- Blog
- Jun 09, 2021
- By Cam Sivesind
Identity Graphs are increasing in popularity because third-party cookies are going the way of the Dodo bird, leaving marketers scrambling for solutions of how to identify and track consumers so they can better market and re-market to them.
There are boatloads of solutions out there, ranging from:
- Bona fide “applied” Identity Graph solutions offered by companies who have experience in customer journey mapping and marketing
- Companies that don’t perform marketing but offer oodles of identities they are happy to match up with marketers’ data – for a fee – looking for lists of possible targets
- Huge established mega companies that have “acquired” ID technology solutions to bolt on to their existing massive data banks
- Last, and probably least, there is a pile of honorable mention vendors that offer some sort of ID solution that is either too channel specific or isn’t truly solving the problem marketers face in a “cookieless” world.
Let’s break down our list of companies with varied levels of ID solution offerings, including our own.
Applied ID Solutions – Marketing Tool Providers
There are providers out there that offer straight-up marketing tools that help agencies and enterprise marketers do a better job of reaching the right people at the right time with a focus on achieving a better return on ad spend (ROAS). Our top-tier vendors include:
- LeadsRx – Solution: LeadsRx Identity Graph
Since opening up shop in 2015, LeadsRx has gathered more than 2.0 billion personas – markers that represent consumers that can anonymously be stitched together to provide, within a reliable confidence level, information that makes up a customer journey. This identity graph identifies these paths to purchase and, in turn, helps enterprise marketers, agencies, and their customers dial in their marketing campaigns, reduce wasted ad spend, and reach consumers most likely to convert. LeadsRx, an impartial multi-touch attribution software solution provider, serves up first-party cookies through its proprietary Universal Conversion Tracking Pixel. The pixel can be configured to collect only first-party data, allowing advertisers to create their own database of identities over time.
2. Neustar – Solution: Neustar Unified Identity
Part of its Fabrick collection of tools, the Neustar Identity Management Platform enables organizations to connect, enrich, and control all available identity data from a single source of truth. An intelligent connection across first-, second-, and third-party data combining addressable media signal, with consumer attributes, and behaviors. This centralized repository of identity data helps marketers build smarter audiences, deliver more relevant experiences, and produce more meaningful measurement to continuously refine strategy, execution, and performance.
Volume Players – ID Providers
These vendors provide identity matching by having you send them whatever data you have collected; then they perform the “matching” and send back a unique ID for an individual. Based on this ID, you can then enrich the data using third-party datasets for demographic data. This allows you to understand the demographics of your original data (e.g., income ranges, gender, etc.), as well as retarget these folks.
3. LiveRamp – Solution: LiveRamp ID
LiveRamp is an identity platform leveraged by brands and their partners to connect people, data, and devices across the digital and physical world. Through its Authenticated Traffic Solution, LiveRamp claims its identity graph, LiveRamp ID, is the largest deterministic graph on the open internet, with more than 250 million consumers represented in the U.S., and many more worldwide. ATS enables individuals to participate in a two-way value exchange with brands and publishers. By authenticating themselves, individuals are able to maintain control over the use of their data. In return for individuals’ trust, brands and publishers can create valuable experiences and content.
4. Zeotap – Solution: ID+
Zeotap has ID+, a complement to its identity resolution, data enrichment and analytics products. Besides providing connectivity in a cookieless world, ID+ enables partners to gain access to more than 1 billion consumer profiles in Zeotap’s customer intelligence platform. ID+ is supported by large global and regional organizations, including The TradeDesk and Accenture.
Acquired ID Solutions
These mega companies have tons of consumer data by simply having tons of customers. It only made sense for them to create or add on an identity solution so they could better manage all of that data, especially as consumer privacy regulations clamp down on keeping customers and their data safe.
5. Comcast – Solution: FreeWheel
FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, provides comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Powered by premium video content, robust data, and advanced technology, the company’s goal is to improve the way publishers and marketers transact across all screens, data types, and sales channels
6. Verizon Media – Solution: VerizonMedia ConnectID
Powered by a proprietary identity graph, Verizon Media’s new unified identity solution – ConnectID – allows advertisers to draw on hundreds of millions of opted-in users from across Verizon Media’s global portfolio of owned and operated media properties. It claims to be the only independent ad platform with a full-stack DSP and SSP. Because users are logged in, all signals aggregated are entirely consent-based, meaning there’s a real value exchange that drives deeper, more sustainable relationships with consumers. The unified ID solution is integrated with third-party data providers. Note: Verizon Media sold in early May and will be known as Yahoo (yes, that’s right) once the transaction closes the second half of 2021.
7. Marketo – Solution: Marketo Engage
Marketo Engage provides the data environment and tools to target the right people and right accounts providing a holistic view of prospect, customer and engagement data, account and contact discovery, and intelligent segmentation and predictive audiences. For identity-specific solutions, Marketo relies on the LiveRamp ID solution (see above).
Honorable Mention
These organizations offer identity solutions with varying names and varying levels of detail and effectiveness. Some are advertiser and DSP-focused; others are tied to SSPs and publishers; and some are a mix.
8. The Trade Desk – Solution: Unified ID 2.0
Working with industry partners and collaborating across the ecosystem to develop an open source ID framework, Unified ID 2.0 from The Trade Desk is built from hashed and encrypted email addresses. The ID will remain open and ubiquitous while introducing significant upgrades to consumer privacy and transparency. The Trade Desk is a media-buying demand-side platform.
9. Throtle – Solution: Throtle ID Graph
The Throtle ID Graph, also referred to as the Truth Set, is more than an assembly of static data points. It is dynamically maintained and updated with billions of data points to keep up with consumers as they change addresses, swap phones, use multiple emails to transact or subscribe with your brand.
10. ID5 – Solution: ID5 Universal ID
ID5’s Universal ID solution enables publishers and ad tech companies to identify 100% of users even in browsers where third-party cookies are blocked.
11. Lotame – Solution: Lotame Panorama ID
Lotame Panorama ID is a global people-based, privacy-compliant identity solution for the open web. Built from multiple inputs (web, mobile, CTV, and customer data), the enriched ID is freely accessible to and interoperable across the cookie-challenged web, all domains, devices, and platforms globally.
12. Tapad – Solution: The Tapad Graph
A global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph is built on top of a curated network of data providers, combined with the power of utilizing sophisticated machine learning models with authenticated and real-time signals, to provide the most comprehensive and differentiated digital identity graph in market.
13. Merkle – Solution: Merkury
Merkury enables marketers, media owners, and publishers to own, build, and control a cookie-less Private Identity Graph. Merkury uses an organization’s first-party CRM data and valuable interactions such as logins, outbound email campaigns and media reach to create and grow a universe of person-based IDs for cross-channel targeting, personalization, measurement and more.
14. Crimtan – Solution: Crimtan ActiveID
ActiveID works within Crimtan’s consenTag to create a consented identifier that lasts long enough to carry out lifecycle marketing. And, by using advanced triangulation techniques, ActiveID enables probabilistic user matching in ad exchanges with 95% accuracy.
15. Acxiom – Solution: Acxiom Real Identity
The Acxiom Real Identity™ service enables some of the world’s biggest brands to accurately identify and ethically connect with consumers. The service offers multi-layer insights with the key deliverable benefits of continuity, personalization and privacy compliance for campaigns.
16. DigiCenter – Solution: Identity & Device Graph
The DigiCenter Device Graph operates alongside its Identity Graph which enables marketers across a range of use cases: cross-device audience extension, retargeting, attribution, personalization, measurement and analytics, mobile-to-desktop pathing, and creative sequencing to unify a cross-device view of the consumer which opens up new opportunities to connect with audiences.
17. Datastream Group – Solution: onedb
The Datastream Group onedb is a unique data product that combines the company’s top databases together and includes datapoints from every record. With over 300 million records, onedb provides a single source solution for omni-channel and multi-channel marketing. onedb can be applied to offline and digital platforms and is available for purchase or lease.
18. TrueData – Solution: TrueData ID
TrueData ID is its identity graph built on 100% deterministic data drawn daily from a proprietary network of 950+ publishers. It ingests connection touchpoints (e.g. registration, authentication, and check-out events) of people (or households) to their digital devices. The connections are validated and refined by a proprietary algorithm to ensure precise connections
19. BiGDBM – Solution: Identity Resolution Graph
BIGDBM owns one of the largest proprietary user identity databases in the world. More than one billion verified data points connect millions of users across multiple-data import sources. This allows the company to link every data point to a single persistent identifier. This proprietary innovation enables agencies, technology platforms, data owners and publishers to leverage a deterministic, privacy-safe and proven identity resolution method that produces measurably effective people-based marketing solutions.
20. TowerData – Solution: Identity Matching
Identity Matching builds a complete picture of your customers across channels
with TowerData’s proprietary technology and data assets, including more than 1
billion unique customer records.
21. MediaWallah – Solution: MediaWallah OpenLink
MediaWallah OpenLink connects consented first-party data from customers across brands and publishers to pinpoint overlapping customers and deliver brand ads to them as they visit publisher sites. The result: as the landscape evolves, both sides can continue to deliver targeted ads in a secure, privacy-safe way. The company identifies the individuals, households, and audiences across devices, channels and touchpoints – for exceptional omnichannel engagement and analytics. The service builds an identity on top of the customer’s, whether appending an existing data set or starting from scratch.
22. Infutor – Solution: TrueSource Identity Graph
Infutor’s TrueSource™ Identity Graph is a collection of consumer data and intelligence that makes omnichannel engagement personal — and measurably effective. The secure and privacy-compliant ID graph enables customers to create relevant, real-time experiences in whichever channel people engage with their brand.
23. 180byTwo – Solution: AccountLink
AccountLink™ is a B2B identity solution designed and built specifically for B2B marketers helping them understand, activate and measure accounts and sites in a unified way across all marketing channels.
24. True Influence – Solution: True Influence Identity Graph Triangulation
True Influence’s Identity Graph Triangulation™ links and identifies valid signals in the customer or prospect data stream (from IP identification, device identification, email identification) that represent individuals consuming B2B topics and content. Once a person is identified, their identity is validated at the device level.
25. Kochava – Solution: IdentityLink
IdentityLink™ from Kochava enables brands to measure online user engagement across the IoT, securely onboard first-party offline data, and enrich it with robust, third-party data, all within a privacy-first and consent-compliant framework.
26. Lifesight – Solution: Lifesight Identity Graph
Leverage Lifesight’s Identity Graph to create a customer data strategy and build a competitive edge in today’s ever-changing environments. The platform provides a holistic view of the customer by stitching identities across disparate data sources, activating media and measuring audiences across channels and devices.
Solving the Identity Crisis
If you want to know more about how we are already solving the identity crisis issue today by leveraging our 2 billion personas, schedule a demo and we can show you.
Download our infographic for a visual look at the list above, including vendor logos.
In addition, see a video breakdown of ID graphing and third-party cookie deprecation coming in 2022.
