People-based marketing refers to the ability to deliver targeted ads and messages to individuals across any screen, on any device. While the concept is relatively new, it has caught on quickly. In fact, 68% of marketers are putting a significant amount of budget towards it.
Marketers have often struggled to recognize consumers and their actions across different devices. Before mobile became popular, cookies were the main tool for identifying and targeting people using desktop computers or laptops. However, cookies are not dependable on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, and they definitely don’t provide a complete picture of a consumer or their path to making a purchase.
To tackle these challenges, the industry has begun adopting an anonymous identification method that safeguards consumer privacy while still giving marketers a clear view of their prospects and customers, allowing them to provide relevant ads and experiences. Known as unique identifiers, these anonymous IDs merge third-party cookie IDs, device IDs, CRM IDs, and offline IDs to create a detailed profile of each user who has interacted with a brand’s media and marketing across online and offline channels and devices. By using these detailed profiles in the attribution process, marketers can identify and enhance the effectiveness of each channel and tactic in driving conversions and other key business results by audience segment across all platforms and devices.
Unique Identifiers: How Do They Work?
Today’s marketers use an ever-growing number of technologies to connect with consumers. The typical marketing technology portfolio now consists of dozens of disparate systems, ranging from ad servers, email platforms and CRM systems, to mobile solutions, third-party data providers, point of sale solutions and more. Each of these systems use cookies, pixel tags and/or other tracking mechanisms to create unique IDs that are associated with each individual. For example, a unique ID created by a CRM system might be identified as a loyal, high-end customer, while a separate unique identifier for the same individual from a third-party data provider might reveal this person is a female, age 35-50 with a household income of more than $100,000.
While these unique IDs provide valuable insight into individual attributes, preferences and behaviors, they are stored separately and are unique to each system, making it difficult for marketers to use the data effectively to target specific audiences or maximize the impact of their efforts across channels, touchpoints and devices. Fortunately, technological advancements are now enabling brands to piece all this disparate online, device and offline point of sale data together, reconciling millions of unique IDs into a single unique identifier for each individual. All personally identifiable information (PII) is removed to safeguard privacy, leaving an enriched, anonymized profile of each individual that interacts with a brand.
What Do Unique Identifiers Mean for Marketers?
The industry’s evolution toward the use of unique identifiers is the key to delivering on the promise of true people-based marketing. By assigning a unique identifier to each individual, marketers benefit from a comprehensive, end-to-end view of the consumer journey and how customers and prospects engage with their brand, regardless of where that interaction occurs. Moreover, marketers can organize individuals into customized audience segments based on relevant actions or desired characteristics, such customers who have made in-app purchases or those with the greatest lifetime value.
When these robust profiles are used to feed the attribution process, marketers receive an unparalleled view of marketing and advertising performance by audience segment. With visibility into which channels and tactics influence a specific audience, when and to what extent, marketers can orchestrate the optimal customer experience, and optimize their spend within and across channels to drive conversions, brand engagement, revenue, and other desired KPIs.
Cookies will likely continue to play an important role in tracking audience engagement. But as consumers continue to interact with brands across a growing number of channels and screens, marketers and advertisers should look to unique identifiers as a way to move beyond simply cookie-based tracking. When used for attribution measurement, unique identifiers make the promise of people-based marketing more achievable than ever.
Read more: Referrals: The Holy Grail of Marketing