RESOURCES / Articles

Datorama Total Connect:
The Perfect Tool for Managing Imperfect Data

By Ashish Nelson, Revised on September 1, 2022 at 5:24AM EDT

Datorama Total Connect: Better Data Management of Imperfect Marketing Data

Datorama is a marketing intelligence and data management platform that helps marketers onboard, integrates and analyze data from third-party data platforms, such as Facebook, Marketing Cloud, AdWords, and Google Campaign Manager. Datorama allows you to connect, categorize, and segment your data into one centralized platform and when you need a method to upload data from a source and no API connector exists, Datorama has created a flexible feature called, Datorama Total Connect.

Understanding Datorama’s Total Connect

Total Connect is a data upload method that allows you to upload any flat file into the system and into the Datorama data model. Total Connect is used when you need to upload data from a source and no API connector exists.

Onboarding Messy Marketing Data

For many advertising brands and agencies, the prospect of consolidating data, automating reports and creating marketing dashboards is exciting. Through a thoughtful data strategy, Datorama offers tools that can help you gain greater marketing efficiencies and a deeper understanding of customer behavior.

But there is an even bigger opportunity. With the correct training, tools, technologies and processes Datorama can help advance your organizations use of data to become an insights-focused business — one of few that uses data, marketing analytics, and insights in a closed, and continuously optimized loop.

Today, there are a number of available data platforms on the market, such as those outlined by Forrester Wave™. However, as you scale the use of your data across the enterprise, the real challenge quickly becomes one of agile data management and available data connectors.

How many data connectors does Datorama have?

As of September 1, 2022, the exact answer is 173 Datorama data connectors, as outlined under Datorama’s Connect and Mix capabilities. This includes (124) marketing vendors such as Adobe, Google, and Appnexus, (8) connectors for onboarding flat files, like TSV, XLS, and CSV, (5) e-commerce vendors, and finally, (36) for integrating technical vendors like Vertica, SAP, and Oracle.

The Truth about Marketing APIs and Dashboard Development

APIs can make an analyst’s life easier, when they are available

API connections are great when they are available and when they work, but how often have you wanted to onboard data from a popular media buying platform and you determined that the API was missing granularity, a metric, a dimension, or even historical data that you required?

What should you do? Perhaps you can pick up the phone, call your data engineering group and have them build a custom data connector for you? But, for most, there are no such available resources.

When APIs fail in this way, it can typically mean that your automation project becomes less than optimal, where some data sources are automated, and others require repetitive manual integration processes. The truth is that API development can take time, money and considerable resources to build and maintain, but as marketers become more sophisticated and demand increases, scalable solutions for connecting and unifying data are required.

To answer this data challenge head-on, Datorama created Total Connect.

“Data Management can be challenging and publicly APIs can be imperfect, but Datorama’s TotalConnect is the Perfect Data Management Tool for Integrating Imperfect Data.”

Datorama Connectors: Connect and Unify Your Data with Datorama

Datorama gives marketers the ability to integrate all your data sources together — whether it is a handful of data providers or hundreds — to form a single data model for faster, automated and more efficient reporting.

In this article, we are going to explore how Datorama allows you to connect your marketing data in two very specific ways: API connectors and the previously mentioned Total Connect:

Datorama APIConnect:

With Datorama, you can connect to an extensive API library, databases, storage platforms, and big data environments. To analyze data, you can also connect to many publicly available advertising, social, search, display, email, video, web, and CRM tools.

APIConnect allows access to a library of marketing APIs, popular databases, cloud storage platforms, and big data environments. By selecting the available Datorama connectors, you can automate your data and update the interval of your choosing. With the supported APIs Datorama provides, you’re covered by a full spectrum of the Martech and Adtech ecosystems.

Datorama Connector: LiteConnect

LiteConnect is the easiest way to connect to any flat file and instantly visualize in Datorama. You can just drag and drop single or flat files to view and analyze. If you want to do this once, there is no need to map the source data with the Datorama.

Make data ingestion and analysis of single data file simple by automatically switching from data to visualization. Simply drag and drop your data file and watch it get visualized, instantly.

This option is best suitable for ad hoc marketing analytics and non-marketing sources such as sales, geographic, or weather data, because they don’t require any upfront model considerations. With LiteConnect, you can automatically overlay your data with any system data by date or, optionally, unify it with your data model with data fusion.

Datorama TotalConnect

Image Credit: https://datorama.com/blog/2018/03/14/introducing-liteconnect/

What is Datorama Total Connect?

Datorama Total Connect automates data cleansing and mapping by using machine learning to analyze data files. It helps in organizing your data dynamically into right KPIs, metrics and classification with built-in data model intelligence. Datorama succinctly defines Total Connect this way: TotalConnect is a universal data connector that allows you to upload any type of data into the system through the Datorama data model, and thereby customize data ingestion. You can use TotalConnect when you need to upload data from a source and no API connector exists.

Total Connect drag and drop features

While there are more than 5000+ tools available, you’ll certainly benefit from AI supported technologies to intelligently understand and adapt to any data, instantly. TotalConnect is built to automate the process of ingestion, cleansing, collection, and mapping of all your file-based reporting sources. This also covers loopholes, including the crucial steps that a manual approach may struggle to resolve.

Datorama Total Connect takes care of all the visualization processes to give you more time to focus on analysis and insights and less on data engineering. Hundreds of thousands of data streams are available to continually teach machine learning.

Datorama TotalConnect Article

Image Credit: https://www.salesforce.com/in/products/marketing-cloud/marketing-intelligence/ 

Are There Data Upload Limitations to Total Connect?

  • Direct upload – 40 MB / 15 million rows (subsequent)
  • Email – 30 МB / 15 million rows (subsequent)
  • Import- 500 GB / 15 million rows (subsequent)
  • FTP – 500 GB / 15 million rows (subsequent)

Total Connect Functions

Functions are used when creating formulas and allow you to perform complex manipulations of your data. The following functions are available in Datorama and are divided into different groups so you can easily find the function you are looking for:

  • Number Functions
  • Text Functions
  • Date Functions
  • Aggregation Functions
  • Logical Functions
  • Type Conversion Functions
  • Operators

Click here to learn more about these functions in detail.

How Total Connect Gives Access to Limitless AI-supported Data Integration Engine

Marketing data is always changing and with this the requirement of marketing to flexibly connect any data source has also increased. TotalConnect answers the challenge, going beyond APIs, when there are truly gaps and into limitless integration.

TotalConnect utilizes the power of machine learning intelligence to analyze data files and then automates the crucial steps that require advanced manual skillsets for data cleansing and mapping. Like a good assistant, it can analyze data and finish the job by scheduling ongoing data updates via email, SFTP, and more. TotalConnect gives you the opportunity and flexibility to integrate any data at any moment’s notice without the need for data engineering.

Why Choose Decision Foundry as Your Datorama Implementation Partner to Implement Total Connect?

We follow a defined process while meticulously aligning with our client’s data requirements and approved technical solutions. Advertisers, agencies and publishers often require truly creative, strategic thinking to successfully deliver scalable, data solutions in Datorama. Total Connect and Lite Connect are impressive Datorama features that are often used to aid them.

Partner with one of Datorama’s leaders in Data Management. Decision Foundry documents, build, and automate a new reporting solution for you, or extend the value of your existing reporting infrastructure. Need a little help, consider our Quick Start Datorama implementation services.

CATEGORIES

Datorama

TOPIC TAGS

Reviews TotalConnect