Using Link Nodes in SAS Customer Intelligence 360 Segment Maps

Introduction

SAS Customer Intelligence 360 (CI 360) segment maps allow marketers to define target populations based on various selection criteria. For example, if customers are part of a specific age group, household or hold a certain type of bank account. Typically, this logic is required in many different areas, as business rules are common to multiple campaigns.

It is not advised to have these rules hard coded in multiple locations. It can be almost impossible to ensure that all segment maps are updated at the same time, with the same logic. Instead, the recommendation is to use Link nodes.

Link nodes enable marketers to share common business rules across many segment maps by reusing the output from existing nodes. In this way, you reduce maintenance overheads and ensure consistency across your maps. Note that this feature is only available for On-Premises data.

Marking a Node as Linkable

The first step is to allow a node to be linked to. Below we have created a segment map with one node that defines our marketing universe. It contains 236,559 customers.

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When we open the node, we can see the hard coded logic for marketing universe. We also see the option to “Mark Node as Linkable”.

Please bear in mind that not all nodes can be marked as linkable. Only nodes that contain output can be linked to. That means Split Nodes and Prioritize nodes cannot be marked as linkable, although their output can. Similarly, Export nodes cannot be marked as linkable. And finally, you cannot mark a link node as Linkable otherwise this will create multiple links.

The next consideration is whether you want the link to automatically update if the source logic is ever changed. To configure this, we navigate to the Orchestration tab, select “Linking Information”, and select the “Use the most current data when referenced by a link” check box.

Adding Link Nodes to a Segment Map

Once the linking has been enabled, we can then link to it from a Link node. Below we have a segment map with one Link node added to it.

When we open it, we can see a source field. We click the pencil edit icon to add a source node. We then see a list of all nodes marked as linkable and in the same business context. We can also see some information. In particular, the “Use current data” field is marked as “Yes”. This indicates that the node that I am linking to has the “Use the most current data when referenced by a link” box selected. If there were a “No” in this field, this Link node would capture the current subgroup of the Marketing Universe node, and it would not change even if the Marketing Universe subgroup does change.

I select the Marketing Universe node and click OK. We can then see this node in the source information, along with the folder it is in, and the “Use Current Data” setting. Note that there is an “exclude these subjects” option. If that option is selected, all associated records are excluded from any node that the Link node is connected to.

Going back to the main segment map, I select the Link node and “Update Counts”.

The resulting count is 236,559, which matches the count from the node that it is linked to. This verifies that the link is working correctly. As we have seen, Link nodes are a quick and easy way to repeat business logic without having maintenance overheads.

Further information

More information can be found on the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 User Guide available here. Link Nodes are discussed in the “Building Segments using SAS Customer Intelligence 360” course.

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