Customer Datasets FAQ

This content is only for clients with Product Data and Customer Data options in the DATASETS menu in the top navigation bar. If no menu options appear when you click DATASETS, then this content doesn't apply to your account. Instead, see Customer Attributes Datasets FAQ.

General

What happens if I upload a new dataset file that exceeds the account's total allotted rows?

If you attempt to upload a new dataset that exceeds the total number of allotted rows, an error message appears and the dataset is not uploaded.

Contact your account manager if you need to increase the row limit.

What happens if an update for a dataset causes it to exceed the account's total number of allotted rows?

Monetate allows you to update a dataset even if the update causes the dataset to exceed the total number of allotted rows. However, once the update is completed, you cannot perform any additional updates or add any new datasets until you free up rows or purchase additional ones.

What happens if I have two datasets that contain the same customers? Are they counted once or twice?

The account's row total is based on rows, not on customers or customer IDs. If the same customer ID appears in more than one dataset, that ID and its corresponding row are counted each time they appear.

You can reduce duplication through consolidation. To add rows of customer data to an existing dataset, use the Partial Update option in the manual file upload wizard that you can access from UPLOAD DATA on a dataset's details page. Once that update is complete, remove the duplicate dataset to free up more space. See Update or Replace a Customer Dataset for more information.

Does an identifier need to remain on the page 100% of the time for data activation to work?

An identifier is tied directly to a Monetate ID. For this reason, it only needs to appear during one session across all sessions. If a site visitor logs in to your site and then returns three months later and the same Monetate ID is present, Monetate recognizes the visitor on the first pageview without an identifier on the page. The identifier is tied directly to a Monetate ID that is set within a cookie that exists across multiple Monetate sessions as long as it is not deleted.

Customer data onboarding and the Customer View work together to unify IDs at all touch points for your customers: Data onboarding connects an ID to offline datasets, and a Customer View connects that ID to other Monetate IDs to extract more behavioral data.

Automatic SFTP Updates

Should I provide partial file updates via SFTP?

Yes, sending partial file updates via SFTP is highly recommended. Partial updates process faster with more frequent updates.

Can I add a column to a dataset via SFTP?

No, use the Full Update option in the Datasets Upload wizard that you can access from UPLOAD DATA on the dataset's details page.

Once you add the column(s), only then does the SFTP feature accept new files based on the new schema that includes the new column(s). All subsequent files sent via SFTP must contain the added column(s) because if they don't, they won't match the new schema, resulting in a file-processing error.

What happens if a dataset has an error?

If a dataset throws an error, you cannot upload updates to it until you clear the error in the platform. Each error is specific to a dataset.