The offer versions query builder, found in the Rule Definition section of some rule pages, is a set of fields that allows you to select specific offers versions.

The criteria you specify in the query builder, along with other constraints such as time period, customer segments, interaction channels, and so on, define the scope of the rule. The offer attributes used in the query builder specifies the exact offer versions to which a rule will apply.

The offer attributes listed in the query builder may be standard or custom offer attributes. Standard offer attributes are predefined attributes that are relevant for many implementations of Optimize (Expiration Date, Cost per Offer, Contact Channel, and so on). Custom offer attributes are offer attributes that you define in Campaign and that may be more specific to your industry (Interest Rate, Annual Fee, Department, Product SKU, and so on).

The offer attributes used to construct a query in the query builder may or may not be parameterized attributes. As such, the query builder may return offers (a marketing communication based on an offer template with no parameterized offer attributes) or offer versions (a marketing communication with one or more parameterized offer attributes which are customized by the user at the time the offer is assigned to a cell). The query builder, however, is the only means by which you can access offer versions to include in the scope of your rule. If all versions of an offer are essentially the same, there is no need to differentiate between versions of an offer for optimization. However, if parameterized offer versions are used for personalization where the “meaning” of an offer is substantively different based on the value of the parameterized offer attribute(s), then your optimization rules may need to query by offer attributes to scope your rule appropriately. An example of a parameterized offer attribute that changes the essence of the marketing communication would be “Product SKU” where the item could be a TV for one individual and a refrigerator for another.

When you run an Optimize session, the constraints you set using the query builder (along with other criteria you specified in all rules) help to determine which customers will populate the optimized contacts table.

For more information on defining offer custom attributes, creating offers or offer templates, or on parameterizing offer attributes in Campaign, see the IBM® UnicaCampaign Administrator’s Guide.