sales-tealium

What this skill does

# Tealium Platform Help

## Step 1 — Gather context

If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

1. **What do you need help with?**
   - A) Setting up Tealium (iQ Tag Management, utag.js, mobile SDK)
   - B) Identity resolution / visitor switching / profile merging
   - C) EventStream — server-side event processing, feeds, connectors
   - D) AudienceStream — audience segmentation, enrichments, badges
   - E) Connector Marketplace — setting up or troubleshooting a connector
   - F) API integration (Collect HTTP API v3, Visitor Profile API, Visitor Privacy API)
   - G) Composable CDP / CloudStream — warehouse integration (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks)
   - H) Consent management and privacy (GDPR, CCPA)
   - I) Tag performance — tags slowing down my site, rogue tags
   - J) Choosing Tealium vs another CDP (Segment, mParticle, BlueConic)
   - K) Other — describe it

2. **What's your role?**
   - A) Marketer — I use AudienceStream UI for segments and audiences
   - B) Developer — I'm integrating via API, SDK, or utag.js
   - C) Data/analytics — I work with EventStream, data layer, or warehouse sync
   - D) Admin — I manage users, publish profiles, configure connectors

3. **Which Tealium products are you using?**
   - A) iQ Tag Management only
   - B) AudienceStream CDP
   - C) EventStream API Hub
   - D) Composable / CloudStream (warehouse-native)
   - E) Full stack (iQ + AudienceStream + EventStream)
   - F) Evaluating — haven't purchased yet

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already contains enough context, skip to Step 2.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| Problem domain | Route to |
|---|---|
| Email campaign strategy | `/sales-email-marketing` — then come back for Tealium audience activation |
| CRM data dedup without Tealium | `/sales-data-hygiene` — Tealium is a CDP, not a CRM dedup tool |
| Retargeting ad strategy | `/sales-retargeting` — then come back for Tealium audience sync |
| Connecting Tealium to other tools | Answer here using connector reference |
| Tool integration architecture | `/sales-integration` — for webhook/Zapier patterns beyond Tealium connectors |
| Choosing between CDPs | `/sales-cdp` — cross-platform CDP comparison and selection |

When routing to another skill, provide the exact command: "This is a {problem domain} question — run: `/sales-{skill} {user's original question}`"

## Step 3 — Tealium platform reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for the full platform reference — products, modules, pricing, integrations, data model, connector setup, identity resolution.

Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference.

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

You no longer need the platform guide — focus on the user's specific situation.

- **For iQ setup**: Walk through utag.js installation, data layer definition, tag configuration, load rules
- **For identity resolution**: Explain Visitor Switching modes, cross-device stitching, anonymous-to-known progression
- **For connectors**: Identify the right connector, configure actions, map attributes, set frequency capping
- **For EventStream**: Help configure event feeds, filters, transformations, and connector triggers
- **For API questions**: Point to the right API (Collect v3 for ingestion, Visitor Profile for lookups, Visitor Privacy for GDPR)
- **For warehouse sync**: Walk through Composable CDP or CloudStream setup with Snowflake/BigQuery/Databricks

If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in `references/learnings.md`, append it there.

## Gotchas

> *Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.*

1. **Implementation takes weeks to months** — unlike Segment (days for POC), Tealium requires careful data layer planning, tag configuration, and connector mapping. Budget 4-12 weeks for a production deployment.

2. **Collect HTTP API rate limit is 100 events/sec** — this includes bulk events (10 per call × 10 calls = 100 events). Exceeding returns HTTP 429. For higher throughput, contact your account manager.

3. **JWT bearer tokens expire after 30 minutes** — cache and reuse the token until expiry. Re-authenticating too frequently triggers throttling.

4. **Identity resolution default configs often fail complex scenarios** — visitor switching with shared devices (householding) or guest transactions can blur individual profiles. Test identity rules in QA before production.

5. **Event-based pricing scales unpredictably** — costs increase significantly as event volumes rise. Monitor event counts and set alerts before hitting overage thresholds.

6. **iQ tags load asynchronously by default** — but third-party tags can still block page rendering. Use the tag timeout feature to cancel slow tags. Place analytics tags first in the load order.

7. **Connector retry logic is 1min → 5min → 30min** — if all three retries fail, the request is dropped. Monitor error rates in the connector dashboard. Errors above threshold trigger automatic throttling.

8. **Can't open two tabs in the admin UI simultaneously** — and the session frequently expires, requiring re-login. This is a known UX limitation.

## Related skills

- `/sales-cdp` — CDP comparison and selection strategy across Tealium, Segment, BlueConic, mParticle, Treasure Data
- `/sales-blueconic` — BlueConic CDP — profile unification, segmentation, audience activation
- `/sales-treasuredata` — Treasure Data enterprise CDP — profile unification, 400+ connectors, AI Marketing Cloud
- `/sales-data-hygiene` — CRM data quality, deduplication, enrichment automation
- `/sales-retargeting` — Retargeting strategy, audience activation to ad platforms
- `/sales-integration` — Connect sales tools with webhooks, Zapier/Make, APIs
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do`

## Examples

### Example 1: Connector data not flowing
**User says**: "I set up a Facebook connector in EventStream but no audiences are appearing in Facebook Ads Manager."
**Skill does**: Walks through connector diagnostics — check the connector run history for errors, verify segment has matching profiles, confirm attribute mapping between Tealium and Facebook Custom Audiences, check sync frequency, and test with a manual trigger.
**Result**: User identifies the misconfigured field mapping and gets audiences flowing.

### Example 2: Tags slowing down the site
**User says**: "Our site load time increased by 3 seconds after we added Tealium iQ. How do I fix this?"
**Skill does**: Explains async loading best practices, tag timeout configuration, load rule optimization, and tag prioritization. Recommends moving high-priority analytics tags to the top and setting 5-second timeouts on slower vendor tags.
**Result**: User reduces tag-related page load impact from 3 seconds to under 500ms.

### Example 3: Choosing Tealium vs Segment
**User says**: "We're evaluating Tealium and Segment for our CDP. We have a 10-person marketing team and need audience activation."
**Skill does**: Routes to `/sales-cdp` for cross-platform comparison, noting Tealium's marketer-friendly AudienceStream vs Segment's developer-first approach, implementation timelines, and pricing models.
**Result**: User has a clear framework for choosing based on their team composition and use case.

## Troubleshooting

### Visitor profiles not merging across channels
**Symptom**: Same customer has multiple Tealium visitor profiles (one from web, one from mobile, one from email)
**Cause**: No shared identifier connecting the profiles. Visitor Switching requires a matched identifier (typically email or customer ID).
**Solution**: Implement progressive identification — capture email/login on web, pass customer ID in mobile SDK. Review Visitor Switching configuration in AudienceStream. Test merge rules in