What is Identity Matching (Unified Data) and Why is it Important?

Cookies offer marketers a wealth of information about the way their prospects navigate the internet via desktop, from the sites they visit to the social profiles they own and the pages they viewed and clicked within your website. There’s just one problem: According to Google’s blog, “More Google searches take place on mobile devices than desktop in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan.” And all this mobile browsing is lost to cookies. But, it’s still possible to track, and that’s where identity matching or unified data comes in.

What is Identity Matching?

Identity matching is the ability to track behavior across multiple devices. Depending on the level of sophistication, marketers can use technology to track users’ behavior not only from desktop to mobile, but across connected TVs, wearables and more. Linking this data gives marketers like you a more detailed glimpse into the experiences and interests of prospects in order to provide more relevant offers.

How Does Identity Matching Work?

For about two decades, marketers have relied on cookies to provide the sort of data they needed. And while cookies still provide helpful insight into desktop behavior, they’re too unreliable for mobile.

Identity matching uses a piece of data a marketer has on hand-like an email address-to identify cross-device behavior using the same piece of data. For example, if a user logs onto various platforms using an email address, this will be tracked as a hashed email. Because a marketer has a subscriber’s email address, they can use this identifier to learn more. For example, you could determine which social media platform a prospect uses most.

The One-to-One Marketing Experience

Thanks to identity matching, providing a one-to-one experience is becoming easier than ever before. By understanding the customer journey, you can make sure your brand is providing a clear, unified experience all along the way. Instead of making an educated guess, you can target prospects where they spend the most time, and apply context to ensure the offers you share are most relevant to their wants, needs and lifestyle.

When you can collect and match data, across multiple channels and devices, you can optimize your marketing efforts to meet prospects at the right place, at the right time and with the message most likely to drive engagement. By understanding consumer behavior, you delight your customers and the sort of memorable experience that fuel long-term loyalty.

The more you know your customers, the better the ROI of your efforts. Get your free email match test now and target your audience like never before.