April showers bring May flowers, but when it comes to recognizing and reaching customers in the digital world it's a jungle out there! Join AdTruth for a stroll down the garden path to learn about some of the tools available, where and how well they work and what marketers can do about performance.

1. The Garden of Identifiers
April Showers bring May flowers, but when it comes to recognizing and reaching customers in the
digital world it’s a jungle out there! Join us for a stroll down the garden path to learn about some of
the tools out there, where and how well they work and what marketers can do about performance.
The Green Thumb Guide to the Garden of Identifiers
Welcome to the Greenhouse
Lets see how well each identifier works in different situations
Every gardener knows that the right fertilizer is critical to a healthy garden.
What is the right mix for the garden of identifiers? Some will tell you it’s all about
accuracy, while others will say it’s all about reach. The truth is more complicated!
This is all about how many people you
can recognize and reach and what
channels can be used to reach them
This is all about how sure you
can be that you’re reaching
the people you want to reach
This is how careful you
are about respecting
consumer privacy
PERFORMANCE
This is the balance of the three and can be tuned to meet a marketer’s specific
needs and the ability to measure overall campaign effectiveness
This has been brought to you by AdTruth,
a division of 41st Parameter and a part of Experian.
1 2 3
4 5 6
REACH ACCURACY PRIVACY
Method of identification used in desktop
with a rapid rate of decline due to
high deletion and blocked rates
Cookies
Apple's advertising identifer
that works only in iOS
mobile app environments
IDFA
Googles advertising identifer
that works only in Android
mobile app environments
AndroidID
POISON
Invasive approach that permanently
identifies a device with risk of long
term permanent identification
Fingerprinting
A probabilistic approach to recognizing
devices that works across all
platforms and environments
Device Recognition
Deterministic approach that
takes an intrusive approach
while permanently identifying
MAC Address
*The ability to recognize a user whether they
are using an app or the mobile Web
1 3
2
4
6DANGER!
POISON
5
DESKTOP
4
6DANGER!
POISON
5
4
6DANGER!
POISON
5
4
6DANGER!
POISON
5
1
1
1
2
iOS
ONLY
3
ANDROID ONLY
MOBILE APP
iOS
ONLY
2
iOSONLY
3
ANDROINDROID ONLY
iOS
ONLY
2
iOSONLY
3
ANDROINDROID ONLY
MOBILE WEB
*BRIDGED MOBILE
Gardener’s Notebook of Identifiers
“Wild”
“Engineered”
“Universal”
Of the “open-source” variety - these identifiers appear to grow anywhere
Developed by specific companies for their own internal use
Commercially developed and maintained, these identifiers are designed
adoption grounded in their ability to grow and thrive in every environment
to be neutral and omni-present - they deliver the broadest universal
- these work very well in certain conditions but can't be transplanted
but their performance and maintenance is unpredictable
Efforts are underway to cultivate a number of 'super identifiers' that solve the recognition
crisis by working across the environments described above. Several varieties have sprouted up: