Raw Field
A raw field is a field in a given file that has over 250 distinct values, and so cannot be separated out and managed individually in Connect.
Note
For files for EMEA countries (countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, such as the United Kingdom, France, or Germany), the limit for an enumerated field is 100 distinct values. All other raw field limitations for U.S. files apply.
Caution
Before uploading files containing fields with more than 250 distinct values, talk to your LiveRamp account manager.
Many platforms cannot accept raw fields, so raw fields can often only be distributed by creating derived segments from them in Connect. See the "Platforms that Do Not Accept Raw Fields" section below.
A field with 250 or less distinct values is considered an "enumerated field", and those distinct values are enumerated (separated out) as segments so that they can be managed individually in Connect.
A raw field will appear in Connect with the appropriate field name but with no segment values or segment counts.
How Accumulated Values Can Create Raw Fields
Because the number of distinct values can accumulate with each additional file that's ingested in an audience using the "incremental" update option, enumerated fields can become raw fields over time in audiences that use that update option.
Note
This issue is only possible if the audience is using the "incremental" update option, where data from subsequent files is used to add to any previously-onboarded fields contained in the file. This issue cannot occur if the audience uses either the "segment refresh" or "full refresh" update option. For more information on audience update methods, see "Ways to Update an Existing Audience".
For example, if the first imported file for a given field has 175 distinct values, we will enumerate those values. But then if a second imported file has that same field with 85 new distinct values (now a total of 260 distinct values), that field will be passed as raw in the second import rather than enumerated.
This would then cause there to be two fields with the same name in Connect, but only one will show the field values (the enumerated field from the first import) and the duplicate field (the raw field from the second import) will not show any enumerated values to activate on.
If the original enumerated field is being distributed, that field will not get refreshed with the new data. If this occurs, you can create a support case to try to remove any unused values or have LiveRamp perform a segment refresh to change the overall number of distinct values.
Platforms that Do Not Accept Raw Fields
The following platforms cannot accept raw fields, so raw fields can often only be distributed these platforms by creating derived segments from them in Connect. If you try to distribute a raw field to one of these platforms, the delivery will fail.
Facebook
Google Customer Match
Google DV360
The Trade Desk
Twitter
Pinterest
Snapchat
LinkedIn
Yahoo
Amobee
Xandr Invest
Oneview