Interactive guide · 29 slides · 3,699 words
How advertising identity works
A visual introduction to the records, connections and decisions behind advertising, from a browser visit to a shared television.
All slides
- How advertising identity works
- What we’ll cover
- Recognition gives advertising something to act on
- An ad can be relevant without recognising you
- A customer record matches. What follows?
- Start with what is recognised
- One phone contains several identity contexts
- The device changes the available evidence
- Group identifiers by the job they do
- A cookie stores a value. Code sends an event.
- A graph is a set of claimed relationships
- An exact match can still mean the wrong thing
- Each participant sees its own part of the picture
- Keep matching quality separate from delivery
- Separate the service, screen and buying route
- Search begins with expressed intent
- Social combines account activity with prediction
- On the open web, the page matters too
- Programmatic passes an opportunity through several systems
- Video travels across screens. Its evidence changes.
- Retail media connects advertising with shopping records
- Audio and games create different event records
- Some channels address a contact. Others address a place.
- Follow Maya's sofa search
- A purchase creates another set of records
- Connected, credited and caused answer different questions
- When a connection disappears, change the claim
- The campaign receives credit. What can Fern conclude?
- Understand the identity before trusting the claim
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01 / How advertising identity works
Maya and Luca share a home and television. Maya is shopping for a sofa at fictional retailer Fern. Our illustrative journey follows the records they could create.
02 / What we’ll cover
Illustrative summary of the mechanisms explained in this guide.
03 / Recognition gives advertising something to act on
04 / An ad can be relevant without recognising you
These inputs can combine. Check whether an audience restricts eligibility or informs reporting or prediction.
05 / A customer record matches. What follows?
Answer
Alternative: Maya has seen the advert. Matching precedes delivery. Campaign eligibility, the available placement and selection still matter. A match is not an impression.
Correct: The platform found a supported connection to its records. The connection may support the selected audience use. It does not establish delivery or prove that the contact point belongs exclusively to Maya.
Alternative: The platform knows Maya will buy. A match connects records. A prediction estimates a possible response. Neither guarantees a purchase.
06 / Start with what is recognised
Customer 428 at Fern is unrelated to customer 428 at another retailer unless a connection is established. Issuer and scope are part of the identifier.
07 / One phone contains several identity contexts
08 / The device changes the available evidence
09 / Group identifiers by the job they do
An order ID can prevent duplicate purchase counting. A creative ID identifies an advert. Neither is automatically a reusable customer identity.
10 / A cookie stores a value. Code sends an event.
A server can process and forward events too. Changing the route does not create missing identity evidence. Each integration needs its own controls.
11 / A graph is a set of claimed relationships
Ask why each connection exists, when it was observed and what would invalidate it. An account can still be shared.
12 / An exact match can still mean the wrong thing
Hashing calculates a digest. It is not encryption. Each product specifies its input preparation.
13 / Each participant sees its own part of the picture
Clean rooms allow controlled data collaboration. Inputs, queries and outputs determine what participants learn. The label does not guarantee aggregated results.
14 / Keep matching quality separate from delivery
15 / Separate the service, screen and buying route
16 / Search begins with expressed intent
17 / Social combines account activity with prediction
18 / On the open web, the page matters too
19 / Programmatic passes an opportunity through several systems
This illustrates an auction. Programmatic arrangements differ, so establish the identity inputs and selection rules for the actual integration.
20 / Video travels across screens. Its evidence changes.
21 / Retail media connects advertising with shopping records
22 / Audio and games create different event records
23 / Some channels address a contact. Others address a place.
24 / Follow Maya's sofa search
25 / A purchase creates another set of records
26 / Connected, credited and caused answer different questions
Platforms can each credit the same order. A holdout experiment estimates effects across groups; it does not identify which individual orders were caused.
27 / When a connection disappears, change the claim
28 / The campaign receives credit. What can Fern conclude?
Answer
Alternative: The advert created an additional sofa sale. That is the causal question. A credited purchase could still have happened without the campaign. An appropriate incrementality method is needed to estimate the difference.
Correct: The system credited a real sale under its attribution rules. The purchase was checked and credit was assigned. Keep the join's scope, window and attribution rule attached to the conclusion.
Alternative: Every earlier advert in Maya's journey is now known. This report uses available evidence inside a particular system. Unobserved or unlinked interactions can remain outside its view.