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The Criteo Conversions API Program for Offline Conversions

The Criteo Conversions API Program for Offline Conversions enables advertisers to send offline conversion data to Criteo to optimize their digital media campaigns toward users who make offline purchases (such as in physical stores). This allows advertisers to understand the impact that Criteo Store campaigns have on offline conversions and further optimize their campaigns based on performance.

Note

  • Criteo must approve all program participants. Contact your LiveRamp or Criteo representative to find out about getting approved for the Criteo Conversions API Program for Offline Conversions.

  • The Criteo Conversions API Program for Offline Conversions was formerly known as "the Criteo Attribution Program".

Overview of Steps Involved

The following steps need to be performed to enable the attribution analysis in Criteo:

  1. Criteo activates the campaign.

  2. You send offline (in-store) conversion data from the last 30 days with PII to the appropriate LiveRamp audiences.

  3. LiveRamp matches the PII to RampIDs, and then delivers matched data to Criteo.

  4. Criteo matches RampIDs to the identifiers in their identity graph.

  5. Criteo optimizes campaigns toward offline conversions and performs analysis to report on the performance of the campaign.

See the appropriate sections below for more information on performing these steps.

Send Conversion Data to LiveRamp

Caution

Most platforms require that at least 1,000 unique transaction events be uploaded over a 28-day period.

Conversion Data Guidelines

Each conversion data record must include at least one PII identifier (name and postal address, email, or phone) and the required conversion data:

Tip

Include as many identifiers per record as possible for the highest match rates.

  • Transaction category

  • Transaction timestamp

  • Transaction amount

  • Transaction ID ("order_id")

Make sure to also follow these additional guidelines:

  • Avoid sending duplicate transactions (transactions already sent to LiveRamp). If you send weekly or monthly files, only send transactions that occurred since the previous file was sent.

  • Do not include conversions with a conversion date in the future.

  • Conversion data should be uploaded within 30 days of the conversion.

Format the File

Once the file has been formatted correctly, upload the file to LiveRamp. See the “Upload the File” section below for more information.

Note

Once you set up the file format for an existing conversions program feed, try to keep the file format (such as the column headers or the column order) the same for all subsequent files. If you change the file format for an existing feed, create a support case before uploading the new file to ensure your existing feeds are not impacted. For more information, see "Changing the Format of an Existing File".

List of All File Columns

See the table below for a list of columns and formatting instructions:

Field Name

Column Required?

Values Required?

Notes

first_name

Yes

Yes (if name and postal address (NAP) is used as an identifier)

last_name

Yes

Yes (if NAP is used as an identifier)

address_1

Yes

Yes (if NAP is used as an identifier)

address_2

Yes

No

  • Include values in this column if you have additional street address info for a given row.

city

Yes

Yes (if NAP is used as an identifier)

state

Yes

Yes (if NAP is used as an identifier)

  • Must be a two-character, capitalized abbreviation ("CA", not "California" or "Ca").

zip

Yes

Yes (if NAP is used as an identifier)

email_1

Yes

Yes (if email address is used as an identifier)

  • Can be plaintext or one of our allowed hash types (SHA-256, MD5, or SHA-1).

  • If you have multiple emails for a consumer, send your best one in the “email_1” column.

email_2

Yes

No

  • Can be plaintext or one of our allowed hash types (SHA-256, MD5, or SHA-1).

email_3

Yes

No

  • Can be plaintext or one of our allowed hash types (SHA-256, MD5, or SHA-1).

email_4

Yes

No

  • Can be plaintext or one of our allowed hash types (SHA-256, MD5, or SHA-1).

phone_1

Yes

Yes (if phone number is used as an identifier)

  • Do not include any hyphens or parentheses.

  • Can be plaintext or SHA-1 hashed.

  • If you have multiple phone numbers for a consumer, send your best one in the “phone_1” column.

phone_2

Yes

No

  • Do not include any hyphens or parentheses.

  • Can be plaintext or SHA-1 hashed.

transaction_category

Yes

Yes

  • Field for tracking transactions by conversion goals.

transaction_timestamp

Yes

Yes

  • Corresponds to the date/time of transaction in UTC - (example “2017-02-07T13:25:00Z-0800" should be the time the conversion happened in UTC).

  • Standard formats:

    • yyyy-MM-dd

    • yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'-0000 (for example, 2021-06-04T10:01:00Z-0000)

transaction_amount

Yes

Yes

  • The transaction amount.

  • Do not include any (currency) symbols.

  • Format required: XXX.XX

order_id

Yes

Yes

  • A unique ID (such as a transaction ID) that corresponds to the order that the particular item belongs to (this is often referred to as an “ordinal”). If the value is not unique, a partner may deduplicate some of these events when ingesting your conversion data.

  • To measure item-level events, the value will need to be a unique value for each item within a basket. LiveRamp recommends using the concatenated value of the order ID + product SKU. For example, if the  order ID is “123” and SKU is “456”, the “order_id” value would be “123456”.

  • Do not include special characters, currency symbols, or commas.

quantity

No

No (but recommended)

  • The number of items purchased.

product_id

No

No (but recommended)

  • A number delineating a unique item in an order, such as a SKU or UPC. For example, if three socks are purchased in one transaction, you could have three transaction rows with different item numbers for each pair of socks but the same order ID.

  • Do not include special characters, currency symbols, or commas.

currency

No

No (but recommended)

  • The currency the transaction was paid in (i.e., “USD” or “CAD”).

  • Must follow the three letter ISO 4217 code.

product_name

No

No

  • Short name of the product.

promo_code

No

No

  • Promotion code that was used for the purchase.

product_category

No

No

  • Top-level category of the product.

product_sub_category

No

No

  • Subcategory of the product.

product_variant

No

No

  • Up to two “product_variant “ columns can be included (“product_variant_1” and “product_variant_2”). name These columns can include any product variation identifiers of the product.

product_brand

No

No

  • Brand name of the product.

store_id

No

No (but recommended)

  • The store number for the store where the event took place.

Header Row Example

The headers shown in bold are required.

first_name|last_name|address_1|address_2|city|state|zip|email_1|email_2|email_3|email_4|phone_1|phone_2|transaction_timestamp|transaction_category|transaction_amount|order_id|quantity|product_id|currency|store_id

Conversion Data Examples

Alex|Chen|44 Main Street|#12|San Francisco|CA|94100|alex@gmail.com|ac@ymail.com||1234567890||2019-06-12T10:06:43Z|In-store|99.99|578903|USD|8943

Julian|Riediger|55 Mission Street||San Francisco|CA|94500|julian@gmail.com||||2223334444||2019-07-22T11:46:23Z|PhoneSales|55.55|578904|USD|2733

Upload the File

Upload conversion data files using LiveRamp’s SFTP server or your SFTP server.

You can also have us pull files from an AWS S3 bucket or GCS bucket. See “Getting Your Data Into LiveRamp” for more information.

Caution

Files for this program cannot be uploaded via Connect.

After uploading, contact your Customer Implementation specialist to confirm that you have uploaded conversion data. The Customer Implementation specialist will ensure that the file is processed, and will instruct you where to upload future files.

Note

For future uploads, you do not have to email LiveRamp to confirm that you have uploaded data assuming headers have not changed or additional columns have not been added.

Once the file is uploaded, information on file processing status can be viewed in Connect.

Most customers automate this process to send files on a regular cadence. Confirm your upload cadence with your Customer Implementation specialist.

After you have been fully implemented, create a support case if you have any additional questions.

FAQs

At what cadence should I send my conversion data files?

LiveRamp can receive conversion data files for this program on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but we highly suggest automated daily delivery as it gives LiveRamp the greatest ability to match. If you prefer not to send daily files, the next best option is weekly delivery as this enables data to be reported within the same month.

What conversion data should I include in my conversion data file?

Include all traceable offline transactions in your delivery. Do not include transactions with a transaction date in the future.

Avoid sending duplicate transactions (transactions already sent to LiveRamp). If you send daily files, only include transactions that occurred on that day. If you send weekly or monthly files, only send transactions that occurred since the previous file was sent.

Do not include transactions with a transaction date in the future.

How long until will it take after I upload my data before I can view the reports in Criteo?

It usually takes 1-3 days to get the data to Criteo and then about 2 days for Criteo to ingest the data.

In this section:

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.

LiveRamp's universal, pseudonymous identifier that is tied to devices in the LiveRamp Identity Graph.