Distribute Data to Google Customer Match
Use the Google Customer Match (GCM) destination for first-party data distributions to target users on Google-owned properties such as Gmail, Google Search, and YouTube, either with your Google Ads or DV360 account.
Data distributed to GCM must be based on offline identifiers (such as email, name and postal address, and phone number) or RampIDs that have been generated from PII. GCM will not accept data based on online identifiers, such as cookies or mobile device IDs. Google Customer Match is a Passthrough Activation integration, which means that we pass the PII directly through in a privacy-safe and compliant manner, with no leveraging of our Identity Graph.
Note
The Passthrough Activation integration is also available in Mexico and Canada. Contact your LiveRamp account team for more information.
Passthrough Activation was formerly known as "Direct-to-Platform" and "PII Passthrough".
If you're a Customer Profiles customer, you can use Data Marketplace segments to filter your first-party, PII-based data and then distribute those segments to GCM. Google does not allow the use of third-party data for targeting, but will allow targeting with first-party segments that have been filtered with third-party data, such as Data Marketplace data. For more information, see "Build a Data Marketplace-Filtered Segment for Google Customer Match".
However, we can also use Enhanced Matching for Google Customer Match to increase your match rate within Google Customer Match by leveraging our Identity Graph to add additional emails to your uploaded data. For more information about this option, see the "Enhanced Matching for Google Customer Match" section below.
Note
Enhanced Matching for Google Customer Match was formerly known as "data append".
Before you activate a Google Customer Match destination account, the appropriate LiveRamp account ID must be mapped to your Google account. This gives LiveRamp access to deliver data to your Google account. See the instructions in 'Providing Access to LiveRamp" below for more information.
Caution
If you are using Passthrough Activation only, and not utilizing Enhanced Matching, do not send SHA-1 or MD5 hashed email addresses or SHA-1 hashed phone numbers. Send only plaintext name and postal, plaintext or SHA-256 hashed email addresses, and plaintext phone numbers.
Google Customer Match Integration Options
When activating a Google Customer Match destination account, the following integration options are available:
Integration Name | Data Type | Who It’s For | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
Google Customer Match | Advertisers with a Google Ads account |
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[Record Sync] Google Customer Match | Advertisers with a Google Ads account |
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Google Customer Match - Enhanced Matching | Advertisers with a Google Ads account |
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[Record Sync] Google Customer Match - Enhanced Matching | Advertisers with a Google Ads account |
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Google Customer Match - DV360 | Advertisers with a Google DV360 account |
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[Record Sync] Google Customer Match - DV360 | Advertisers with a Google DV360 account |
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Google Customer Match - DV360 - Enhanced Matching | Advertisers with a Google DV360 account |
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[Record Sync] Google Customer Match - DV360 - Enhanced Matching | Advertisers with a Google DV360 account |
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Note
For US customers, the Record Sync-enabled integrations keep your data fresh at GCM by enabling data refreshes to utilize user deletions (see "Keep Destination Data Fresh with Record Sync" for more information).
Enhanced Matching for Google Customer Match
Enhanced Matching is an add-on feature for our Google Customer Match integrations (both the “Google Customer Match - Enhanced Matching” integration and the “Google Customer Match - DV360 - Enhanced Matching” integration) that leverages LiveRamp’s Identity Graph in addition to our baseline Passthrough Activation integration with Google Customer Match. With Enhanced Matching, LiveRamp takes the input identifiers for a segment and looks for additional identifiers belonging to the same individual to send that Google might be able to match on.
Note
Enhanced Matching for Google Customer Match was formerly known as "data append".
For example, a segment might contain an identifier such as "user@liveramp.com" that is being sent through the default Passthrough Activation integration. LiveRamp's graph knows that "user@liveramp.com" is also associated with the email "user@gmail.com". The Enhanced Matching integration will include "user@gmail.com" in the Enhanced Matching delivery, giving Google additional identifiers to match on.
Enhanced Matching only sends additional hashed emails and no other PII touch points are appended. RampID-based segments can also be used to deliver via Enhanced Matching, as long as they are based on offline, first-party data.
Match rates for Enhanced Matching vary.
To enable Enhanced Matching, activate one of the Enhanced Matching integrations (either “Google Customer Match - Enhanced Matching” or “Google Customer Match - DV360 - Enhanced Matching”). During activation, make sure that the checkbox for "Platform ID" is checked in the IDENTIFIER SETTINGS area.
Note
If these integration tiles are greyed out, contact your LiveRamp account team to enable them.
Providing Access to LiveRamp
For all first-party data distributions to Google, LiveRamp must have access to deliver data to your Google account before you can distribute to their platform. This involves mapping the appropriate LiveRamp account ID to your Google account.
Note
When providing access for regions outside of the US, EU, or Australia, you should use one of your owned accounts that has US or EU billing. If you don't own an appropriate account, contact your LiveRamp representative.
Before activating a Google Customer Match destination account (either a Google Customer Match or a Google Customer Match - DV360 destination account), complete the self-service LiveRamp account linking process for Customer Match within the Google Ads UI to map the LiveRamp CMU account 637-789-1275 to your Google Ads advertiser account:
Note
If you've already provided LiveRamp access to this Ads Account as part of the workflow to enable the Google Store Sales Improvements program, you do not need to perform these steps.
From Google Ads, select “Tools and Settings” and then select “Linked Accounts”.
Search for “LiveRamp” and then click .
Note
If "LiveRamp" does not appear in the search results, contact your Google representative to have them manually link the account to LiveRamp’s account ID (637-789-1275).
From the dialog that apears, click .
From the Create New LiveRamp Linking dialog, click .
Click .
A success message appears:
For a Google Customer Match - DV360 destination account, you will also need to follow Google's instructions to have LiveRamp’s account ID (637-789-1275) linked to DV360.
You can now activate your Google Customer Match or Google Customer Match - DV360 destination account.
Note
After providing access and distributing your data, if you notice your deliveries have not initiated, check that these permissions have been added to your Google account before creating a support case.