Your business interacts with customers across websites, social media, email, and in-store visits. Each interaction leaves behind digital identifiers, such as IP addresses, mobile phone numbers, and cookies. But, without a way to connect this data, customer insights remain incomplete.
This is where identity resolution solutions come in. They link different data points from multiple sources to create unified customer profiles. With a clear view of the customer, you can improve marketing strategies, increase engagement, and boost customer satisfaction.
In this guide, you’ll learn how identity resolution works and why it’s important for your business
What Is Identity Resolution?
Identity resolution connects all customer interactions by linking multiple data sources into one unified customer profile. This eliminates fragmented identity data and provides a clear view of the customer. With this insight, your marketing efforts become more precise and effective.
How Identity Resolution Works
An identity resolution platform follows four key steps:
- Collecting data: Gathers consumer identifiers from CRM systems, website visits, email clicks, and transactions.
- Identity matching: Uses deterministic (connecting customer profiles using exact data) and probabilistic matching (relying on behavioral patterns to determine if different data points belong to the same person)
- Building identity graphs: Creates identity graphs using persistent IDs, such as IP addresses, cookies, and mobile ad IDs.
- Updating customer data: Refreshes profiles by replacing outdated customer data and adding new data.
With an identity management solution, you gain a complete understanding of each customer. This allows you to send personalized marketing messages, reduce ad waste, and improve the customer experience.
Why Your Business Needs an Identity Resolution Solution
Each customer interaction generates valuable customer data, but without a way to connect it across multiple channels, these data points remain isolated. This results in fragmented data, which can lead to inaccuracies, duplicate records, and missed opportunities to effectively engage with your audience.
Identity resolution solutions solve this problem by helping your business:
Eliminate Data Fragmentation
Without identity resolution, your business may have separate records for the same person across different digital and offline channels. Identity resolution software merges these records, which creates a view of the customer that eliminates redundancies and improves data accuracy.
Deliver Better Marketing Performance
Identity resolution solutions help you send personalized marketing messages by understanding customer behavior. This means that marketing campaigns will reach real customers, not duplicate or outdated records.
These solutions also use first-party data to reduce reliance on third-party data providers, which can improve targeting accuracy.
Meet Compliance With Privacy Regulation
Identity resolution solutions also maintain data confidence by providing transparency and control over consumer identities. And they perform proper handling of personally identifiable information in line with the GDPR and CCPA.
7 Best Platforms for Identity Resolution Solutions
Here are the best tools you should consider to integrate identity resolution software into your operations.
1. Capturify
Capturify is an innovative identity resolution platform designed to transform anonymous website visitors into identifiable leads. It captures over 40 unique data points per visitor, such as names, emails, and demographic information, so your business can convert unknown traffic into qualified prospects.
Key features:
- High identification rate: Capturify identifies up to 55% of net-new website traffic, which surpasses many competitors.
- Comprehensive data collection: Gathers over 40 unique data points per visitor to enhance targeting precision.
- Seamless integration: Easily integrates with existing CRM and marketing platforms, which can improve workflows.
- Enhanced ad targeting: Improves targeting capabilities on platforms like Meta and Google.
- Data security: Prioritizes data security and compliance with global standards.
Pros:
- Offers a higher identification rate compared to many competitors.
- Provides detailed visitor insights, aiding in precise targeting.
- Delivers quick setup with immediate data capture.
Pricing:
Starts from $97/month, with 40+ data points per web visitor, CRM integration, real-time traffic analytics, precise ad targeting audience segmentation, and more.
Sign up for free and get your free 500 leads today.
2. LiveRamp
LiveRamp is a data connectivity platform that specializes in identity resolution, data onboarding, and the transfer of offline data online for marketing purposes.
Key features:
- Data connectivity: Integrates and activates data across various platforms to enhance marketing strategies.
- Identity resolution: Unifies customer data from multiple sources, which creates comprehensive profiles.
- Privacy compliance: Keeps data usage aligned with global privacy regulations and best practices.
Pros:
- Comprehensive data connectivity and integration capabilities.
- Strong focus on privacy and compliance.
- Scalable solutions suitable for large enterprises.
Cons:
- May be complex for smaller businesses to implement.
Pricing:
Pricing information for LiveRamp is not publicly disclosed.
3. Amperity
Amperity offers an AI-powered identity resolution solution to help you accurately resolve customer identities across all internal systems.
Key features:
- AI-powered identity resolution: Utilizes artificial intelligence to accurately connect and match customer data across various touchpoints.
- Data unification: Combines data from multiple sources to create unified customer profiles.
- Analytics: Provides insights into customer behavior and preferences, which can help with personalized marketing strategies.
Pros:
- Comprehensive data unification capabilities.
- Advanced analytics tools for deeper customer insights.
- Focus on privacy and compliance.
Cons:
- May require significant resources for implementation.
Pricing:
Amperity does not publicly disclose its pricing.
4. FullContact
FullContact is a privacy-safe identity resolution company that helps businesses recognize and understand people across multiple platforms without compromising privacy and security.
Key features:
- Identity resolution: Unifies various customer identifiers into a single profile.
- Data enrichment: Enhances customer records with additional demographic and social information for better targeting and personalization.
- Real-time API integration: Offers integration with existing systems for immediate access to enriched customer data.
- Privacy compliance: Maintains all data practices according to privacy regulations to maintain customer trust.
Pros:
- Provides a complete view of customers by consolidating data from multiple sources.
- Improves marketing effectiveness through enriched and accurate customer information.
- Facilitates better customer engagement with personalized interactions.
- Offers scalable solutions suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Cons:
- May require technical expertise for integration.
Pricing:
- Essentials plan: $99/month billed annually, with 250 leads, 14 days of browsing analytics history, professional email addresses, LinkedIn profile matching, and more.
- Core plan: $499/month billed annually, with 10,000 leads, 90 days of browsing analytics, professional phone numbers, unlimited hashed emails, and more.
- Plus plan: Custom pricing.
5. Tapad
Tapad specializes in connecting consumer behaviors across multiple devices to enable brands and agencies to understand and engage with their audiences more effectively.
Key features:
- Cross-device identification: Analyzes data such as cookie IDs, operating system IDs, IP addresses, and online registrations to probabilistically determine if different devices belong to the same individual or household.
- Audience segmentation: Precise audience segmentation based on user behavior and device usage.
- Real-time data processing: Processes data in real time to enable timely insights and the ability to respond swiftly to consumer interactions.
- Omnichannel marketing: Supports cohesive omnichannel marketing strategies for a unified customer journey.
- User privacy compliance: Emphasizes privacy and security and complies with data protection regulations.
Pros
- Delivers high accuracy.
- Ensures compliance with privacy regulations and builds consumer trust.
- Can be licensed and integrated into other platforms.
Cons
- May not always match the certainty of deterministic methods that rely on PII.
- Relies on the quality and breadth of data from partnering publishers and data sources.
Pricing
Tapad does not publicly disclose pricing information.
6. Retention.com
Retention.com specializes in identity resolution software tailored for e-commerce brands. It focuses on helping businesses recognize customers and recover abandoned cart visitors by converting digital identifiers into actionable data.
Key features:
- Anonymous visitor identification: Converts anonymous website visitors into known leads.
- Cart abandonment recovery: Captures lost sales opportunities by identifying abandoned carts.
- Email retargeting: Matches customer profiles with valid email addresses so you can engage your audience with relevant promotions and updates.
- E-commerce integrations: Seamlessly connects with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce to enrich marketing efforts.
Pros:
- Ideal for e-commerce businesses.
- Helps brands capture first-party data and reduce reliance on third party data.
- Enhances customer experience by delivering targeted marketing messages.
Cons:
- Focuses primarily on e-commerce; may not be ideal for other industries.
- Limited fraud prevention features.
Pricing:
Retention.com does not publicly disclose its pricing.
7. Acxiom
Acxiom is an identity resolution solution known for its vast first-party identity graphs and consumer data services.
Key features:
- Enterprise-grade identity resolution: Uses deterministic and probabilistic matching to identify customers across channels and devices accurately.
- Consumer data enrichment: Enhances customer profiles with insights from verified databases.
- Cross-channel attribution: Links customer journeys across multiple platforms.
- Privacy & compliance tools: Aligns with the GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection laws while maintaining customer trust.
Pros:
- Strong identity management capabilities for enterprises.
- Accurately identifies customers across different marketing channels.
- Helps businesses shift to first-party data strategies.
Cons:
- More suited for large enterprises rather than small businesses.
Pricing:
Acxiom provides customized pricing based on packages but does not disclose its pricing.
Key Features of Identity Resolution Solutions
Identity resolution capabilities typically feature:
Identity Matching for Accurate Customer Profiles
At the core of identity resolution solutions is identity matching, which is the process of determining whether separate interactions belong to the same person. Platforms use two primary methods to achieve this, which are:
Deterministic matching
Deterministic matching relies on exact data, such as mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and login credentials. This method offers a high level of accuracy, but it's limited when a customer uses different digital identifiers across multiple platforms.
Probabilistic matching
Probabilistic matching relies on behavioral signals, device usage, and browsing patterns to connect consumer identifiers when an exact match is unavailable. While it introduces a margin of uncertainty, it is essential for recognizing customers across channels and devices where exact identifiers are not consistent.
Comprehensive identity resolution software combines both methods to improve accuracy and provide a more complete understanding of the customer.
Identity Graphs for a Unified Customer View
To create a reliable view of the customer, platforms generate identity graphs that link digital identifiers such as IP addresses, cookies, and mobile ad IDs. These graphs consolidate disparate data so your business can track customer journeys across different marketing channels.
For example, a customer might browse your website on their laptop, receive a promotional email on their smartphone, and later make a purchase in-store. Without identity graphs, these interactions may appear as separate users, which can lead to inaccurate data and ineffective marketing efforts.
With a well-structured identity graph, your team can understand how customers move across multiple data sources. As such, you can design personalized customer interactions and marketing strategies based on real behavior.
Real-Time Data Processing for Accurate Insights
Customer behavior changes rapidly, and your identity resolution platform must keep up. Outdated customer data leads to ineffective targeting, irrelevant marketing messages, and missed opportunities. A strong solution continuously refreshes customer profiles, integrating new data from every touchpoint.
Real-time processing also makes sure that when a customer updates their email address, changes devices, or interacts with your brand in a new way, your system recognizes the change immediately. This improves data confidence, which can equip your team for consistently accurate decision-making.
Privacy and Compliance Features for Secure Data Handling
Your business handles personally identifiable information, which should make data privacy a top priority. Leading identity resolution solutions focus on first-party data strategies, which reduce reliance on third-party data providers while maintaining compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations.
Platforms with strong security measures also keep consumer identities protected, even while they enable data collaboration between marketing and customer service teams. They encrypt sensitive data, provide transparency about data collection, and allow customers to control how their information is used.
Seamless Integration With Existing Systems
A reliable identity management solution needs to work seamlessly with your existing CRM, analytics tools, and marketing channels.
Get up to 2500% More Sales With Capturify
Capturify transforms website visitors into actionable leads so you can connect with high-intent prospects before they leave your site. Instead of relying solely on traditional lead capture methods, Capturify identifies and delivers qualified leads directly to increase the likelihood of conversion.
Identify Anonymous Visitors
Many website visitors leave without taking action, which makes it difficult to capture potential opportunities. With anonymous visitor tracking, Capturify uncovers key insights about who is browsing your website, including their interests and engagement patterns.
Optimize Ad Retargeting Efforts
Standard ad retargeting often results in wasted budget and inefficient ad placements. Capturify’s enhanced ad retargeting directs advertising efforts to focus on individuals who have already demonstrated interest so your business can maximize ad effectiveness while reducing costs.
With Capturify, you gain a competitive advantage by turning website traffic into tangible sales opportunities—with more conversions and more revenue.
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FAQs About Identity Resolution Solutions
What are identity resolution solutions?
Identity resolution solutions match fragmented data across multiple sources to create a unified customer profile.
By analyzing identifiers such as email addresses, IPs, device fingerprints, and behavioral patterns, these solutions help accurately connect online and offline interactions to a single individual or entity.
This leads to more precise marketing, improved customer experiences, and stronger security measures.
Is identity resolution legal?
Yes, identity resolution is legal when used in compliance with data privacy regulations such as the GDPR, CCPA, and other consumer protection laws. Ethical identity resolution solutions prioritize consent-based data collection, encryption, and anonymization to ensure privacy and security.
Businesses must always adhere to applicable laws and provide transparency regarding data usage.
What is identity resolution in MDM?
In master data management (MDM), identity resolution is the process of consolidating and verifying records from different systems to create a single source of truth for customer, employee, or supplier data.
It eliminates duplicate records, drives data accuracy, and enhances decision-making by providing a consistent and reliable view of an entity across an organization.
What are digital identity solutions?
Digital identity solutions verify and authenticate individuals in online environments using biometric data, multi-factor authentication, blockchain technology, and AI-driven verification methods.
These solutions help prevent fraud, enhance cybersecurity, and streamline user experiences across platforms while ensuring compliance with privacy and security regulations.
