Announcing Increased Cadence for Cookie to RampID Refreshes (4/20/20)
On May 4, 2020, LiveRamp will increase the cadence for refreshes for the groupings in our graph that govern cookie to RampID mappings. These updates had occurred on an as-needed basis but will begin occurring on a monthly basis starting with this change.
Over the last year, LiveRamp has made numerous updates to the data in our offline graph that have resulted in improvements in graph accuracy and stability for customers who receive cookie mappings files, use Measurement Enablement, or use Real-Time Identity Service. As a result, the first of these updates will result in a more noticeable one-time change. Going forward, changes will not be as noticeable as regular updates are applied on our new monthly cadence.
LiveRamp constantly adds new email and phone data to existing name and postal records in our offline identity graph. As more data comes into our offline graph, cookie to RampID mappings can update as a result of a more consolidated view of a person and better coverage of touchpoints that can be observed through the LiveRamp Match Network.
These updates will improve cookie to RampID mappings in the following ways:
More maintained RampID resolution: The increase in fidelity in our offline graph will cause cookies that previously resolved to derived RampIDs to begin resolving to maintained RampIDs. This will improve the consolidation of your file and reduce the number of RampIDs per person along with increasing the match rate for cookies.
Updated maintained RampIDs: Cookies historically tied to a maintained RampID might change to a different maintained RampID. This is due to the fact that consolidations can occur within the offline graph between maintained RampIDs as we obtain more signals.
If you have any questions, see the appropriate sections and the FAQs below, or contact your LiveRamp representative.
Customers that receive cookie mapping files will see a larger than usual one-time change as we move to a new, monthly cadence. Expect that the number of changes between cookies and RampIDs in mapping files will increase in early May, and will begin decreasing after that point. File sizes in most cases will not be impacted by this change.
Clients using Measurement Enablement will notice changes in mappings in cookies tied to RampIDs in a larger one-time change as we move to a new, monthly cadence of refreshes. We expect a one-time higher-than-usual positive change in mappings between cookies and RampIDs on any campaigns that are in-flight at the time of our update in early May. This rate of change will be noticed when FBR is invoked before and after this change but will normalize within 90 days as mappings are updated.
Most measurement use cases will not be impacted by the change in the file. Those that we anticipate will experience some change include:
Campaigns that are in-flight over the course of the change targeting and measuring on a cookie at a RampID level.
Cases where planning has occurred using an old RampID mapping, and then the campaign is executed with the new mapping.
Clients should conduct a full audience refresh when this change goes into effect.
Clients using Real-Time Identity Service (RTIS) will notice changes in mappings in cookies tied to RampIDs through a larger one-time change as we move from this less frequent update cadence to this new, monthly cadence. We expect most of this change to become apparent in the first 30 days of the release. This change will be noticed when RTIS is called before and after with the same cookie as the changes propagate in our cookie network.
How was this new list tested and vetted?
We carefully analyzed the impact of new files on the graph, including the impacts of cookies tied to derived RampIDs that will become maintained RampIDs, cookies that change maintained RampIDs, and overall match rates.
Can any customers opt-out of this change?
No, this change will impact all LiveRamp customers and cannot be opted out of. Our team has conducted extensive testing and quality assurance to ensure that this change will have the least impact on clients and the greatest improvement in file accuracy.
Why does LiveRamp have to refresh these mappings?
LiveRamp’s Identity Graph is constantly evolving and improving, as cookies tied to RampIDs can change over time as we receive more offline signals. Email addresses are a major data signal that we use to map cookies to RampIDs. As new information is gathered in our offline graph that ties emails to representations of people represented by maintained RampIDs, it must be exposed to the online portion of our graph. As cookies are observed with hashed emails deterministically, the offline portion of our graph informs which RampID the cookie will be tied to.