Build Unified Profiles with Data Cloud Batch Data Transforms

Perhaps this is the first time you’re hearing about Data Cloud Batch Data Transforms, in which case we’ll run through the basics: what they are, how to use them to create a unified individual profile, and when they’re the smarter alternative to Identity Resolution.

Salesforce Data Cloud’s Identity Resolution is powerful, but it can be overkill for businesses that already have high-quality data.

Designed for handling messy, mismatched customer records (e.g. “John Smith” in one system and “J. Smith” in another), Identity Resolution uses sophisticated matching rules to bring them together. It’s incredibly useful but resource-intensive. That means burning through credits faster than necessary.

If your business already has clean and aligned data, maybe you’re a retail brand, subscription service, or professional services firm with standardised naming and contact info, Batch Data Transforms offer a leaner option. They let you join and refine data across systems using common fields like first name, last name, and email address. There’s no need for advanced configuration or credit usage.

Batch Data Transforms are a feature in Salesforce Data Cloud that allows you to process and manipulate data in scheduled runs. Using a drag-and-drop editor, you can combine Data Lake Objects (DLOs), define rules for joining them, and output a new, unified record, all without needing to write code or deploy complex logic.

In short, they’re a user-friendly, efficient way to consolidate data.

As the name suggests, a Unified Individual Profile is a single view of a customer. It combines data points from multiple sources into a single place, so you have complete visibility. This makes it far easier to run sales and marketing activities that resonate with customers, driving greater campaign efficiency and better results.

Now we’re clear on the basics, here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a Unified Individual Profile from clean data sources, using Data Cloud’s Batch Data Transform feature.

1. Identify your Data Lake Objects (DLOs)

Your customer data might be split across multiple DLOs, say:

• Orders – Purchase history, order value, item categories

• Support Cases – Customer support tickets, resolution times

• Campaign Responses – Email engagement, event attendance

Each source contains valuable information. The key is identifying which fields you can use to link them. This is typically a name and email address, but may be different for your business.

2. Join your datasets

In the Batch Data Transforms editor, match your records across DLOs using shared identifiers. For example:

Join “Orders”, “Support Cases” and “Campaign Responses” where first_name, last_name, and email are equal.

If your data is consistent, this step is straightforward and doesn’t require tedious matching or algorithmic rules.

3. Choose which fields to include

From each source, select the fields that matter most to your business. For example:

• From Orders: Total spend, last purchase date

• From Support: Number of cases, average resolution time

• From Campaigns: Click-through rate, email opens

These fields will feed into your unified dataset and form the basis of customer insights.

4. Output as a new DLO

Once configured, Batch Data Transforms will output your selected data into a new Data Lake Object. Effectively, your raw Unified Individual Profile.

You can schedule the transform to run as frequently as needed: daily, weekly, or monthly.

5. Map to a custom Unified Data Model Object (DMO)

Finally, map the fields in your new DLO to a custom Unified Data Model Object (DMO). This ensures the data is structured in a way that Salesforce Data Cloud can understand and activate across the platform.

For example:

• “Total Spend” = Currency field

• “Case Count” = Number

• “Click Rate” = Percentage

Once you’ve created a Unified Individual Profile, you unlock a wide range of powerful use cases:

Personalised marketing campaigns

Use your unified data in Marketing Cloud to create targeted journeys. If Jane Doe spent £500 and opened your last two campaigns, she’s a great candidate for a VIP offer or re-engagement email.

Calculated insights

Create reliable forecasts by automatically calculating customer metrics such as:

• Lifetime value

• Average purchase frequency

• Churn risk

These become dynamic fields you can act on, without manually crunching numbers.

Triggered actions

Set up Data Actions based on thresholds or behaviour. For example:

• Alert support if a customer logs multiple tickets in a short time

• Notify sales if someone hits a spend milestone

Third-party integrations

Push unified data to external tools like loyalty platforms or Business Intelligence dashboards. Want to award loyalty points or visualise trends in Tableau? Easy.

Feed AI and predictive models

Bring Your Own Model (BYOM) or use Salesforce’s built-in AI to predict next purchases, recommend products, or flag churn risks. The richer your unified data, the better your model performance.

If one of your systems (like an old CRM) is creating poor matches or duplicates, you don’t need to throw out the whole approach.

There’s a workaround:

1. Build your Batch Data Transform using only the clean data sources.

2. Output a new DLO with reliable, unified data.

3. Map this clean DLO alongside your messier source to the Individual DMO.

4. Use Identity Resolution just for that source.

This hybrid approach helps you minimise credits while still ensuring data quality.

Batch Data Transforms can do so much, but they’re not perfect. Watch out for:

• Assumed data cleanliness – If “Jane Doe” appears as “Jane D.” elsewhere, she won’t be matched.

• Field selection – You need to define fields manually; no automatic field mapping.

• Batch-based processing – It’s not real-time. If you need immediate updates, explore Streaming Data Transforms.

For businesses with clean, consistent customer data, Batch Data Transforms are a faster, more efficient way to build Unified Individual Profiles in Salesforce Data Cloud. You save on credits, avoid unnecessary complexity, and still get the full picture, ready for marketing, analytics, AI, and more.

Need support building your own Unified Individual Profile? MarCloud is a specialist consultancy for Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Data Cloud. Let’s chat about how to make your data work harder, faster, and smarter.