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Activation Guide for Reseller Clients

If you are the client of a reseller of LiveRamp's services, use the information below to onboard your data.

At LiveRamp, “Activation” refers to the process of sending your customer data to digital marketing applications and media platforms. See the appropriate sections below for information on how to onboard your data.

Tip

See "Getting Started with Activation" for the key LiveRamp terms you’ll encounter.

The key steps in this process are:

  1. Accessing Connect

  2. Creating files

  3. Uploading files

  4. Distributing data to an end destination

Access Connect

The company that has partnered with LiveRamp to offer onboarding will create an account for you in LiveRamp Connect, our self-service UI. Once the reseller has given you access, you will receive an email with instructions for accessing Connect (see "Log In to Connect" for more information).

Note

Didn't get the email? If you have not received the activation email, contact your reseller representative.

Create Files

Files for reseller clients must follow a specific format to ensure successful file uploads.

All files must be single-segment files, meaning they only contain the identifiers for all the consumers you want in a particular segment (and no segment data fields). These types of files are sometimes also referred to as "file-wide fields" because they create a field that contains all of the members in the file.

For example, if you want to have a segment of all the dog lovers in your CRM, you would create a file containing only the PII identifiers of those consumers and name the file with the desired name of the segment to be created. Do not include a "dog lovers" column.

Once the file is ingested and processed, a “dog lovers” segment is created in Connect with all the consumers in your uploaded file.

Guidelines Overview

In addition to our standard file formatting guidelines, reseller client files must meet the following guidelines:

  • Column-based files only

  • PII-based data only (no online data files)

  • No segment data fields (only identifier data fields)

  • Allowed file formats are CSV, TSV, or TXT (do not upload Excel files)

  • Name the file with the name of the segment you want to create (in addition to our file naming guidelines)

  • Files can be compressed and/or encrypted (see “Finalizing Files for Uploading” for more information)

  • Must contain the following PII identifier fields only (no segment data fields), with these exact headers in this exact order:

    • FIRSTNAME

    • LASTNAME

    • ADDRESS1

    • ADDRESS2

    • CITY

    • STATE

    • ZIP

    • EMAIL1

    • EMAIL2

    • EMAIL3

    • EMAIL4

    • PHONE1

    • PHONE2

  • If you don't have data for a particular column, include the column and leave the cells empty

To download a .csv file template with these columns and column headers, click here.

Caution

Hashing identifiers: To send hashed emails (SHA-256, MD5, and/or SHA-1 hashes) or hashed phone numbers (SHA-1 hashes only), use the existing email or phone columns and headers (no other identifiers can be hashed - see "Hashing Identifiers" for more information). Do not add additional columns or change the column headers.

The first time you send hashed identifiers, make sure the Implementation team is aware so they can import the data correctly.

Upload Files to LiveRamp

Note

At LiveRamp, an "audience" is a way to group your data. Your reseller should have already created an audience for you to upload your data to when they created their account. However, if they haven't created an audience for you, contact your reseller and request an audience be created for your account before attempting to upload your files.

There are two options for uploading files to LiveRamp:

  • Via Connect: For files 500MB and smaller, you can upload them in Connect by following the instructions in "Upload a File via Connect."

  • Via SFTP: Files larger than 500MB need to be uploaded via the LiveRamp SFTP by following the instructions in "Upload a File via LiveRamp's SFTP."

    Caution

    Make sure to upload files into the appropriate audience subdirectory within the “/uploads” directory. Contact your reseller for SFTP access.

Distribute Data to an End Destination

After your file has been ingested and processed (generally within 24 hours), the files will appear in Connect. Each file upload results in a segment being created in Connect with the same name as the file name. You can then distribute those segments to the desired end destinations.

Note

To see if your file has completed processing, click Files in the Connect navigation menu to navigate to the Files page (see "Check the Status of an Uploaded File" for more information).

To distribute segments to an end destination:

  1. Activate a destination account for your desired destination.

  2. Distribute data to that destination account.

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