third-party cookies	First-party
Identity	Known + Anonymous	Mostly anonymous	Known customers
Data Persistence	Long-term	Short-term (90 days)	Long-term
Primary Use	Personalization, Analytics	Advertising	Sales/Service
User Management	Individuals	Segments/Audiences	Accounts/Contacts

CDP Architecture

Data Flow

Data Sources → Ingestion → Identity Resolution → Profile Unification → 
Segmentation → Audience Building → Channel Activation

Core Components

1. Data Collection:

• Website/app events (page views, clicks, transactions)
• CRM data (contacts, accounts, opportunities)
• Transaction data (orders, returns, support tickets)
• Marketing data (email opens, campaign responses)
• Offline data (in-store purchases, call center)
• Third-party data (demographics, intent)

2. Identity Resolution:

• Deterministic matching (email, phone, customer ID)
• Probabilistic matching (device fingerprinting, behavior)
• Cross-device stitching
• Household linkage
• Anonymous to known conversion

3. Profile Unification:

• Golden record creation
• Attribute standardization
• Conflict resolution (which source wins?)
• Profile enrichment
• Historical event storage

4. Segmentation:

• Rule-based segments
• AI/ML-based segments
• Dynamic vs. static segments
• Lookalike audiences
• Predictive segments

5. Activation:

• Real-time personalization
• Email/SMS marketing
• Advertising platforms
• Customer service systems
• Analytics/BI tools

Key CDP Concepts

Identity Resolution

Matching Keys:

• Email address (primary)
• Phone number (hashed)
• Customer ID / Loyalty ID
• Device IDs (IDFA, GAID, cookie)
• Address + Name combination

Identity Graph:

            Cookie_A
               ↓
Email_1 ← Customer_123 → Device_B
               ↓
          Phone_555

Confidence Levels:

• High: Email match, customer ID
• Medium: Phone + first name
• Low: Cookie + behavior patterns

Customer Profile

Profile Attributes:

## John Smith - Customer Profile

### Identity
- Customer ID: CUST-123456
- Email: john.smith@email.com
- Phone: +1-555-123-4567
- Device IDs: [device_a, device_b]

### Demographics
- Age: 35
- Gender: Male
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Household Income: $100-150K

### Behavioral
- First Purchase: 2024-01-15
- Last Purchase: 2026-01-10
- Total Orders: 12
- LTV: $1,245
- Average Order Value: $103.75
- Favorite Category: Electronics
- Last Page Viewed: Laptops
- Email Engagement: High (45% open rate)

### Segments
- VIP Customer
- Tech Enthusiast
- High Email Engager
- Likely to Churn (ML score: 0.65)

### Consent
- Email Marketing: Opted In
- SMS: Opted Out
- Third-party Sharing: Opted Out
- Last Updated: 2026-01-01

Segmentation

Segment Types:

Static Segments: Fixed list, doesn't update automatically

Customers who purchased in Black Friday 2025

Dynamic Segments: Updates as data changes

Customers who purchased in last 30 days
AND total spend > $500
AND category = "Electronics"

Predictive Segments: ML-based predictions

Customers with churn risk > 70%
Customers likely to purchase in next 7 days

Lookalike Segments: Similar to seed audience

Customers similar to "VIP Customers" segment

Data Activation

Activation Channels:

• Email: Personalized campaigns, triggered emails
• SMS/Push: Time-sensitive notifications
• Advertising: Facebook, Google, programmatic
• Website: Real-time personalization
• Customer Service: Agent context
• Analytics: Reporting and insights

Real-time vs Batch:

• Real-time: Website personalization, triggered emails
• Batch: Daily email campaigns, weekly reports

Privacy & Consent

Consent Management

Consent Types:

• Marketing email opt-in/out
• SMS opt-in/out
• Third-party data sharing
• Cookie consent
• Cross-site tracking

Consent Requirements:

• GDPR (EU): Explicit opt-in required
• CCPA (California): Opt-out right
• LGPD (Brazil): Consent required
• PDPA (Thailand/Singapore): Consent required

Data Rights

User Rights (GDPR/CCPA):

• Right to access (what data do you have?)
• Right to rectification (fix incorrect data)
• Right to erasure (delete my data)
• Right to portability (give me my data)
• Right to opt-out (don't sell my data)

Key Metrics

Data Quality

• Profile completeness (% fields populated)
• Identity match rate
• Data freshness (recency of updates)
• Duplicate rate

Engagement

• Segment size and growth
• Activation success rate
• Channel reach
• Personalization lift

Business Impact

• Revenue influenced by CDP
• Customer lifetime value improvement
• Campaign ROI improvement
• Reduced customer acquisition cost

Common CDP Requirements

Data Collection

REQ-001: System shall collect website events including page views, product views, add-to-cart, and purchases
REQ-002: System shall ingest CRM data via API daily
REQ-003: System shall capture email engagement events in real-time

Identity Resolution

REQ-010: System shall match profiles using email as primary key
REQ-011: System shall stitch anonymous cookie to known profile on login
REQ-012: System shall maintain identity graph with confidence scores

Segmentation

REQ-020: System shall support dynamic segment creation using AND/OR logic
REQ-021: System shall recalculate segment membership daily at minimum
REQ-022: System shall support audience size estimation before creation

Activation

REQ-030: System shall sync audiences to Facebook in near real-time
REQ-031: System shall trigger email via Klaviyo when user enters segment
REQ-032: System shall provide personalization API for website with < 100ms latency

Questions for Stakeholders

• What data sources need to be connected?
• How do you identify customers today?
• What segments do you need?
• Which marketing channels for activation?
• What personalization use cases?
• Privacy/consent requirements?
• Real-time vs batch needs?

Popular CDP Platforms

• Segment: Developer-friendly, data infrastructure
• mParticle: Mobile-focused, SDK expertise
• Treasure Data: Enterprise, data lake integration
• Tealium: Tag management heritage
• Adobe Experience Platform: Adobe ecosystem
• Salesforce CDP: Salesforce ecosystem

References

• CDP Institute Resources
• First-party Data Strategy
• Privacy Regulations (GDPR, CCPA)