Profile Merge Rules Overview

With Profile Merge Rules you can control which data sets are used for segmentation and can target users accurately across multiple devices.

Data collection and targeting with anonymous and authenticated profiles

Typically, audience segmentation and targeting relies on data collected from all users on a device. Data collection and targeting based on device-level data has some disadvantages. For example, you cannot distinguish between multiple users who share a device or accurately target users across multiple devices. Device-centered data collection is no longer sufficient for digital marketing campaigns or cross-device targeting.

Profile Merge Rules fundamentally changes how Audience Manager collects data and segments users for targeting. It lets you work with 2 distinct types of profiles, a device profile and an authenticated profile.

These different profiles control the data you can use for segmentation. For example, with an authenticated profile, you can build accurate segments based on data from multiple devices for a single user. This means you can deliver a consistent brand experience to customers across multiple devices. Audience Manager achieves this by storing the mapping of the different devices a person uses for their online activities to their authenticated profile. These mappings are called the Profile Link Device Graph.