We’re excited to introduce our new Q&A series, Ask the Expert! Ask the Expert will feature a series of conversations with product experts. We’ll spotlight and dive into the areas you care most about: identity resolution, targeting, attribution, and more. Our first segment features a conversation on Hashed Email. Jeff Tognetti, the Product Development Team Lead at DealerX joins us to chat with Experian’s Chief Revenue Officer, Chris Feo.
Chris and Jeff review how to future-proof your identity strategy by exploring Hashed Email use cases, technical details, and offer an expert point of view on the cookieless future.
Let’s review a few highlights from their conversation.
DealerX’s use case
When DealerX first started working with us, we focused on digital identity. DealerX wanted to understand the browsing habits of their first-party shoppers that relate to their clients:
- What they’re doing
- How they’re interacting with client sites and products
- Apply those learnings to target them across the web
- Eliminate ad fraud and targeting waste
Our partnership gave DealerX the ability to take an anonymous consumer from anywhere across their portfolio of customers and understand who they are, while in an anonymous state. Then, they could activate on any channel where that consumer may be in the market for a product. This allowed DealerX to resolve who these people are as they browse the web, leading to reduced ad spend and targeting waste.
This was the original and primary use case for DealerX when partnering with us. So, when did Hashed Email come into the mix for DealerX? Before we dive into the specifics, let’s take a step back and understand Hashed Email.
What is Hashed Email?
Hashed Email is a privacy-safe identifier that can further enrich the connection between the online (digital) and offline (real world) ecosystems. When paired with the Tapad Graph with access to Tapad’s universe of email data, it can provide maximum coverage for targeting and measurement when combined with IDs such as cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), connected TV (CTV) IDs, and IP addresses.
Email hashing uses a method of coding to transform an email address into a jumble of numbers and letters so that it’s fully pseudonymized and privacy safe. Hashed emails can then be used as a digital identifier when a user is logged in to that email and trace their activity – without linking back to the user’s real email address. This allows marketers to collect data on their users and understand their behavior without knowing their email address – a win for both consumer privacy and marketer insight.
DealerX & Hashed Email
DealerX was one of our first customers to onboard Hashed Email to the Tapad Graph. Adding Hashed Email gave them a privacy-compliant way to work with identity and resolve what a user did on their site. This allowed them to gain insight into where an ad and impression was served; even the day and time these actions occurred.
Now, we’re not the only data partner that DealerX works with. Many companies offer the notion of converting email to a digital ID in a privacy-safe way. How does DealerX evaluate the right data partner?
Evaluating the right data partner
When we say, ‘data partner,’ we’re referring to the data, the service, and the support. The most important characteristics to consider when choosing a data partner, according to DealerX, include:
- Technical prowess
- Efficiency
- Agility
- Scalability
Why did DealerX choose to partner with us? Our services met the characteristics they were looking for in a data partner. We grew the product by iterating on features that worked best for Jeff and his team. The rollout was organized, efficient, and lacked bureaucracy, which can slow down an implementation timeline.
While we started our relationship with DealerX as a vendor, now we’re partners. How did we transition from vendor to partner?
Transitioning from vendor to partner
The key to a great partnership is trust. It’s tough to navigate an ecosystem with numerous companies that claim to have the same products and services. The relationship will start off as vendor-client, and both teams will get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. As the vendor makes your work seamless and offers an efficient implementation process, the relationship turns into a partnership.
There’s more!
This is just a taste of Chris and Jeff’s conversation. Visit the Ask the Expert content hub to watch a recording of the conversation. Stay tuned for future segments in our Ask the Expert series. We’re just getting started!
About DealerX
In just a few short years, DealerX has grown to serve 1,000’s of Tier 3 dealerships across all brands, enterprise partners and OEMs. Their keen approach to data, analytics, machine learning and programmatic initiatives have led DealerX to quickly become the most savvy player in the automotive space. DealerX has helped automotive retailers save 10’s of millions of dollars by avoiding fraud and eliminating wasteful ads pends, while dramatically reducing “cost per sale.” In doing so, their partners significantly outperform those leveraging generic “one size fits all” competitive offerings. To learn more, visit their website at Dealerx.com.