--- title: "Acquia DAM Optimization Guide" date: "2026-06-19T06:07:42+00:00" summary: "Optimize your Acquia DAM with expert tips on asset audits, metadata, user roles, and lifecycle management to meet modern business goals." image: type: "page" url: "/acquia-dam/acquia-dam-optimization-guide" id: "41828f92-e128-4601-ac51-03777c12ee16" --- This guide provides information to help you optimize your Acquia DAM (Widen) to meet modern business objectives. It includes efficient methods on how to: * Audit and optimize your assets * Optimize your users, roles, and permissions * Optimize your asset lifecycle * Optimize metadata, dashboards, and automation Prerequisites ------------- When you find resources with multiple references, consider them foundational DAM management resources and bookmark them. For optimization of your DAM, you must first define KPIs and share them with Acquia so that your metrics for success can be documented in Acquia's shared success plan. In addition, you can plot your current and required DAM maturity with the [brand maturity model](https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-dam-brand-management-maturity-model): ![acquia-dam\_success-plan](https://acquia.widen.net/content/8npddgtirm/web/82a02_acquia-dam_success-plan_0.png?w=480&v=786cec46-bbce-4f48-99c0-030e28065f03&itok=dby2JYDa) Acquia DAM (Widen) is a highly configurable and flexible product that provides self-service optimization to help you directly control the way your users experience DAM. However, Acquia recommends that you collaborate with Acquia Professional Services to get detailed site configuration audits and practices suited to your industry and unique objectives. To expedite the transition to a high-performance environment, contact the Acquia account team and obtain a structured optimization roadmap. ### Define success metrics for your DAM The success metrics for your DAM must align with the organizational objectives. To define these metrics, do the following: * Identify the original objectives for the DAM purchase. For example, create a central repository for branded assets, ensure brand compliance, or improve the efficiency of content operations. * Determine the information that data executives require to measure the return on investment and overall system performance. * Evaluate how DAM integrates with your current strategic priorities and vital objectives. * Use Insights reports to measure how DAM contributes to organizational achievements. Audit and clean up assets for DAM optimization ---------------------------------------------- Before you can transition to a DAM configuration that meets modern business objectives, do an audit of the current assets in your DAM. The asset audit and optimization help you to: * Lower storage costs by deleting unnecessary or redundant assets. * Enforce brand compliance by expiring outdated branded assets. * Improve search results for users. * Increase the effectiveness of content creation and distribution operations by identifying the best- and worst-performing assets. In the asset audit, refer to your company’s data retention policy and identify the following: * Number of assets in your DAM * List of actively used assets * List of outdated, unused, or expired assets according to the data retention policy and asset usage trends If you do not know or have a data retention policy, visit the Acquia DAM Community Forum and ask your peers for examples of their policies. * Percentage of assets that are in DAM * Number of assets that are not in DAM If DAM is currently not the central source for your company’s digital assets, create a plan that effectively migrates and organizes missing assets into DAM. For detailed information, visit [Asset audit and cleanup](/acquia-dam/asset-audit-and-cleanup "Asset audit and cleanup"). User audit, roles, and asset security ------------------------------------- Evaluate current users, their roles, and their asset permissions. ### User management * Define your users and user governance * Do an audit of current users in your DAM * Define and review your user registration process * Follow the user governance and cleanse checklist For a pre-made checklist, visit [User audit, roles, and asset security](/acquia-dam/user-audit-roles-and-asset-security "User audit, roles, and asset security"). ### Role management * Set up regular insights reporting * Conduct a role analysis within the Admin application * Determine what resources should be made available for each role ### Asset group management * Define which roles can add assets such as profiles to your DAM * Ensure that users are assigned to the correct role * Implement a method for user enablement and feedback * Assess your security and maintenance procedures with the following: * Key roles you defined during audit and maintenance (add your own) * Security recommendations * Articles that support DAM security and maintenance For detailed information, visit [User audit, roles, and asset security](/acquia-dam/user-audit-roles-and-asset-security "User audit, roles, and asset security"). Metadata, dashboards, and automation for search optimization ------------------------------------------------------------ Metadata is the backbone of your DAM. Assess your metadata to determine which metadata efficiently serves your users and which actually hurts your SEO. Examine your metadata structure and ask the following questions: * Who are my users and what data is relevant to them? * How do various users search for assets? Using what terms? Using which features, such as quick search, dashboard messages, categories, or others? * How do my users interact with DAM assets? * What content do they need to find? * Are there other systems integrated with DAM that require specific data? Is there an opportunity to achieve data consistency across systems? For detailed information, visit [Metadata, dashboards, and automation for search optimization](/acquia-dam/metadata-dashboards-and-automation-search-optimization "Metadata, dashboards, and automation for search optimization"). User engagement and asset lifecycle ----------------------------------- Make DAM your company’s technology, not Acquia’s technology. Identify your current asset lifecycle and ask the following questions: * How are assets uploaded? * How are assets tagged and enhanced? * What are current practices to curate, convert, and distribute assets? * What are current practices to analyze, reuse, and archive assets? * Are the Rights Management policies current? * How is advanced asset lifecycle maturity determined? Is it an integrated content ecosystem? For detailed information, visit [User engagement and asset lifecycle](/acquia-dam/user-engagement-and-asset-lifecycle "User engagement and asset lifecycle").