Why Identity Graphs Are Key to the Future of DMPs and DSPs

This is the subhead for the blog post

In my last post, I talked about the role of measurement and major media platforms (Google, Facebook) in addressing tracking and measurement in a cookieless world. In today’s post, I’d like to put the future of data-management platforms (DMPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) under a microscope and explain why the key to both lies in the concept of identity graphs (also referred to as ID graphs or ID resolution graphs).

Before I get into DSPs and DMPs, it’s important to know that the concept of identity graphs was introduced (less robustly) about a decade ago by Tapad, which is still the leader in the space because it has been validated for accuracy and has a large pre-established addressable base.

As shown in the image below, identity graphs are databases that store and create linkages between a wide range of user identifiers (think usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, loyalty card numbers, mailing addresses, etc.) – across devices and offline engagements.

How identity graphs are informing DSP advertising today – and in a cookie-less future

Just as Google, Facebook, and big unified marketing measurement (UMM) vendors (Nielsen Attribution, for example) are going to move toward a deterministic model of conversion measurement, large DSPs are following suit. Like UMM vendors, they’re building identity graphs to tie back identities of the same people on different sites by…