An audience snapshot is executed manually if On Demand (using the Run Snapshot Now button detailed above), or automatically in accordance with its recurrence schedule if Recurring.
During audience snapshot execution a new audience instance based on the rules recorded in the snapshot’s related audience is created and run to completion.
If it is the first time that a snapshot has run, a table is created in the data warehouse in accordance with the Snapshot table name defined in the Audience Snapshots configuration interface. The table contains the following:
•The key column from the resolution level associated with the audience definition upon which the audience snapshot’s audience is based. The column’s data type is set accordingly. The column is used to hold key values for all persons targeted by the audience.
•OutputName: nvarchar(100); the audience segment to which a given target belongs.
If the data warehouse table already exists, the data therein is dropped and refreshed at manual audience snapshot execution.
Joins to the snapshot table are not created automatically and must be managed manually.
An index, based on the snapshot table's resolution key, is created at the table’s creation when the snapshot is run for the first time.
You can also invoke the execution of an audience snapshot externally by inserting a value matching an existing audience snapshot’s external key into the KeyName column in data warehouse table RPI_DataflowSnapshotRequests. The system task Audience snapshot requests monitors for the insertion of data into this table and, if the value inserted matches the external key of an existing snapshot, the snapshot in question is executed and an audience instance created.