Item: Adobe Target
Rating: 7
Author: Jeff Thomas

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Adobe Target is our primary tool for implementing website optimization campaigns and experiences. This includes implementing A/B & M/V tests to optimize user experience, KPIs and drive business performance through our website. We also use Adobe Target to power onsite product recommendations. Adobe Target is used and managed by the marketing team and is additionally supported through our external website analytics vendor.

Adobe Target has been effective in helping to identify user experience issues within our website and allowing us to iterate through these tests to drive KPI performance. Adobe Target is deeply integrated within Adobe Analytics providing detailed and custom reporting capabilities for each test and experience that we deploy.

Pros and Cons

Implement A/B tests using a visual composer that integrates directly into our UX
Integrates directly into Adobe Analytics providing robust, customer reports
Powerful segmentation to target tests directly to specific users based on a multitude of personas and factors.

Initial learning curve could be much easier. Users ABSOLUTELY need to take the training courses from Adobe to best understand how to use this very powerful tool.
Native reporting capabilities within Target are too limited. Requires Adobe Analytics 'A4T' integration to create robust reports. If you're not using Adobe Analytics as your reporting suite, best recommendation is to consider implementing another solution.
Adobe Target support is limited to off-shore ticketing system. This needs to improve.

Most Important Features

Adobe Target to Adobe Analytics integration (A4T)
Adobe Target recommenders
Speed and flexibility to implement A/B tests - Very straightforward.

Return on Investment

Improved KPIs (CR, Bounce Rate) driving increased revenue
Utilizing a single platform for testing, experiences and recommendations provides great efficiency and consistency for our team.

Alternatives Considered

Optimizely

For us, the decision was very straightforward. We chose to invest in the Adobe stack and utilize tools that are developed to integrate together and complement each other. Ex: Adobe Target 'A4T' integration within Adobe Analytics. Optimizely appears to be a great tool, but for us aligning with the Adobe suite, ensuring that future product enhancements and tools would work well together was a very important key factor in our decision.

Key Insights

Do you think Adobe Target delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Target's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Target live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Target go as expected?

Would you buy Adobe Target again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe Analytics, Hootsuite, TurnTo

Likelihood to Recommend

If you're using the Adobe stack and tools to power your website, Target is a great solution to implement. I've utilized Target within two organizations, one running on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), and the other on Adobe Magento. I don't see how companies could harness the full capacity of Target without also having Adobe Analytics integrated. This is their 'secret sauce' and might not be a good solution for companies who are invested in Google Analytics 360. Integration was straightforward but did require support from the Adobe team to implement successfully. While Target is a great tool for digital teams to support, you'll need your tech team aligned and available to support implementation.

Adobe Target: A great tool for website optimization, personalization & experiences...IF you're on the Adobe stack.

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Target