Personalizing Experiences for Anonymous Users by Leveraging Adobe RT-CDP and Target

Personalization has been the buzz word for awhile now, and companies spend a large portion of their marketing budgets to enable personalized customer experiences. Research shows that 96% of consumers are more likely to purchase after receiving a personalized message, and 65 % prefer to buy from brands that tailor experiences across touchpoints (Digital Silk, 2025). Yet, the majority of customer interactions happen during anonymous visits—no login, no CRM profile, no subscription, just visits, clicks and interactions. In this article, I’ll address how to tap into anonymous personalization leveraging Adobe Experience Platform capabilities, including tactical approaches, best practices, and a high-level roadmap.

The Untapped Value of Anonymous Personalization

Studies suggest that 90­–98% of e-commerce traffic is anonymous (Retail Systems, 2025), and 95% of all website visits are anonymous, yet the majority of budget and resources are focused on known visitors (YouneeqAI, 2025). When organizations concentrate their personalization strategies exclusively on known users—those who are logged in or otherwise identified—they risk overlooking a significant portion of their potential audience.

This approach fails to address the sizable market of anonymous visitors, who often constitute the majority of website traffic, despite the wealth of behavioral and contextual data these users generate during their sessions. Although these anonymous users do not provide personal identifiable information (PII), they still generate valuable behavioral and contextual data throughout their sessions. Ignoring this data means missing out on opportunities to engage, nurture, and convert a large pool of potential customers.

By expanding personalization efforts to include anonymous users, companies can engage more effectively with prospective customers, nurture early interest, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates.

MarTech has made it easier for companies to target anonymous users, specifically Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) and Target help brands deliver meaningful, relevant experiences to anonymous users across channels.

How Adobe Experience Platform & Target Enable Personalization for Anonymous Users

The Real-Time Customer Data Platform (RT-CDP) built on AEP allows you to ingest first‐party behavioral data (both known and anonymous), unify profiles (even partial/pseudonymous), segment in real time, and activate those segments across channels. For anonymous users, AEP supports “pseudonymous profiles” (device - ECID or cookie-based identifiers) and data expiration policies so you can govern how long those anonymous-derived profiles persist. In practice, this means you can capture web interactions, mobile app events, and other touchpoints from users who have not authenticated, then assign those behaviors to unique device or browser identifiers.

RT-CDP’s segmentation engine enables marketers to build dynamic audiences based on these anonymous behaviors, such as frequent page views, repeat visits, or high-value referral traffic, and immediately activate personalized experiences through personalization destinations like Adobe Target. As user interactions accumulate, the platform can progressively enrich these pseudonymous profiles, providing deeper insights into user intent and preferences without requiring immediate identification.

When an anonymous user eventually self-identifies—by signing up, logging in, or completing a form—RT-CDP’s identity resolution capabilities link their historical anonymous activity to their newly established known profile, ensuring continuity in personalization strategy. This holistic approach allows organizations to maximize engagement and conversion opportunities from both anonymous and known users, while maintaining strict data governance and privacy controls.

Adobe Target offers the execution engine to deliver personalized experiences. Target empowers marketers to personalize for anonymous users by leveraging behavioral data and contextual signals gathered by RT-CDP, such as browsing history, device type, geolocation, and referral sources. This enables dynamic targeting, allowing for tailored experiences based on observed actions even if the user is not logged in. For example, Target can present unique hero banners, recommendation carousels, or custom calls-to-action to anonymous visitors, increasing relevance and driving engagement. Through its robust API, Target enables ongoing experimentation and optimization, ensuring that experiences remain relevant as user behaviors evolve. The seamless integration with RT-CDP ensures that as anonymous users eventually self-identify, their previous interactions are linked and personalization continues without interruption, maximizing both conversion and user satisfaction.

Tactics for Personalizing Anonymous Users

There are a few strategies marketing teams can adopt with AEP and Target to personalize anonymous users at scale.

1. Build High-Intent Anonymous Audiences

Since you do not have any personal identifiable information (PII) yet, you can rely on behavioral and contextual signals. Examples include:

• Visitors who view 3+ product pages (or service pages) but don’t convert

• Visitors coming from a high-value referral (e.g., industry report, partner site)

• Visitors returning within X days but still anonymous

• Geolocation (city/region) + device + time of day behavior indicating high value

In AEP RT-CDP you can ingest web data via Web SDK, which provides every web session with an ECID to be able to send those behavioral events into an Experience Data Model (XDM) schema, and build audiences in near real-time. Use those anonymous web audiences to feed Target or ad destinations.

2. Serve Personalized Entry Experiences via Target

Once you have your anonymous high-intent audience, deliver differentiated experiences via Adobe Target. Some examples:

• For the anonymous visitor arriving from a partner referral, show tailored hero banner referencing that partner context (“As a visitor coming from X segment you might like…”).

• For visitors who previously browsed (but left), show a recommendation carousel or message like “Still thinking about [category/product]? Here’s what others like you looked at.”

• Show “Create account” or “Contact our team” callouts for high-intent anonymous users, but still deliver content that respects their anonymous state

• Target allows you to test and optimize across these anonymous segments. Because you can define the state (Anonymous/Returning/Authenticated) as part of your decision logic, you can treat anonymous users distinctively.

3. Leverage Look-Alike and Modeling for Unknowns

Anonymous users lack richness of known profiles, so you can augment with modeled or look-alike techniques:

• Using machine-learning models in RT-CDP to infer intent or propensities based on anonymous session data + historical known behavioral patterns.

• Build look-alike audiences: e.g., visitors whose behavior matches known high-value customers, even though they’re not logged in.

• Feed these modeled segments into Target campaigns or ad activations.

4. Map Anonymous to Known – Progressive Identification

This is critical for long-term personalization maturation: gradually connecting anonymous interactions with known identities. Tactics include:

• Offer low-friction forms (newsletter sign-up, whitepaper, content download) to transition visitor from anonymous to known.

• Once they identify, stitch their recent anonymous behavioral profile (via the identity graph in AEP) into their known profile. The Identity Service allows you to link browser/device identifiers (ECID) to other identifiers.

• Use that enriched profile for deeper personalization, but maintain the journey context so you’re not reinventing the experience once they log in.

5. Measure and Optimize Anonymous Experience KPIs

Many organizations measure personalization only for known users, but you need visibility into anonymous segments as well. Consider tracking:

• Conversion from anonymous → known (i.e., form fill, login) by segment.

• Engagement of anonymous audience (page depth, time on site, bounce rate) versus generic traffic.

• Incremental lift of personalized experiences for anonymous segments (A/B test or Target experience offers).

• Lifetime value or propensity of users converted from anonymous to known via the program.

Best Practices for Targeting Anonymous Users

• Privacy & Compliance: Anonymous personalization doesn’t mean ignoring privacy. With pseudonymous profiles, you must still manage data expiration, consent, and identity deletion policies. AEP supports “pseudonymous profile data expiration” to automate cleanup.

• Cookie/Device Deprecation: Relying solely on third-party cookies or device fingerprints is increasingly fragile given browser and OS changes. Your approach must emphasize first-party data, passive behavioral signals, and model-led inference.

• Assuming Too Much Too Soon: Just because a user is anonymous doesn’t mean you should treat them as known. For example, don’t show “Welcome back, John” to a user you don’t actually know. Use anonymized hooks (e.g., “Returning visitor, we noticed you browsing…”) to maintain trust.

• Under-resourcing Measurement: If you cannot measure lift or ROI for the anonymous personalization workstream, the program risks being treated as “too experimental” and scaled back.

• Over-segmenting Without Scale: While it’s tempting to build extremely narrow anonymous segments (e.g., “visitors from city X, device type Y, product category Z”), ensure that you have sufficient volume to deliver meaningful personalization.

Recommended Phased Roadmap

1. Audit Your Data

   1. How much of your traffic is anonymous vs known? (Use web analytics and RT-CDP data)

   2. What behaviors/outcomes do you already capture on anonymous sessions (page views, time on site, product interactions)?

   3. What personalization (if any) currently applies to anonymous users?

2. Define Use Cases

   1. Select 2-3 high-impact anonymous segments (e.g., high-intent but not converted, partner referral visitors).

   2. Define personalization treatments for each (via Target).

   3. Agree on KPIs (conversion to known, engagement lift, incremental revenue).

3. Enable Data Infrastructure

   1. Ensure AEP ingestion of behavioral data (Web SDK/Edge network).

   2. Mark identity namespaces for pseudonymous/anonymous identity tracking and enable profile building.

   3. Build audiences and segments for anonymous behavior.

4. Activate Through Target & Channels

   1. For each segment, map experience in Target (site personalization, overlay, recommendations).

   2. If cross-channel (ads, display) is required, link AEP audiences to destinations.

   3. Establish connection between anonymous-segment activation and downstream known journey (e.g., when they register, the context is passed through).

5. Test, Optimize, Scale

   1. Run A/B or multivariate tests in Target to validate the lift of personalized experience vs generic.

   2. Monitor KPIs, adjust segmentation or creative treatment.

   3. Document learnings, build playbook, and expand to other segments/channels.

6. Govern & Iterate

   1. Ensure data governance, consent management and pseudonymous data expiration policies are in place.

   2. Incorporate model-based inference to evolve segments.

   3. Monitor technology shifts (cookies, identity, devices) and adapt architecture accordingly.

Anonymous users are often the most neglected. As Director of Consulting for Adobe Data & Journey Platforms, I’ve seen how adopting these technologies have transformed customer personalization strategies. By leveraging the capabilities within AEP RT-CDP and Target, you can build a mature personalization strategy that begins before identity, moves seamlessly through identity resolution, and ultimately delivers hyper-personal experiences across channels—whether you’re operating in B2B or B2C.

At Rightpoint, we support our clients in their digital transformations, specializing in implementing and optimizing AEP & Target at scale. Our team brings deep expertise in designing and implementing scalable, privacy-conscious solutions that drive meaningful engagement at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Reach out to discuss your personalization strategy.