Match Rules for Individuals

Identity resolution provides four preconfigured default match rules based on Individual First Name and Individual Last Name combined with other common data. You can combine default and custom rules in a ruleset to create multiple ways for records to match.

Default Match Rules for Individuals

Default match rules allow you to quickly select one of the four common match rule configurations.

Note
Note

Identity resolution will match records that have the same Individual.Id, even if you don't create a rule to match them.

Match Rule Name Match Criteria
Fuzzy Name and Normalized Email
  • Individual - First Name (Fuzzy - Medium Precision)
  • Individual - Last Name (Exact)
  • Contact Point Email - Email Address (Exact Normalized)
Fuzzy Name and Normalized Phone
  • Individual - First Name (Fuzzy - Medium Precision)
  • Individual - Last Name (Exact)
  • Contact Point Phone - Formatted E164 Phone Number (Exact Normalized)
Fuzzy Name and Normalized Address
  • Individual - First Name (Fuzzy - Medium Precision)
  • Individual - Last Name (Exact)
  • Contact Point Address - Address Line 1 (Exact Normalized)
  • Contact Point Address - City (Exact)
  • Contact Point Address - Country (Exact Normalized)
Fuzzy Name and Normalized Phone and Normalized Email
  • Individual - First Name (Fuzzy - Medium Precision)
  • Individual - Last Name (Exact)
  • Contact Point Phone - Formatted E164 Phone Number (Exact Normalized)
  • Contact Point Email - Email Address (Exact Normalized)

Custom Match Rules for Individuals

Configure custom match rules to meet use cases that aren't covered by the default match rules, for example, when better matches could be made using Party Identification data or other identifiers such as device. Consider adding some of these criteria to your custom match rule.

When configuring custom match rules, select an object, field, and match method for each criteria. Depending on field type, some match methods aren't available.

To allow a match to be made when a field is empty, select Match on Blank.

Warning
Warning Carefully consider the value of allowing empty fields to match. Selecting this option can result in low match quality or unusably large profiles when applied to the wrong fields or when data quality is low.

To require that a match be made only when two pieces of data use the same case, select Case Sensitive. For example, suppose you want to identify matches based on the 15-digit CRM ID. Since the original data is case-sensitive, case insensitive matching could result in matching errors. In this case, accurate matching requires that case sensitivity be respected.

Match Individuals on Party Identification

If your source data includes strong account identifiers, consider creating a match rule based on party identifiers.

Note
Note We recommend using party identifiers only if you have strong data governance practices in place for your party identification data.

This match rule will allow matching based on party identification.

  • (Exact match) Party Identification.Identification Number

If you suspect data quality issues with the Identification Number field, you can increase the matching reliability of party identifier matches by also considering the individual’s name.

  • (Exact Match) PartyIdentification.IdentificationNumber
  • (Fuzzy - Medium Precision) Individual.First Name
  • (Exact match) Individual.Last Name

Match Individuals on Device

Matching based on an exact device lets identity resolution detect matches across profiles created on the same device. The matching algorithm compares Advertiser IDs (Apple’s IDFA or Android’s AAID) to determine a match.

Using the Advertiser Id lets you unify records such as:

  • Records across apps and Mobile Push
  • Records created by multiple apps by one customer
  • Records across apps and offline files, like media logs

This match rule will allow matching on device.

  • (Exact Match) Device.AdvertiserId

To strengthen matching, add the device type and operating system as match criteria.

  • (Exact Match) Device.AdvertiserId
  • (Exact Match) Device.OperatingSystem

To strengthen matching, you can also include the device type and operating system as match criteria.

To match on device, map the Advertiser Id field in the Device object. The Device object must be related to a Contact Point App object through a Device field, which in turn is related to the Individual object through the Party field.

Optionally, map the device type and operating system to include in the match rule.

  • Anonymous and Known Profiles in Identity Resolution
    A unified individual profile is considered known if any source profile was designated as known in the source data. A unified individual profile created only from anonymous source profiles is considered an anonymous unified profile. Account profiles are always known profiles.