Lytics use cases and technical implementation guide
What you'll build (time-to-value): A working personalization pipeline where Lytics audiences and attributes activate Contentstack Personalize experiences (A/B tests, segmented experiences, and identity-based personalization) using data captured from your site and/or first-party sources.
This Guide is for
- Customer developers implementing Contentstack + Contentstack Personalize + Lytics (Data & Insights).
- Solution engineers / technical teams supporting implementation.
Learning Outcomes (What You'll Be Able to Do)
By the end of this guide, you can:
- Explain when to use each of the four Lytics-powered use cases and their respective value.
- Configure prerequisites (Stack, Personalize, Lytics account, Data Activation Layer, JSTag/SDK).
- Implement and validate:
- A/B Testing (and Multi-Armed Bandit)
- Anonymous Behavior-based Segmentation
- Identity Resolution
- First-Party Data Activation
- Verify that data is flowing and experiences are activated, using clear checkpoints.
How to Use This Guide
Pick one of these paths:
- Path A (End-to-end): Complete prerequisites, then do Use Cases 1–4 in order.
- Path B (Jump-in): If prerequisites are already complete, jump directly to a use case and follow the "Validate" steps to confirm your environment is ready.
Architecture Overview (Conceptual)
- Your website/app sends behavioral and identifier signals via Lytics JSTag/SDK.
- Lytics uses those signals (plus optional first-party data sources) to build profiles and audiences/segments.
- Data Activation Layer (DAL) connects your Contentstack Stack, Contentstack Personalize project, and Lytics account to sync audiences and live attributes.
- Contentstack Personalize then uses the synced audiences and attributes to deliver experiences and distribute variants (A/B, MAB, segmented experiences).
Validation checkpoint: Before building experiences, confirm you can: (1) see signals arriving in Lytics and (2) target a Lytics segment inside Contentstack Personalize.
Setting Up for Success (Prerequisites)
Ensure the following are set up before you begin:
- Contentstack Stack: Your content container with taxonomies created and linked to content types.
- Contentstack Personalize: Prepared to handle variant distribution.
- Lytics Account: Ready to provide near real-time user data.
- Data Activation Layer: Connects your Stack, Personalize project, and Lytics account for audience syncing.
- Lytics JSTag/SDK: Installed on the front-end to capture user behavior.
A Closer Look at the Required Components
Component | Requirement | |
|---|---|---|
Stack | Container for all your content and configuration inside Contentstack with taxonomies created and added to a certain content type. Refer to this documentation on creating taxonomies and linking them to a content type. | |
Contentstack Personalize | Handles Variant distribution tied to segments from data and insights | |
Lytics account | Provides Near Real-Time Data on users that is synced to Contentstack Personalize, handling variant distribution | |
Data Activation Layer (DAL) | Prerequisites: Stack, Personalize Project and tied to your Lytics account. This will sync audiences to your Personalize project. Refer to this documentation for setup: Data Activation Layer Creation. You will need a Stack, a Personalize Project and a website hosted and accessible. The Data Activation Layer is necessary for ensuring segments built in Lytics are synced to your Personalize project, along with live user attributes being synced to your Personalize project when a user is browsing. | |
Lytics jstag/SDK | Installed on the front end of your site. Lytics JavaScript Tag. (If using the Event Tracking feature in your launch project refer to this documentation to automatically add the tag to your deployed site: Event Tracking in Launch. You will need to have a consent handler in place to enable user tracking when using this feature.) |
Learn how to create a Data Activation Layer in Contentstack: Data Activation Layer Creation