Understanding synchronization jobs

Synchronization jobs represent end-to-end processing of paid media runs. Each sync job consists of the following stages:

• Identifying the payload, that is, hashed PII information about the customer
• Identifying the audiences to which the customer already belongs, as well as the audiences from which the customer should be removed
• Writing to staging tables
• Creating queue items
• Creating and updating audiences in the ad networks
• Adding and removing customers from the ad networks.

Synchronization jobs are created when a paid run is executed by any of the following methods:

• When a real-time container or real-time event gets a request for the Paid channel
• When a Paid outbound run is triggered by the Next-Best-Action Designer outbound schedule
• When historical conversion push is triggered
• When CapturePaidResponse REST service is invoked and Offline conversion is enabled at Primary paid configuration in Next-Best-Action Designer
• When a user runs a segment that has been enabled for paid synchronization

Understanding the Sync Tracking tab layout

Status

The status of the synchronization job. Possible statuses include Pending, Awaiting response, Running, Completed, Withdrawn, and Failed. If the synchronization job completed with errors, expand the row to view more information. For information about troubleshooting failed sync jobs, see Troubleshooting Paid Media Manager.

Note: The Awaiting response status has been introduced to track the asynchronous Google Ads API.

Destination type

The type of paid destination configured. The following destination types are available:

• Facebook Ads
• Google Ads
• LinkedIn Ads
• DMP
• Web

Destination

The name of the paid destination of the synchronization job.

Start

The time when the synchronization job started.

End

The time when the synchronization job completed or failed.

Sync type

Indicates whether the synchronization job was triggered by Next-Best-Action, segment update, background processing by an agent that updates the customers' PII, or offline conversion synchronization (which also automatically creates associated conversion audience sync jobs). To filter the job table by a specific synchronization type, use the drop-down list above the table.

Triggered by

Depending on the type of the synchronization job, this column shows the name of the Next-Best-Action hierarchy level (that is, the issue and group where the outbound run was triggered, or the issue and group of the actions initiated by a real-time run), customer segment, or agent which triggered the synchronization. For offline conversions and conversion audiences, this field is left blank.

Action

For failed synchronization jobs, this column displays a Retry link. If needed, you can use this link to restart a synchronization job that failed.

Restarting a failed synchronization job

The Retry link is visible only in the following cases:

• The synchronization job must fail in the synchronization layer. That is, the error must have occurred while interacting with the paid destination, for example, because the access token was invalid, or because the paid destination was unavailable during the synchronization attempt.
• For all synchronization types apart from offline conversion jobs, the job must be the latest failed job of a given type, issue, and group. For example, if an error occurs during two segment synchronization jobs, the Retry link will only be visible for the latest failed job. Similarly, if an outbound run and a real-time container synchronization jobs configured at the same level of the business hierarchy both fail, the Retry link will only be available for the last failed job. This is to prevent customers being needlessly removed from audiences if an old synchronization job is restarted.
  Note: Offline conversion and conversion audience synchronization jobs display the Retry link for all failed jobs, because, as part of these jobs, customers are only added and not removed, so there is no risk of customers being needlessly removed from audiences..

When you click Retry, the synchronization job status changes from Failed to Running. Paid Media Manager does not restart the complete synchronization process of the failed synchronization job. Instead, only the processing of failed queue items is restarted.