Campaign Debugger

The Campaign Debugger tool gives you the details of all Marketing Cloud Personalization activity and data on a page, including:

  • Actions
  • Campaigns, both enabled and disabled
  • Item Data

Before you can enable and use the Campaign Debugger, your dataset needs the following:

  • Personalization Tools Gear installed
  • Beacon Version 16
  • Salesforce Interactions SDK Launcher Chrome Extension
  • A completed Sitemap

To use the Campaign Debugger, do the following.

  1. Navigate to the page you want to test
  2. Click the Salesforce Interactions SDK Launcher Chrome Extension icon to open the menu
  3. Select Campaign Debugger
  4. If the Personalization JavaScript beacon is not installed on the page, you must enable Inject SDK to use the Campaign Debugger.
  5. If the Personalization JavaScript beacon is installed, and you would like to test another dataset, you should force override the SDK. The URL structure should be: https://ACCOUNT_NAME.evergage.com/beacon/ACCOUNT_NAME/DATASET_NAME/scripts/evergage.js
  6. After enabling the Campaign Debugger, refresh the page and click the blue Personalization tab on the right side of the page.

The rest of this article details the specific functionalities of the Campaign Debugger including:

  1. Campaign Debugging - Allows you to test campaigns and experiences
  2. Events - Provides details for the current page event
  3. Campaign Responses - Details for the campaigns that did return
  4. Campaign Explanations - Explanations for the campaigns that did not return

At the top of the debugger tool you'll see information regarding the account, dataset, beacon version, as well as an input box and toggle for testing campaigns and experiences. If you're interested in testing a particular campaign, type a partial campaign name in this box to see it in the dropdown, even if it's disabled. After it is selected, you're free to begin testing.

There are two modes you can test in using the Campaign Debugger:

  • Campaign Testing Mode - Use to simulate unpublished campaign behavior and appearance on your site
  • Experience Testing Mode - Use to test a specific campaign experience

Campaign Testing Mode

If you want to test a campaign to see how would behave on your site for your user account without publishing it:

  1. Ensure the Campaign Debugger is enabled
  2. Select the campaign
  3. Enable Testing Mode using the toggle switch
  4. Click Apply
  5. You will be redirected to the same page with the query parameter evergageTestMessages=[CAMPAIGN_ID] in the URL. This will cause the campaign to act like it's published so you can test changes outside of the campaign editor. You will see whichever campaign experience your user account would qualify for. This testing mode adheres to all of the rules configured for the campaign and experiences. This means that there is a chance your user account is ineligible to see the campaign so you won't see anything displayed on the screen. This does not mean that the campaign is not working, since it may be simply that you didn't qualify to see it either due to campaign or experience rules, or being added to the campaign or experience control group.

Experience Testing Mode

If you want to test a campaign's specific experience:

  1. Ensure the Campaign Debugger is enabled
  2. Select the experience you want to test from the dropdown
  3. Enable Testing Mode using the toggle switch
  4. Click Apply
  5. This will redirect you to the same page with the query parameter evergageTestMessages=[EXPERIENCE_ID] in the URL. Experience Testing Mode behavior will be different from Campaign Testing Mode behavior because this mode forces your user account to see the specific experience you selected in step 2 even though you may not naturally have qualified to see it. This is because Experience Testing Mode ignores any rules at the campaign and experience levels and forces you into the default test group (i.e. you won't see the control). While this mode may not simulate the exact behavior of the published campaign, it will give you the opportunity to preview aesthetic changes outside of the Visual Editor.

If you don't see the experience with evergageTestMessages=[EXPERIENCE_ID] in the URL, there may be some other issue with the campaign. For example, recommendations aren't returning from the server and there's nothing to render. If this happens, the Campaign Explanations panel may help elucidate further information. See details below.

This section shows the raw event JSON going to the Personalization server. This includes details like:

  • User agent
  • Content zones included on the page
  • userId of the campaign viewer

If there is a mapped item on the page, item data will be shown. This data includes:

  • name
  • description
  • image URL
  • a link to the item in the Personalization Catalog.

This section shows a list of campaigns returned from the server for this event. These are campaigns that were returned as part of the response and (assuming the template client-side code handled the response properly) rendered onto the page.

The details included are:

  • Campaign name
  • Campaign ID
  • Specific Experience ID
  • Number of templates rendered
  • Whether your user is currently viewing the control or not (Impression Type).

The last section of the Campaign Debugger shows which campaigns did not make it back from the server for this event. This can be due to several common issues, including:

  • The campaign is disabled and not being actively tested using the Campaign Debugger.
  • The server-side template code had an error.
  • The Content Zone for the campaign is not on this page.
  • The user doesn't meet the rule criteria to see the campaign.
  • The items or promotions the campaign intends to return are not be available for this particular configuration.