As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, so do the shopping habits of consumers. Brands today must have a clear understanding of their consumers' multi-device consumption.

1. A Buyer’s
Guide to
Cross-Device
Measurement
Solutions
UK

2. Summary
As technology continues to evolve at
arapidpace,sodotheshopping
habits of consumers.
Today’s shoppers are tech savvy and
move from one device to another on
the way to a conversion.
If the goal is to provide a seamless
experience across all screens, brands
musthaveaclearunderstanding oftheir
clients’multi-deviceconsumption.
Introduction

3. Shopping for a solution
To truly understand consumer behavior,
you need to identify the role different
devices play in the user journey.
To effectively do this, we have compiled a
guide of things to consider when choosing
a cross-device measurement solution.
1. Look for any joins you already have
2. Look for ways to enhance the data
3. If you can’t find them, buy them
4. Use deterministic data to give you confi-
dence about your probabilistic approach
5. Use the data to take action

4. LOOK FOR ANY
JOINS YOU
ALREADY HAVE
1

5. The first step to understanding the customer
journey is to look inwards to see what first party
data you already have.
It is likely that you will have joined data within your
organisation including:
• Your customer database
• Email newsletter database
• Webinar registrations
Whatever solution you go with, you should be able to
integrate this data and build from there.

6. LOOK FOR WAYS
TO ENHANCE
THE DATA
2

7. Work with your measurement provider to add
to your current data set.
Your solution should allow for importing any first party data
where a user provides something that is consistent across
devices like an email address, customer id or login.
Your provider should be able to create deterministic joins
based on first party data collected and joined by user IDs.
Keep in mind, you are not going to get every match
right--no data is 100% accurate. There are circumstances
that make the data less accurate, such as when multiple
people use the samemachineorwhenhouseholdsshare
anemailaddress.
Personally identifiable information (PII) data must
be hashed and encrypted to safeguard users’ privacy
at all times.

8. IF YOU CAN’T
FIND THEM,
BUY THEM
3

9. Yourdatacanonlygetyousofar.
Whetheryourproviderbuysthedataorcreatesit
themselves,thisiswhereprobabilisticjoiningcomesin.
Probabilisticidentificationinvolvesfingerprintingdevices
usingavarietyofattributes,suchas:
• Thenumberofcookiesstored
• DeviceIDs
• PublicdatasuchasIPaddresses
• Behaviouraldata,includingthemovementof
devicegeographicallyacrosstime
Allofthesefactorsarecombinedtoconnect
disparatedevicestothesameuser.

10. USE DETERMINISTIC DATA TO
GIVE YOU CONFIDENCE ABOUT
YOUR PROBABILISTIC APPROACH
4

11. The ‘accurate’ deterministic data can be used
to validate the joins made by the probabilistic
approach.
Nowthatyouhavedonetheworktocreatethejoins,
youcanlookatallofyourmarketingandusethe
insightstoenhanceperformance.
FOR EXAMPLE: We have a user who’s identified
himself on two devices – has the probabilistic data
also matched the same devices, or is it saying
something completely different; then repeat this
process as required.

12. USE THE
DATA TO
TAKE ACTION
5

13. A smarter abandoned basket campaign
Cross-device data can be utilised to improve marketing effectiveness and
efficiency in many ways.
Many brands are challenged with understanding user behaviour, such as when a customer
adds items to an online basket but does not place an order. The problem arises
when customers are targeted with email reminders based on basket abandonment on a
single device. This strategy does not take into consideration real user behaviour –
shopping and browsing on tablet or mobile, but making a purchase on desktop, or
vice versa. Without a view across devices marketers are unable to see if people have
actually converted, and ultimately this can result in a poor experience.
Summary
To be successful at targeting users who have left items in their online basket, you need to
understand all the devices in a user journey. By using this insight, brands can make their
emails more effective to ensure they don’t retarget customers with products they have
already bought.

14. Are you ready
to choose the
right cross-device
measurement
solution?
Rakuten Attribution arms
digital businesses with performance
measurement tools, analysis and reporting,
powering great decisions and driving success.
rakutenmarketing.co.uk/attribution
rm-salesuk@mail.rakuten.com
+44 1273 807272