Customized PDFs offer a simple an effective way to provide customized content to partners. With minimal setup in Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can update your existing PDF files to include partner-specific information using marketing assets. The PDFs can then be downloaded from the library or a campaign directly by the partner or linked from other tactics, such as a gated asset on a landing page.


The Customized PDF functionality currently does not support manual customization of the PDF by partners. To learn more about how creating editable PDFs, see our support article on creating point and click templates.


To create a customized PDF, first open the PDF Document in Adobe Acrobat.


 

What will I find in this article?


  1. PDF Setup
  2. Create the PDF Tactic
  3. Sharing the File
  4. Linking to Customized Files



 

1. PDF Setup


Open the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat.


Click Tools in the menu, then select Prepare Form.



The form options will be visible at the top of the application. Click the Add a Text Field icon. All fields that you add are text fields.


Place the text field in the desired location in the template. Enter the appropriate market asset value for the partner data that should display in this section (e.g. [MarketAsset1234]). You can double-click the field to adjust other properties like font size, type, and color. Each text field in the PDF is required to be unique, so if you need to use a market asset more than once you can simply add the market asset followed by a number (e.g. [MarketAsset1234]111). When the PDF is used the market asset and additional characters will be automatically removed to leave only the partner's provided value.


To add an image market asset, click Add an Image Field. This will still require you to enter the [MarketAsset1234] value for the image to be used. Enter the market asset value just like you would for a normal text market asset.


Continue to add additional text fields and image fields with the appropriate market assets throughout the PDF. Save the PDF when done.



 

2. Create the PDF Tactic

Once the PDF setup in Adobe Acrobat is complete, you are ready to create the tactic in StructuredWeb. Login to Program Manager and select the Tactics tab.



Click New File and select the PDF option.




Enter the Name of the PDF tactic and provide the Description. You can additionally update the File Type to edit the searchable file type for partners. Lastly, update any Attribute values for the file. When finished click Save.



In Step 1, upload the PDF file that you have created by dragging the file into the box or clicking in the section.



In Step 2, confirm all market assets used in the file. If you believe any are missing, delete the PDF from step one and edit your PDF to confirm it has all needed market assets.



Click Here in Step 3 to view a preview of the PDF. This preview will use dummy values to replace the market asset merge fields to validate that the merge is working as expected.


Upload the image to be used for the PDF thumbnail and and preview image in Step 4 by clicking Choose file. An image with dimensions 600x450 pixels is recommended. Click Save when done.


 

3. Sharing the File

Once the file has been uploaded and the preview displays properly, you are ready to make it available to your partners. Go to the Settings tab.



For the section Would you like to make this available for pulling from the managed library: select Yes.



In the section What programs would you like to use this campaign in: check the boxes for the programs that should have access to the customized PDF. Click Save when done.



4. Linking to Customized Files

Custom PDFs can be linked directly from other tactic types. This allows you to provide co-branded assets directly in partner emails and landing pages instead of needing to use generic versions of the documents. Currently this type of linking is supported in Email, Form, and Social tactic types. If you want to use a custom PDF within one of these tactics, first you will want to navigate to the Custom PDF and access the Content tab.



In Step 3: Preview right-click the CLICK HERE text and copy the link URL.



This is the link you will insert into your email, form, or social post to link to the customized document. You can insert this link using any of the standard linking options when creating these tactic types.


Lastly, when editing the tactic that will link to the custom PDF, access the Assets tab. This tab is used to indicate the market assets used by that tactic. If any market assets are used in the custom PDF but not the tactic itself, make sure to check those options and Save. This will ensure that the partner is providing all market assets required for the custom PDF to properly display.