Eloqua 22A Release Overview

Oracle have long had a reputation for neglecting existing products in favour of the big new thing. That's not been the case with Eloqua in recent years, even if the most interesting new capabilities have been released as add-ons. This month's release is no exception, with some long overdue enhancements to form submissions and campaign canvas.

Campaign Canvas

The introduction of a native A/B testing solution on Campaign Canvas is long overdue. Since its inception, the simple campaign wizard has allowed for easy A/B testing, with built-in audience splits and automatic winner selection. At the same time, Campaign Canvas has continued to rely on hacks involving the Eloqua Contact ID in order to enable A/B testing within a longer campaign workflow.

The 22A release adds a new step to campaign canvas which fixes this problem. The split decision step allows marketers to randomly split contacts down two different paths within a campaign workflow. The step allows users to configure the desired split, so they're not limited to a fixed 50/50. There is still no way to automatically select a winning email within an A/B test. Hopefully, that will come in time. At least it is now possible to build a workflow that automatically splits a segment into the requisite send lists needed even for the most complex A/B tests.

Email Reporting

Eloqua's core email functionality is also enhanced by the introduction of an extra reporting metric. Apple's new email privacy features have caused plenty of uncertainty over the last six months. They compromised the accuracy of the already unreliable opens metric by automatically downloading the tracking pixel of every marketing email regardless of whether the user opened the email or not.

Some email service providers have used bot filters in order to overcome this problem, a technology that has long existed to screen out systematic clicks by email security filters. Oracle have taken a different approach. They're still filtering out the automatic opens from the standard opens metric. However, they've also introduced a new metric to count the number of opens by Apple's privacy tools.

Given the relative inaccuracies of email bot filters, this additional transparency is welcome. Other providers reckon that bot filters cut open rates by 50% compared to 12 months ago. Having both the total open and auto open metrics allows a clearer picture of campaign performance over time.

Forms

This release also expands a feature pioneered in the previous release. Blind Form Submit URL shortening closes a minor security loophole inherent in the very useful blind form capability. Blind forms, by their very nature, add human-readable personal data into email links. That's far from ideal, and some Eloqua users don't use them for that reason.

The new URL shortener feature automatically masks that exposed personal data in email links, with no user configuration required. All you need to do is add the blind form link and then save the email. One nice side benefit is that it will make blind form submits more reliable too, which should also encourage their adoption among more Eloqua customers.

Form security is also enhanced by another new controlled availability feature. Oracle have introduced optional spam protection to Eloqua forms. This can be enabled on a per form basis to filter out bot submissions on forms suffering from spam attacks. The feature works automatically for forms on Eloqua landing pages. Whereas the HTML for forms on external websites will need to be manually updated should the feature be enabled. Importantly, you can also view the spam form submissions being filtered on protected forms.

AI & SMS

There are also a few small enhancements to the optional SMS and Advanced Intelligence modules. The fatigue analysis features of the AI add-on are being extended. Fatigue Level is now calculated for bouncebacks and unsubscribes, just in case they become emailable again. That closes a loophole that affected resubscribers. Additionally, the expanded Fatigue Level rating will now be visible in Profiler alongside the Account Engagement score. That introduces those metrics to sales, who may find them useful when deciding whether to get in touch with a specific contact.

Meanwhile, the SMS module receives expanded reporting and configuration options. A new UI has been introduced for SMS keyword management. Additionally, a new SMS dashboard gives easy access to the results of SMS campaigns, while deeper analysis can now be done using a whole host of new SMS metrics in Insight. These are supplemented by extra activity logs for SMS activity on the contact record.

The Oracle Eloqua 22A Update is scheduled over the weekends of February 5th, 2021 and February 19th, 2021. Contents of the release are subject to change. Full details, including smaller changes not mentioned in this article such as changes to APIs, can be found in the official release notes.