Managing Customer Attributes in Real Time
This documentation covers how to use Optimove’s API to manage custom attributes in real time. The API is one of three supported input methods, alongside Real-Time and Data Ingestion.
By using the API, you can update and enrich customer profiles with fresh data that goes beyond what’s included in the standard batch process. These attributes can then be used throughout Optimove for personalization, segmentation, targeting, and analysis.
Use Cases
- Keep customer profiles in sync with your internal systems by adding and updating custom fields not included in your batch data.
- Build dynamic Target Groups using frequently changing attributes to enable more precise segmentation.
- Power timely and personalized campaigns using evolving customer context like membership tier, preferred category, or reward status.
- Align cross-team efforts by bringing in internally generated attributes such as loyalty scores or calculated tiers, making them available for marketing activation.
- Use this as an enrichment layer on top of your standard data flow to increase flexibility and support more agile marketing strategies.
How to manage Customer Attributes via API
1. Add a New Customer Attribute
Use this endpoint to define and create a new customer attribute in your Optimove environment.
You can optionally set a default value for all customers during creation.
Once added, the attribute appears in your customer attributes list with an API source.
2. Update Attribute Values
Once the attribute exists, use this endpoint to update or populate its values for specific customers.
This ensures the attribute always reflects the most recent customer data.
Attributes updated this way are marked with a lightning icon next to the API label, indicating real-time updates.
Red rectangle: This attribute was both created and updated via API, with the most recent update occurring within the last 30 days.
Green rectangle: This attribute was originally created through the batch process, but has since been updated via API.
Orange rectangle: This attribute was created via API but has not been updated in the last 30 days.
Get Customer Attributes
Use this endpoint to retrieve the full set of customer attributes and their values for a specific customer.
Use this endpoint to retrieve the complete list of customer attributes available in your Optimove data model.
Attribute Limits
Access to managing customer attributes via API is limited to API Admin users only.
You can manage user permissions here: Generating API Keys
Each API is limited to creating up to 40 custom attributes. If you need additional capacity or have questions, please reach out to your CSM.