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Deterministic Matching

Deterministic matching (as opposed to probabilistic matching) relies on observed data (e.g., device to PII linkages) to tie devices to individuals or household groups. These associations between devices and PII are observed directly in identity data provided by LiveRamp data partners (typically websites or mobile apps where users log in with PII).

Note

How good is LiveRamp's deterministic matching? Measured against a panel of ~12 million verified devices and individuals, LiveRamp’s graph was tested by comScore to have an industry leading 95%-98.9% precision (depending on quality of sample data).

Why Use Deterministic Matching

The goal of deterministic matching is to tie all marketing data to a consistent, people-based ID, which enables accurate tracking and control of customer engagement over time. This is similar to what Google and Facebook leverage with massive amounts of authenticated user traffic.

Advantages:

  • Limits false positives

  • Makes Identity available without high volumes of authenticated traffic

  • Accurate, and suitable for measurement and precise targeting

  • Data tracked over time: Device data are stored on a consistent ID representing an individual; new device data are matched to old device data via people-based matching, building a historic view of the customer journey

  • Can accurately align with offline customer records

Disadvantages:

  • Relatively fewer cross-device relationships

  • Higher complexity

See our Cross-Device Methodologies document for more information on deterministic and probabilistic matching.

In this section:

A type of matching that relies on models to tie devices to individuals, households, or other groups. Associations between devices are not observed directly (unlike deterministic matching) but are inferred from mathematical models that evaluate the probability of one or more devices belonging to a given individual, household, or to another group (e.g., geography-based).

Personally identifiable information (such as name and postal, phone number, or email address) which, on its own or when combined with some other data, can be used to identify an individual.