Centralizing User Data for Enhanced Analysis: A Case Study on AllTrails

AllTrails is a digital platform that encourages people to explore outdoor recreational trails. The platform operates on a freemium subscription model and provides information on more than 350,000 trails from every country in the world. With a user base of 40 million people globally, AllTrails has a vast amount of user data to draw from for digital analytics and marketing. The company's goal is to use this data to enhance user experiences and drive higher conversion rates, while also optimizing their marketing efforts on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

AllTrails, a digital platform providing information on over 350,000 trails to 40 million users worldwide, faced a significant challenge in managing their data architecture. The company's analysts and engineers had developed a homegrown JSON schema library to define event collection, which was built into a custom SDK platform. However, maintaining this custom SDK generator for each platform was time-consuming and often led to delays in the collection of new analytics events. Furthermore, the GitHub repository used for this process was difficult for non-technical team members to navigate, making it challenging to ensure that it met their requirements. The company realized the need to move away from their homegrown SDK library and adopt a customer data platform (CDP) solution.

AllTrails decided to adopt Amplitude's CDP, which they were already using for analytics. This allowed them to standardize and consolidate event collection, enabling them to be more proactive in data governance. The company also built an AWS Kinesis data stream integration to send near-real-time data to their marketing platforms, optimizing ads on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads based on performance. The integration of downstream systems led to more advanced targeting and personalization as more AllTrails teams connected to the Amplitude data. The implementation of the CDP was a cross-organizational collaboration, ensuring that the solution met the immediate and long-term goals of all stakeholders.

• The adoption of Amplitude's CDP has led to significant operational benefits for AllTrails. The company has been able to reduce the time spent on fixing data issues, tracking new events, and integrating with downstream systems. This has freed up more time for the team to focus on answering big data science questions that will drive the company forward. The CDP has also enabled AllTrails to provide more personalized experiences to users, which is expected to drive higher conversion rates. Furthermore, the integration of downstream systems has allowed for more advanced targeting and personalization, enhancing the company's marketing efforts.