Measurement Enablement for Ads Data Hub with LiveRamp
LiveRamp’s integration with Ads Data Hub enables our partners to leverage RampIDs as the join key between partner-owned data and the exposure data present in Ads Data Hub.
Ads Data Hub is Google’s clean room environment where clients can access Google ad exposure data from their campaigns. Google is in the process of migrating all event-level Google ads data (e.g. impressions and clicks) to ADH, including YouTube and Google Marketing Platform exposure data (DV360, Google Ad Manager, etc.). ADH will also be the only place to access Data Transfer files (aka DCM logs) once Partner IDs are redacted in 2022.
Caution
Certain restrictions apply in ADH, and users are not able to inspect or export the underlying event-level ads data directly. You can find additional information on these restrictions here.
LiveRamp provides support for the datasets we process and tie to LiveRamp RampIDs and will provide an example query to demonstrate how joins between client-owned data and exposure data in ADH can be performed.
Caution
LiveRamp is not reselling Ads Data Hub nor are we providing Ads Data Hub support. LiveRamp does not have access to a client's Ads Data Hub account and therefore does not help develop queries or work directly in ADH.
Getting Started
If you’re an existing ADH customer or are exploring ADH and want to learn more about the LiveRamp integration, contact your LiveRamp CSM.
FAQs
You send the data you would like to put in BigQuery to LiveRamp, specifying the relevant corresponding project(s), dataset(s), and table(s). Data can be uploaded using all of LiveRamp’s standard methods (such as SFTP or S3 bucket).
You authorize LiveRamp to deliver data in your BigQuery project(s).
LiveRamp processes the data and matches the IDs within (PII, cookies, etc.) to Google-encoded RampIDs.
LiveRamp hashes the RampIDs with your customer-specific encryption key.
LiveRamp delivers the RampID-keyed data into the relevant BigQuery locations as specified by you. You have full control of this data in your BigQuery account.
When people opt-out of ads personalization via Google's Ads Settings, we stop matching their IDs, breaking the connection from ads data to LiveRamp in Ads Data Hub. For all other customers, PII will be pseudonymized and tied to your RampID instance when uploaded into your Ads Data Hub BigQuery environment. A match will be made to Google ID using the underlying LiveRamp match table.
No, Google does not have direct access to the data you store in your own environment. Your data are held in a BigQuery environment you fully own and have control over. You are always in control of that data. You can view your individual records and export them back.
You can export your data out of BigQuery at any time. However, any queries run in Ads Data Hub and joined to Google data will only include aggregated results. Additionally, that data will be tied to an Ads Data Hub-specific form of RampID that LiveRamp cannot ingest and use to match through our graph. There is no reactivation/retargeting available through LiveRamp. As such we recommend a parallel delivery of that data into some other location, tied to your customer RampID, that LiveRamp will be able to use.
Not directly, as it is not tied to the correct Ads Data Hub-specific RampID. At the minimum, it will need to be translated to the correct Ads Data Hub RampID. That new set of data should at least be put into new tables in the BigQuery project, or you may wish to create a new BigQuery project dedicated to Ads Data Hub purposes.
Not directly. There is an Ads Data Hub +customer-specific RampID required for the integration to work. You can send your existing RampID-based data to LiveRamp, where we can translate to the Ads Data Hub segment (also referred to as the ADH Bridge ID) and deliver to your BigQuery environment. Going forward, net new data can be delivered on the customer RampID to your desired environment and on the Ads Data Hub RampID (Bridge ID) into BigQuery in parallel. Contact your Google account lead or your LiveRamp client lead to express interest and establish eligibility.
Once setup is complete, an “_match” version of the tables normally present in ADH will become accessible to you in your ADH account (such as dt_impressions_match). This table contains your customer-specific hashed RampIDs (ADH Bridge IDs) in the “external_cookie” column, which you’ll use as the join key when writing queries between your data and Google data. Note that the “_match” tables will be a subset of the original tables, and will only contain the rows LiveRamp + Google are able to match.
When you write queries joining between ADH data and the data LiveRamp delivers, the “external_cookie” column (present in ADH) and the “ADH_Bridge_ID” (from the data LiveRamp delivered) will be used to perform joins. Example query below:
SELECT count(1) as matched FROM adh.cm_dt_impressions_match as adh INNER JOIN `project_name.dataset_name.table_name_LR_table` as LR ON LOWER(TO_HEX(adh.external_cookie)) = LR.ADH_Bridge_ID
For more information on joining first-party1P data to Ads Data Hub data, see Google’s documentation here.
LiveRamp does not have direct access to your Ads Data Hub, and thus cannot provide direct assistance in query writing or troubleshooting. For questions related to your queries in Ads Data Hub, contact Google’s ADH Support.
There are a few factors that could contribute to lower than expected query results when joining your LiveRamp-delivered datasets to Google’s ADH data.
Files Delivered by LiveRamp: LiveRamp is matching the files you provide to hashed RampIDs (ADH Bridge IDs) to enable joins. You can file a ticket with the LiveRamp LiveRamp Community portal to ensure our team doesn’t see any issues with match rates in the files we’re processing on your behalf.
Google Privacy Checks and Aggregation Requirements: Ads Data Hub has built-in functionality to protect user privacy that may result in certain rows being excluded from query results. ADH also has aggregation requirements, and query results must meet Google’s minimum aggregation requirement. You can learn more about these features and their impact on query results in Google’s Privacy Checks in ADH documentation. For additional questions on this functionality, contact your Google rep or ADH Support.
ID Selection Preferences: Google does not allow joins between their “signed in” and “signed out” User ID spaces. When multiple Google User IDs match to a LiveRamp RampID, Google will only make one of the User IDs available for joins in ADH which can impact query results. Make sure to check the FAQ on ID selection preferences to ensure your ADH integration setup is configured to maximize overlap for your use case.
Note
As mentioned above LiveRamp does not have access to your Ads Data Hub account and cannot help troubleshoot queries directly. Filing a ticket with Google’s ADH Support is often a great first step to troubleshoot query results, as the Google team can take a look at your queries on the backend and determine if/why results are being excluded. For best results, reference the Job ID of your query.
As mentioned above, Google has multiple User IDs. The LiveRamp integration with Google does include both signed-in and signed-out Google IDs, but direct joins between the signed-in and signed-out ID spaces are not permitted for privacy reasons. Google resolves conflicts where a RampID links to both User ID types by allowing joins through only one of the RampID<>Google_User ID linkages.
The linkage most relevant to you depends on the specific event-level ads data you’re working with in ADH:
Events Level Data | Recommended ID Preference |
|---|---|
YouTube logs | Signed-in User IDs |
DT files/tables | Signed-Out Users IDs |
DT files and YouTube | User ID with Higher Impression Count *Default behavior. Google chooses the User ID with the highest impression count within a given ADH instance. |
The LiveRamp team will configure your ID selection preference during setup. Once configured, we are unable to change your ID selection preference on the LiveRamp side. To change your ID selection preference for an existing setup, file a ticket w/ Google’s ADH Support.
Google has built out a library of documentation for ADH users available here. For additional support, contact your Google rep or reach out to ADH Support
For help with the data LiveRamp is delivering to your BigQuery table or another location, file a ticket with our LiveRamp LiveRamp Community portal.