XM Cloud Embedded Personalization FAQ

What are the main features of XM Cloud Embedded Personalization?

Embedded Personalization comes with XM Cloud Pages and provides a fixed set of out-of-the-box page-based personalization capabilities. We are including embedded personalization and analytics with XM Cloud to give our customers this core targeting experience functionality. A customer can easily define audience groups and target them with custom page variants. Embedded personalization features include real time stream data collection, out of the box conditions, and Site & Page Analytics.

It offers experiences targeting capabilities for all users to add personalization to page variations created inside Sitecore XM Cloud Pages.
You can build audience groups using a user-friendly interface to browse, select and combine out-of-the-box conditions in natural language.
XM Cloud Analytics lets you know what is happening to your digital properties as well as the impact of the changes.

What's included inside XM Cloud embedded personalization?

Here is a list of the main features available for XM Cloud embedded personalization. Features are organized across features groups that support customers’ users' journeys (Listen, Think, Respond, Learn):

Features empowered by XM Cloud Embedded Personalization Real time web data collection for 30 days of view events

What features do I get if I license full Sitecore Personalize in addition to XM Cloud?

The embedded personalization functionality within XM Cloud provides a simple way to implement the most common website personalization use case through personalizing pages (Targeting experience). If a customer is looking to have more control over customized personalization rules, experiences APIs access, or for direct ability to configure and tailor Sitecore Personalize tenant, they should license Sitecore Personalize. With XM Cloud, the content delivery is provided by publishing to Experience Edge.

Licensing Sitecore Personalize gives access to all the features included in the XM Cloud Embedded Personalization in addition to Sitecore Personalize features including custom personalization conditions that can be used in XM Cloud, decisioning, and longer data retention limits. Here is a list of features empowered by XM Cloud + Sitecore Personalize:

Features empowered by XM Cloud + Sitecore Personalize

What are the Analytics capabilities provided by XM Cloud?

XM Cloud Pages Analyze lets you know what is happening on your digital properties as well as the impact of the changes. For more information, check XM Cloud Site insights at https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/understanding-site-insights.html.

What are the analytics features acquired when adding and licensing Sitecore Personalize and/or Sitecore CDP license?

Each of the three products (XM Cloud, CDP, and Personalize) has its own exclusive distinctive analytics capabilities, matching provided functionalities and our customers’ use cases.

XM Cloud: Real time site analytics and Real time Page analytics. It also provides one performance dashboard per personalization variant created. (https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/analyze.html)

For Personalize: All the things that are covered in the Personalize Docs. For example, you get access to the created Experiment, where you can configure additional dashboards. For Personalize specific dashboards, please check: https://doc.sitecore.com/cdp/en/users/sitecore-personalize/view-experiment-dashboards-in-sitecore-personalize.html and https://doc.sitecore.com/cdp/en/users/sitecore-personalize/view-dashboards.html.

For Sitecore CDP specific analytics, please check: https://doc.sitecore.com/cdp/en/users/sitecore-cdp/dashboards-in-sitecore-cdp.html.

If a customer licenses Sitecore Personalize & CDP without XM Cloud, would they still be able to do the segmentation and the analytics within XM Cloud on Page level?

If a customer licenses Sitecore CDP and/or Sitecore Personalize and opt out from XM Cloud, they will not have access to pages level personalization available with the content management system. Still, they will have access to a wealth of data and customer experience management tools. Following table lists features available with CDP and Personalize (without XM Cloud):

Features of CDP + Personalize Standalone Only

Features empowered by CDP + Personalize (without XM Cloud)

When using the personalization inside XM Cloud approach, does that mean there is no access to the Sitecore CDP/Personalize SaaS interface at all for customers? Is the tenant provisioned, just not accessible?

For embedded personalization, it is bundled directly into XM Cloud and there is no direct access to the Personalize tenant.

All the configuration of personalization would be handled from within XM Cloud. The embedded personalization functionality is quite limited, so there would be different cases you would still need to license a standalone product (Personalize, CDP).

Does XM Cloud embedded personalization include API access to Sitecore Personalize?

XM Cloud Embedded Personalization (Inside Pages) does not include API access level to Sitecore Personalize. If a client is seeking full customizability or integration capabilities through the API, will need to purchase the Sitecore Personalize license.

What can I Personalize with XM Cloud Personalization?

With XM Cloud Embedded Personalization, you create variants of a page that you assign audiences to, and the specified audiences will see that page variant when browsing your site.

Within each page variant, you personalize components either by changing the content source and updating the content, hiding that component, or replacing it with another compatible component. For more details, please check: https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/edit-a-page-variant.html.

Can I personalize to any level within the page hierarchy, inside pages tree?

Yes, any level in the site tree hierarchy can be personalized. However, if Page and Partial designs exist in the site tree, these cannot be personalized.

Do I need to have a different subscription model to enable pages-level personalization inside my XM Cloud website?

No, you do not.

Does XM Cloud Embedded Personalization support omni-channel and single channel personalization?

Personalization in XM Cloud is linked directly to the website that you create in the product.

Can I Personalize Sitecore XM Cloud on the level of Components or data sources?

No. Personalization is applied at the page level, where a variant of the page gets assigned to a specified audience. Within that page variant, the user can choose to only personalize one component and leave the rest as default.

Personalization of content items is not supported, i.e., content items alone cannot be assigned to audiences and then applied to a page – personalization must be applied at page level and then content can be updated for that audience by creating or assigning a new content item.

What is the difference(s) between using XM Cloud Embedded Personalization (inside Pages) and having a license for Sitecore Personalize integrated with my website?

XM Cloud included personalization has a fixed set of conditions allowing marketers to put together combinations of conditions. If clients want to create customized personalization conditions, they can license Sitecore Personalize and create additional condition license the broader Sitecore.

With full licensed Sitecore Personalize product, users can also utilize all the other types of personalization that Personalize offers like experiences, experiments and decisioning.

With full licensed Sitecore Personalize product, users can also utilize from all the other types of personalization that Personalize offers like experiences , experiments and decisioning. Check following table for a Sitecore Engagement Listen, Think, Respond, Learn Feature-Matrix:

Sitecore Engagement Features Matrix

Sitecore Engagement: Listen, Think, Respond, Learn Feature-Matrix

How does personalization handle user identification. Can I personalize for unidentified users?

Personalization within XM Cloud is done based on anonymous users. To get access to the identity resolution and unifications feature, customers should license Sitecore Personalize.

Where can I find support for Embedded Personalize? Is this information in XM Cloud documentation or CDP & Personalize support?

Please check the following XM Cloud documentation for:

Business/end-user docs: https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/users/xm-cloud/create-targeted-digital-experiences-with-xm-cloud-pages-personalize.html

Developer docs: https://doc.sitecore.com/xmc/en/developers/xm-cloud/troubleshooting-the-next-js-personalize-add-on.html