When bridging the gap between online and offline, marketers have options. Take a minute to learn about the pros and cons of using cookie-based and IP-based matching when applying identity matching to your marketing program in this week's Marketing in a Minute.
Video Transcript:
Part of identity matching is being able to match offline and online behavior for the same individual or household across the various devices being used.
Back in the 80’s, the biggest matching challenge was the consolidation of names and addresses.
Then email became available and we had to know that Jane Doe was jdoe@navistone.com and was also janed@aol.com.
Then came digital advertising and we were able to match postal name and address to a cookies and serve display ads.
Now advertisers can support web-powered direct mail by matching digital ID’s to postal name and address using cookies, or IP Addresses. But which should you use?
Cookie matching is highly accurate, but cookies can get deleted, so you may sacrifice some reach.
IP addresses on the other hand, are associated with the network the device is on so they can be associated with multiple users and they are dynamic. Here, you may sacrifice some of the accuracy for reach.
Again, neither methodology is right or wrong. There will always be a trade-off between the two. Consider what you are trying to accomplish, consider the trade-offs and you will be able to determine which is right for you.