Integrations are a beautiful thing: they make the world work better. From crafting simple recipes at IFTTT to building a powerful marketing engine with Signal Fuse, integrations make it possible for marketers to get more out of each tool they use.
At Signal, our business is processing user behaviors in real-time. A well-designed marketing technology stack starts with data collection, connects to a data hub where user records contain bits of information from first-party CRM data, and finally fires data off to technology partners. With the addition of first-party data, the partner’s solution is amplified for marketers. Signal’s partners fall into several categories: email, DMP, DSP, mobile ad networks, analytics, attribution, social, research, and more.
More, better, faster data leads to new solutions. And with Signal’s hundreds of integrations, marketers have the ability to get a perfect-fit solution to their specific stack and use cases.
An Ever-Expanding Partner Catalog
A technology vendor typically becomes a Signal partner to fulfill the needs of a mutual client’s request. A DSP, for example, might work with a retailer. That retailer might want to leverage Signal’s real-time user segmentation to create several groups of users and target different display campaigns to them. Signal would work with the DSP to set up client-side user synchronization and a server-to-server API framework for the segmented users.
For Signal’s partners, this initial integration lays the groundwork for subsequent business deals with other mutual clients. The technology partner becomes available in Signal’s partner catalog. This integration is highly visible and carries with it the benefit of customer discovery.
For clients of Signal and its partners, the benefits are immense. They can easily connect the technologies they already use, and they can peruse Signal’s partner catalog to find new technologies to easily add to their stack. Clients can configure a new integration with just a few clicks.
A Move Toward Server-to-Server Interactions
Even in today’s overly cookie-dependent digital landscape, many of the data signals have moved out of the browser, and now go from server to server. Ads in mobile applications, for example, rely on server calls from SDKs and device IDs instead of cookies. Systems like real-time bidding have taken this notion to the extreme with hundreds of billions of server-to-server interactions happening every day.
Signal offers both server-to-server and client-side signaling. Our service was built with server-to-server capability from day one, and recently, more of our integrations are following the server-to-server model. This method has several benefits:
- Improved page load performance. With fewer tags on the page, the browser has fewer connections to make. This also improves the user’s experience on the site.
- Data spooling. If a partner’s endpoint becomes unreachable, Signal’s technology stores the data until the endpoint returns.
- More data. CRM data can be added to the server-to-server request, giving marketers more capabilities with partners.
- More channels. Server-to-server communication allows technology partners to receive signals from browsers, apps, point of sale systems, and other channels.
Preparing for Personalized Programmatic
As brands take greater advantage of their first-party data, it becomes a force multiplier for any partner that can execute on it. The technology will go beyond consuming and segmenting data: we’re entering a time when the programmatic marketing message becomes personal.
In the era of personalized programmatic, messages and offerings will be specifically tailored to different consumers. Marketers and their partners need to build detailed consumer profiles from multiple sources, respond quickly to consumer signals with contextually relevant interactions, and understand consumer needs based on historical as well as real-time behavior.
It’s a big undertaking. And a well-integrated technology ecosystem will make it possible.
Click here to learn more about Signal Fuse and request a demo. Or click here to learn more about Signal’s Certified Partner program.
Originally published November 19, 2014