Send more identifiers to lift match rates
A destination can only match a conversion to a person if the event carries something it recognizes. One identifier gives it one chance. Three give it three. This is the cheapest improvement available on almost every integration, because it usually means collecting a field you already ask for and were not sending.
What each destination matches on
Section titled “What each destination matches on”| Platform | What it matches on |
|---|---|
| Meta | Email address, phone number, first and last name, city, state, postcode, country, date of birth, gender, your own external identifier, and the Meta click and browser identifiers. |
| Email address, phone number, first and last name, country, postcode, and the Google click identifier. On Enhanced Conversions for Leads the location fields go in plain text. | |
| Snapchat | Email address, phone number, and the mobile advertising identifiers where you have them. |
| TikTok | Email address, phone number, and the TikTok click identifier. |
| Email address. There is no second key to fall back on, so the address has to be right. | |
| OpenAI | Email address and your own external identifier. A phone number is not accepted in any form. |
Where to get more
Section titled “Where to get more”- Collect both an email address and a phone number on the form. Either one alone leaves a share of your conversions unmatchable, and the two overlap less than you would expect.
- Capture the click identifier when someone arrives from an ad, and store it against the record. On web events it lifts match quality more than most personal fields, and on lead records it is the difference between knowing a campaign produced qualified leads and knowing which keyword did.
- Add your own external identifier, such as a customer number or loyalty ID. It costs nothing to send and it matches people the platform already knows by another route.
- Send the name and location fields you hold. Individually weak, collectively they raise the share your destination can match.
- On app events, send the device identifiers unhashed. GAID, IDFA and IDFV match more reliably on app conversions than personal identifiers do.
What does not help
Section titled “What does not help”Value, currency, transaction ID and the product fields describe the conversion rather than the person. They matter for reporting and for optimization, and they do not change whether a match is found. Adding more of them will not move a match rate.
Why more identifiers sometimes does not help
Section titled “Why more identifiers sometimes does not help”- The extra field is present but empty on most records. Coverage matters more than the column existing.
- The field is being sent in the wrong shape. A phone number with no country code is not a worse identifier, it is not an identifier at all.
- The addresses are work addresses. Corporate email matches less well than personal email, which is why business-to-business integrations tend to sit lower whatever you do.
- The data is old. An email address someone stopped using cannot match.
Where to make the change
Section titled “Where to make the change”On a file or database source, add the column to the export and map it on the instance. On a CRM source, map the field once it exists in the CRM. On a web source, the field has to be available to the tag before it can be sent, which is where a dataLayer usually comes in. In all three cases the mapping step in Studio only offers fields that are actually arriving.