In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, data views are pre-built tables of data that store subscriber information and the last six months of tracking data for your account. While data views cannot be accessed from the user interface, they can be used like any other data extension: you can write a query against a data view in Automation Studio or in the Query Studio and extract/save the results into a new data extension. You can join data views with each other and with other data extensions.
Data views can only store data for the last six months, after which the data is purged. You can create automations to store this data in a data extension every month so that you can retain all the useful information for as long as you need.
They can provide valuable insights and help you better understand and engage with your audience. Some common data views in Marketing Cloud include:
| Data View | Description |
|---|---|
| _Subscribers | Contains information about your email subscribers, including their email addresses and subscriber keys. |
| _Open | Contains information about email opens, including the email subject, the email address of the subscriber who opened the email, and the date and time of the open. |
| _Click | Contains information about clicks on links in your emails, including the email subject, the email address of the subscriber who clicked on the link, and the date and time of the click. |
| _Sent | Contains information about emails that have been sent, including the email subject, the email address of the recipient, and the date and time of the send. |
| _Bounce | Contains information about bounced emails, including the email address of the recipient, the reason for the bounce, and the date and time of the bounce. |
| _Unsubscribe | Contains information about unsubscribes, including the email address of the unsubscribing subscriber and the date and time of the unsubscribe. |
| _SendLog | Contains information about email sends, including the email subject, the email address of the recipient, and the date and time of the send. |
| _Job | Contains information about email sends, including the email subject, the email list that the email was sent to, and the date and time of the send. |
| _List | Contains information about email lists, including the list name, the list owner, and the list type. |
| _DataFilter | Contains information about data filters, including the filter name, the filter type, and the filter definition. |
| _DataExtension | Contains information about data extensions, including the data extension name, the data extension type, and the data extension fields. |
Some common uses of data views in Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
- Creating reports: Data views can be used to create reports on various aspects of marketing activities, such as subscriber data, email send data, open and click data, and more.
- Segmenting subscribers: Data views can be used to segment subscribers based on various criteria, such as email address, subscriber type, status, and more.
- Analyzing campaign performance: Data views can be used to analyze the performance of marketing campaigns, including email open and click rates, delivery rates, and more.
- Personalizing email content: Data views can be used to personalize email content based on subscriber data, such as location, preferences, and past behavior.
- Building marketing automation workflows: Data views can be used in combination with marketing automation tools to create workflows that trigger actions based on subscriber data or other criteria.
- Creating dashboards: Data views can be used to create dashboards that display marketing metrics in real-time, such as email open rates, click-through rates, and more.
- Email list management: Data views can be used to manage email lists, such as adding or removing subscribers, updating subscriber data, and more.
- Email deliverability analysis: Data views can be used to analyze email deliverability, including the reasons for bounces or other delivery failures.
Table visualization of the _Subscribers data view:
| Subscriber ID | Email Address | Subscriber Key | Subscriber Type | Date Joined | Date Undeliverable | Date Unsubscribed | Domain | Bounce Count | Status | Locale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | john@example.com | abc123 | Customer | 01/01/2022 | 01/01/2022 | example.com | 0 | Active | en_US | |
| 2 | jane@example.com | def456 | Customer | 01/15/2022 | 01/15/2022 | example.com | 0 | Active | en_US | |
| 3 | robert@example.com | ghi789 | Prospect | 02/01/2022 | 02/01/2022 | example.com | 0 | Active | en_US | |
| 4 | maria@example.com | jkl012 | Customer | 02/15/2022 | 02/15/2022 | example.com | 0 | Active | en_US | |
| 5 | david@example.com | mno345 | Customer | 03/01/2022 | 03/01/2022 | 03/15/2022 | example.com | 0 | Unsubscribed | en_US |
| 6 | sarah@example.com | pqr678 | Prospect | 04/01/2022 | 04/01/2022 | example.com | 3 | Active | en_US | |
| 7 | mike@example.com | stu901 | Customer | 04/15/2022 | 04/15/2022 | example.com | 2 | Active | en_US |
Explanation of fields:
- Subscriber ID: a unique identifier for each subscriber
- Email Address: the email address of the subscriber
- Subscriber Key: a unique identifier for the subscriber, which may be different from the Subscriber ID
- Subscriber Type: the type of subscriber (e.g. “customer,” “prospect,” etc.)
- Date Joined: the date on which the subscriber joined the email list
- Date Undeliverable: the date on which an email to the subscriber was returned as undeliverable
- Date Unsubscribed: the date on which the subscriber unsubscribed from the email list
- Domain: the domain of the subscriber’s email address (e.g. “gmail.com,” “yahoo.com,” etc.)
- Bounce Count: the number of times an email to the subscriber has bounced back as undeliverable
- Status: the current status of the subscriber (e.g. “active,” “unsubscribed,” etc.)
- Locale: the language and location of the subscriber (e.g. “en_US” for English in the United States)
Note: This table is for illustrative purposes only.
Table visualization of the _Open data view:
| OYBAccountID | JobID | ListID | BatchID | Subscriber ID | Subscriber Key | Event Date | Domain | Is Unique | Triggerer Send Definition Object ID | Triggered Send Customer Key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12345 | 1 | 100 | 200 | 1 | abc123 | 01/01/2022 10:00 | example.com | True | 1000 | Welcome Email |
| 12345 | 1 | 100 | 200 | 2 | def456 | 01/15/2022 9:00 | example.com | True | 1000 | Welcome Email |
| 12345 | 1 | 100 | 200 | 3 | ghi789 | 02/01/2022 11:00 | example.com | True | 1000 | Welcome Email |
| 12345 | 2 | 100 | 201 | 4 | jkl012 | 02/15/2022 12:00 | example.com | True | 1001 | Promotional Email |
Explanation of fields:
- OYBAccountID: the account ID of the owner of the triggered send definition
- JobID: the unique identifier for the job that processed the open event
- ListID: the ID of the list to which the subscriber belongs
- BatchID: the ID of the batch in which the open event occurred
- Subscriber ID: the unique identifier for the subscriber who opened the email
- Subscriber Key: a unique identifier for the subscriber, which may be different from the Subscriber ID
- Event Date: the date and time on which the open event occurred
- Domain: the domain of the subscriber’s email address (e.g. “gmail.com,” “yahoo.com,” etc.)
- Is Unique: a boolean value indicating whether the open event is the first time the email has been opened by the subscriber (True) or not (False)
- Triggerer Send Definition Object ID: the ID of the triggered send definition that generated the email
- Triggered Send Customer Key: the customer-defined key for the triggered send definition
Note: This table is for illustrative purposes only.
Useful Reading:
- https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_as_data_views.htm&type=5
- https://sfmarketing.cloud/2019/08/22/data-views-in-salesforce-marketing-cloud/
- https://sfmarketing.cloud/2021/03/05/consolidate-tracking-data-using-sql/