MCE-Admn-201 Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Engagement Administrator Questions and Answers

When using a filename pattern for a File Drop Automation trigger, the import File Activity should use %%FILENAME_FROM_TRIGGER%% as the file name. This ensures that the import activity will use the same file name as the trigger, regardless of the date stamp or other variations

Following a Contact Delete request, certain data types remain within the account:

B. Contact data in non-sendable data extensions: This data does not directly link to an individual's subscriber key or contact ID, allowing it to persist in the system for reporting and analytical purposes without targeting specific individuals.

C. General tracking data at the job level: This includes aggregated data on email opens, clicks, and other engagement metrics collected at the campaign level, not tied to individual contact identities, thus remaining in the system post-deletion.

For NTO's requirement to pull detailed email metrics for each campaign across different Business Units, the appropriate report to use is the Email Send Report. This report provides comprehensive details on metrics such as number of sends, delivery rate, various bounce rates, open rate, click rate, complaint rate, and unsubscribe rate for individual email sends, which aligns well with the specified reporting needs for the quarterly meeting.

To assign users to specific business units in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, an admin can manage this directly through the user configuration settings:

Search for the individual user: Navigate to the Users section in Setup.

Select their name and click Edit Business Units: This action allows the admin to manage the business units that the user has access to, enabling or disabling access as required for the new or existing business units.

Creating separate business units for each brand is necessary when:

Brand-specific Domains: Separate business units allow for the configuration of brand-specific private domains, which are crucial for maintaining brand identity and trust in email campaigns by customizing link and image paths.

Use Case: If different brands under NTO need to leverage their unique domains for sending emails and hosting content, setting up distinct business units allows each brand to manage its sender profiles, content, and subscriber interactions independently.

To address the issue of Northern Trail Outfitters' employees not receiving emails due to spam filters, the Marketing Cloud admin should provide the IT team with a list of relevant IP addresses to whitelist in their spam filters. This action will help ensure that emails sent from Marketing Cloud do not get blocked by the company's email security systems, thereby improving deliverability and ensuring that internal communications reach their intended recipients.

To automatically add tracking parameters to links in emails:

Parameter Manager: Utilize the Parameter Manager in Marketing Cloud to configure and automatically append a set of predefined tracking parameters to all links within emails. This tool streamlines the process and ensures consistency across all sent emails.

Efficiency and Consistency: By using Parameter Manager, admins can ensure that all emails sent via Email Studio include the necessary tracking parameters without the need for manual entry or customization for each email.

To get the last 30 days of Bounce data in bulk and in a pre-defined format, a Marketing Cloud admin should use B. Automation Studio Tracking Extract. This tool allows the admin to extract detailed bounce data for a specified period, providing comprehensive insight into delivery issues. The Tracking Extract can output data in a CSV format, which can be imported into other systems for further analysis or reporting.

The Sender Authentication Package (SAP) allows the image URLs to be wrapped with the appropriate brand URL, which enhances the branding and deliverability of the emails. The SAP does not affect the profile center branding, the click domain, or the IP warming.

To allow the business analyst at Northern Trail Outfitters to import contact lists, the role needed is one that grants permissions for import activities. Among the options:

B. Add Marketing Cloud Security AdministratorThis role would provide the analyst with the necessary permissions to manage data imports. The Marketing Cloud Security Administrator role includes broader permissions that encompass data management and security settings, which are required for importing contact lists.

When configuring an SFTP user in Marketing Cloud, the following considerations should be taken into account:

B. Minimum password length is 12 characters: Ensuring password security, Marketing Cloud requires SFTP passwords to have a minimum length of 12 characters.

D. Once created, the user will need to be activated in order to use the SFTP: After the SFTP user account is created, it must be activated by the admin before it can be used for file transfers.

In the Setup Assistant for a new Salesforce Marketing Cloud instance, the admin is guided through several critical tasks to establish the operational environment:

Creating users and assigning roles: Setup Assistant helps define user roles and permissions tailored to specific job functions, ensuring proper access control and workflow management.

Building the data structure: This task involves creating data extensions and attribute groups to effectively organize and manage customer data.

Importing data into contacts: Utilizing tools like Data Loader, the admin can import existing customer data into Marketing Cloud, setting the foundation for targeted marketing activities.

The advantages of using data extensions over lists in Marketing Cloud, especially given the complex data needs outlined:

Add/Update Capability: Data extensions support add/update import activities, allowing for the nightly refresh of the customer data from the data warehouse without duplicating records.

Handling Large Data Volumes: Data extensions are more suitable for managing large volumes of data with numerous attributes, such as the scenario described with 5 million records and 40+ attributes.

In Salesforce Marketing Cloud's Journey Builder, ensuring that "Journey Data" is utilized for decision splits is crucial for accurately directing subscribers through the journey based on real-time interactions or behaviors captured at the point of entry. Journey Data references attributes from the Entry Source, allowing for dynamic pathing based on data specific to each subscriber's interaction within the journey itself, thus enabling personalized and relevant experiences based on up-to-date information.

The Content Split activity should be used for multivariate content testing within Journey Builder. This activity allows the journey to send different versions of email content to different audience segments and measure their performance based on open or click rates. The other activities are not suitable for multivariate content testing.

The Time Between Send and Engagement report shows how long it takes for subscribers to open or click an email after it is sent, which can help optimize the send time for mobile users. The Email Performance by Device report shows how subscribers interact with emails on different devices, such as desktops, tablets, or phones, which can help design responsive emails for mobile users.

For the financial services customer's need to manage multiple accounts that share the same email address but maintain separate subscriber attributes, the correct component to use is the Subscriber Key. This key uniquely identifies each subscriber in Marketing Cloud, enabling multiple profiles (each associated with different accounts) to share a single email address but retain distinct attributes and engagement tracking.

Before configuring Social Studio for managing social media accounts, ensure these prerequisites are met:

Facebook Ad Manager: Access to Facebook Ad Manager is essential for managing and monitoring Facebook advertising campaigns directly from Social Studio.

Login Details: Have the necessary login credentials for each social media account that will be managed through Social Studio to ensure seamless integration and management across platforms.

To implement item recommendations during the checkout process using Einstein, Northern Trail Outfitters should:

Implement the Collect Code on their website. This JavaScript snippet collects customer behavioral data, which is essential for powering personalized recommendations.

Add the Recommendation Code to the checkout page. This code snippet is responsible for displaying the personalized recommendations generated by Einstein based on the collected data.

To manage the operations of all North American Business Units in Marketing Cloud, including Email Studio, Mobile Connect, and Social Studio, the two roles suitable for the new hire are:

C. Marketing Cloud Regional or Local Administrator: This role provides administrative capabilities specific to regional operations, suitable for managing multiple business units within a geographic area.

D. Marketing Cloud Administrator: This standard role provides full administrative rights across the entire Marketing Cloud environment, ideal for overseeing operations across various channels and business units.

These roles ensure the new hire has the necessary permissions to effectively manage and oversee the various platforms and business units within North America.

The issue where a customer continues to receive emails despite unsubscribing and being deleted from the data extension likely arises because the email address in All Subscribers still exists and is active. In Marketing Cloud, the All Subscribers list acts as a master list overriding subscription statuses in individual data extensions. Thus, even if a customer is removed from a specific data extension, if their status in All Subscribers is not updated to 'Unsubscribed,' they will continue to receive communications.

When creating custom roles in Marketing Cloud, it's important to consider that:

B. Custom roles are only available within the business unit in which they were created. This means that the scope of the custom roles is limited to the specific business unit, and they do not automatically apply to other business units within the same Marketing Cloud account.

The reason why the total contact count of 500,000 is less than the summed total of email subscribers, synchronized contacts, and mobile subscribers is D. There are overlapping contacts in each of the channels. This overlap occurs when the same contact is counted across different channels (e.g., a contact might be both an email subscriber and a mobile subscriber), thus leading to a lower total contact count when duplicates are not counted more than once.

To effectively target high-value outdoor sports customers likely to respond to a deep product discount:

Lifetime Purchase Value: Identify customers who have demonstrated significant financial commitment to the brand over time.

Conversion Rate: Focus on customers with a higher likelihood of responding based on past conversion metrics.

Last Purchase Date: Include customers who have made recent purchases, indicating active engagement and potential interest in new offers.

Under CAN-SPAM requirements, for each commercial send, the Marketing Cloud admin should ensure that there is a Preference Center link and a physical mailing address present in the email. This compliance is critical to allow recipients to manage their email preferences (such as unsubscribing) and to meet legal requirements by providing a physical mailing address, offering transparency and options to the recipients.

For the entertainment company's setup using Contact Builder and Journey Builder, the two data sources essential to incorporate are:

A. Customer Data: This is crucial because it includes basic customer identifiers such as email addresses, which are necessary for sending emails and personalizing communications.

B. Event Registration: This data is critical as it contains the event-specific details needed for the decision splits in the journey, such as event ID, event type, and event name, which will determine the content of emails, including dynamic venue details through AMPscript.

These data sources ensure that the journeys can be personalized and targeted based on the customer's registered events, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of the communications.

The user in question holds roles that do not inherently include permissions to send emails. The roles assigned are:

Content Creator: Typically has permissions to create content but not necessarily to send emails.

Data Manager: Manages data but does not have email sending permissions.

Marketing Cloud Viewer: Can view campaigns and data but cannot execute or modify them.

To resolve this issue so that the user can send emails, the admin must: A. Edit permissions and Grant permissions to Send - This action involves customizing the user’s permissions to include the ability to send emails. This can be done either by adjusting the permissions in one of the existing roles (if customization is possible and appropriate) or by creating a custom role or permission set that includes email sending capabilities.

To enable Sales Cloud users to create and send Marketing Cloud emails:

User Mapping: Ensure there is a one-to-one relationship between Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud users to facilitate seamless functionality and data consistency.

Deep Linking: Enable deep linking in Marketing Cloud Connect. This allows Sales Cloud users to access Marketing Cloud features directly from within the Sales Cloud interface, enhancing user experience and efficiency.

When considering a Dedicated IP for global marketing efforts, Northern Trail Outfitters should consider:

Stack alignment: Ensure all accounts are on the same stack to facilitate shared use of the Dedicated IP across different geographical locations.

Send volume: A dedicated IP is beneficial if the send volume is significant enough to maintain and build a positive sender reputation. Regular, consistent high-volume sending is crucial for IP warming and reputation.

For a Membership Renewal drip campaign with a master audience updated in real-time:

Filter Activities: Use Filter Activities to segment the master data extension based on the renewal date criteria—one month prior, one week prior, and on the renewal date.

Send Activities: Follow each Filter Activity with a Send Activity targeting the specifically filtered audiences, ensuring that each email is sent at the correct time relative to the member's renewal date.

To append an Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) variable string to links in emails, the Marketing Cloud admin should use the Web Analytics Connector (WAC). This functionality automatically appends tracking parameters, such as UTM parameters, to all URLs in outgoing emails. This allows for detailed tracking of email effectiveness within analytics platforms like Google Analytics. The Web Analytics Connector can be configured within Email Studio to include specific UTM parameters as required by marketing strategies.

To configure a journey using Path Optimizer with a holdback of 60% of the contacts until a winner has been selected, the Marketing Cloud admin needs to set:

A. Data Extension entry source: Ensures the journey is pulling contacts from a specific data extension which can be effectively managed and monitored for the experiment.

D. Winner evaluation: This setting allows the admin to specify how and when the winning path is determined, which is critical to managing the holdback and subsequent path optimization.

Synchronized Data Sources can use two types of filters: attribute filters and relationship filters. Attribute filters are based on the fields of the object being synced, such as email address or opt-out status. Relationship filters are based on the fields of a related object, such as account or campaign. Filtering by email open activity or subscriber status is not possible with Synchronized Data Sources.

 To clear inactive data stored in data extensions after 12 months, NTO should apply a row-based retention to each data extension as it is created, set to 12 months. This will delete any records that have not been modified in the last 12 months. Row-based retention can be applied to individual data extensions or data extension templates

The error in the File Drop Automation is due to the filename pattern not matching exactly because of additional seconds and milliseconds in the filename. To resolve this issue:

Modify the Import File activity to use the %%FILENAME_FROM_TRIGGER%% personalization string. This ensures that the Import File activity dynamically accepts the filename exactly as it is uploaded to the SFTP location.

Update the filename pattern in the automation setup to avoid hardcoding the date format and instead rely on the filename that triggered the automation.

By using %%FILENAME_FROM_TRIGGER%%, the automation becomes flexible and will correctly handle any file name that matches the initial pattern triggering the automation, regardless of additional timestamp details.

 To search for a Salesforce contact in All Subscribers, the admin should use the 18-digit contact ID as the subscriber key. This is because Marketing Cloud Connect uses the 18-digit contact ID as the subscriber key for contacts synchronized from Salesforce. The email address is not a reliable identifier as it can change or be duplicated

When considering an update to increase the session timeout setting in Marketing Cloud, the admin should review several factors:

C. Security risk of unauthorized users for longer timeout settings - Longer session timeouts can pose a security risk as it increases the window during which an unauthorized person could potentially access an unattended user session. This is particularly crucial in environments where users might share computers or work in open office environments.

D. Change impacts all users - Any change to the session timeout settings will affect all users across the platform. It's important to communicate these changes and understand the broader impact, especially in larger organizations where different teams might have different security and operational needs.

E. Typical length of time users spend in Marketing Cloud - Understanding how users interact with Marketing Cloud and the average length of their sessions can help in deciding the appropriate session timeout setting. If users typically engage in longer tasks, a longer timeout might be necessary to prevent disruptions.

Publication lists in the Marketing Cloud are used to allow subscribers to opt-down or opt-out of specific types of communications without unsubscribing from all communications. This functionality enables more granular control over communication preferences, helping organizations maintain engagement with subscribers who might not be interested in all content but still wish to receive certain types of messages.

Purchasing a new private domain for use in CloudPages allows the admin to use a customized domain name for CloudPages, such as de-special.ntomarketing.com. This domain can be different from the SAP domain, which is used for email branding and deliverability. The other options are not feasible or correct.

A functionality unique to Journey Builder that is not available in Automation Studio:

Wait Activities: Journey Builder provides the flexibility to configure wait times based not just on a fixed duration but also until a specific date or time, which is essential for personalizing the timing of customer interactions based on individual behaviors or milestones.

For a large retail company migrating to Marketing Cloud, proper IP warming is critical:

A. IP ramp-up takes four to six weeks to be able to fully send to all 3 million customers: It's essential to gradually increase the volume of emails sent from a new IP address to build a positive reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

D. IP ramp-up is important to establish a positive sender reputation: Establishing a positive sender reputation with ISPs during the IP warming process helps ensure high deliverability and avoids being flagged as spam.

These responses highlight the necessity and methodology of IP warming when transitioning to a new email platform to maintain deliverability standards.

To sync specific contacts from Sales Cloud to Marketing Cloud without syncing all contacts, particularly when not all contacts need email communications, the admin should use a Boolean field to filter the contacts. This can be configured in the Contact Builder under Data Sources. A Boolean field allows for a simple true/false condition that can be set in Sales Cloud and used to control which records are synchronized based on their relevance for email communication. This method ensures that only contacts marked true (or false, depending on the setup) are brought into Marketing Cloud, efficiently managing the sync and keeping irrelevant contacts out of the system.

When a File Transfer Activity is used to decrypt an encrypted file on Marketing Cloud's SFTP, the decrypted data is temporarily stored in the Safehouse. The Safehouse is a secure data storage location within Marketing Cloud used for temporary storage during file processing tasks, such as decryption, before the data is moved to its final destination, like a data extension.