*Please ensure compliance with any applicable regulations regarding disclosures and obtain required consent before sharing user data with upstream vendors.
Identity Dashboard
Here's a quick overview of the Identity section of your Ezoic dashboard.
First, in your dashboard homepage, you can see an overview of your identified users. You can view both the total number of identified users, and the percentage of identified users compared to unidentified users.
Next, to get to your Identity dashboard, click the ID icon in your top navigation. You can also navigate there directly by going to https://pubdash.ezoic.com/identity
Your first option will be to upload or connect an email list. This can be done by linking a list in an existing email service provider (such as MailChimp, etc.), or by uploading a list via a CSV file if you aren't using a service we provide automatic linking for.
There is no limit to how many lists you can link, so this option will remain at the top of your dashboard even after linking a list.
The next section of the ID dashboard shows information regarding your linked lists. You can review the number of new subscribers to your lists within a certain timeframe, across all accounts, or narrowed down to specific accounts.
Finally, in the "Accounts" section, you can see an overview of your linked accounts, the number of subscribers, list sources, etc. By clicking "Manage Lists," you can view all linked lists and their status.
Share your existing data with Identity Providers
Our identity solution empowers publishers to optimize ad performance for traffic originating from newsletters and email campaigns. By passing secure signals through URL parameters, we can leverage hashed email addresses and other first-party data. This data is integrated with various identity solutions, allowing us to enhance ad bid requests. As a result, advertisers can place higher bids and increase ad fill rates, ultimately boosting revenue for publishers.
Here's how it works:
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Syncing Emails: Publishers sync their email lists with Ezoic's secure system, which utilizes a unique subscriber or contact ID provided by the newsletter platform. If a subscriber/contact ID isn't available, Ezoic generates a unique ID and adds it back to the publisher's email list as a tag, merge tag, or custom field, depending on their email service provider. This ID is then used by Ezoic to identify website visitors when they arrive from newsletters or email campaigns. Ezoic supports direct API integrations with many top email newsletter providers, and also offers the option to connect through our Ezoic API for seamless integration with any other provider.
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Embedding IDs in Links: The publisher includes this unique user ID as a UTM parameter in any outbound website links within their newsletters or email campaigns (for example: www.publisher-website.com/content-page?utm_content=zid-123456).
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Identifying Visitors: When the user arrives on the website after clicking a link containing one of these user IDs, Ezoic reads the ID from the URL. We use this ID to identify the user and generate an email hash, which is then sent, along with any other available first-party data, to multiple identity providers, such as UID2 by The Trade Desk.
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Improving Ad Targeting: Advertisers and agencies using demand-side platforms (DSPs) can match the email hashes to those their campaigns are targeting, effectively recognizing users across different platforms. The identity tokens derived from these hashes are then sent to the DSPs, enabling them to bid on ad inventory that aligns with their campaigns' target criteria.
This process leads to improved fill rates from demand partners and higher CPM rates. For instance, on iOS devices, whether using Safari or Chrome, advertisers cannot run premium retargeting campaigns that rely on third-party cookies, as these are not available on iOS. However, with an email hash, advertisers can still match their retargeting campaigns to customers or leads based on their email addresses.
Ezoic offers direct API integrations with many popular providers and provides our own simple, secure API for all other connections. Click on one of the links below for your preferred integration method to get step-by-step instructions.
BeeHiiv
ActiveCampaign
MailChimp
We'll be offering further API integrations in the near future. In the meantime, if you don't currently utilize any of the above solutions, please send a .csv file of your gathered data to your dedicated Account Manager and we can process this for you manually on our back-end.
Sync New Users Instantly with Identity Providers
The Ezoic Identity product allows publishers to share a hashed version of a user's email with vendors such as Google and Prebid's User Identity modules and bidders. Sharing hashed emails or phone numbers can provide a large uplift as it allows advertisers to better reach their target audiences without the use of cookies.
The easiest way to do this is to navigate to https://pubdash.ezoic.com/ezoicads/identity and "opt-in" to sharing data with the listed identity partners. This will allow Ezoic and the listed partners to automatically collect first-party data, such as emails and phone numbers, from sources like logins and newsletter forms on your website, and share this with our advertising partners.
Publishers looking for a more versatile solution can pass custom user IDs, or hashed or unhashed user emails or phone numbers, to vendors.
Integrated Email Service IDs
If you've already integrated your email service provider with Ezoic, you can pass the custom user ID, also known by zuserid or zid, via the JS.
window.ezoicIdentity = window.ezoicIdentity || {};
window.ezoicIdentity.queue = window.ezoicIdentity.queue || [];
window.ezoicIdentity.queue.push(function(){
window.ezoicIdentity.setIdentity({
userid: USER_ID
});
});
Integrated Phone Service IDs
If you've already integrated your phone notification service provider with Ezoic, you can pass the custom user ID, also known by zuserid or zid in the phone service provider, via the JS.
window.ezoicIdentity = window.ezoicIdentity || {};
window.ezoicIdentity.queue = window.ezoicIdentity.queue || [];
window.ezoicIdentity.queue.push(function(){
window.ezoicIdentity.setPhoneNumber({
userid: USER_ID
});
});
Hashed Email
When passing a hashed email address, please note the following:
- Validate the email address, e.g., through use of a regular expression
- Remove leading and trailing whitespace
- Convert all characters to lowercase
- hash the email using sha256, md5, or sha1 (sha256 is recommended)
- In gmail.com email addresses, remove the following characters from the username part of the email address:
- Periods:
john.smith@gmail.com should look like johnsmith@gmail.com before hashing
- Plus signs and any characters following up until the
@: johnsmith+home@gmail.com to johnsmith@gmail.com
To pass a hashed email address, you can call the following function to pass either sha256, md5, or sha1 hashes of a user's plaintext email address.
window.ezoicIdentity = window.ezoicIdentity || {};
window.ezoicIdentity.queue = window.ezoicIdentity.queue || [];
window.ezoicIdentity.queue.push(function(){
window.ezoicIdentity.setIdentity({
md5: MD5_HASHED_EMAIL,
sha256: SHA256_HASHED_EMAIL,
sha1: SHA1_HASHED_EMAIL
});
});
At least one hashed email address must be passed to the function. If you have multiple hashed emails, you can pass them all. SHA256 is recommended, but you can pass any combination of the three hashes.
Unhashed Email
You may also submit an unhashed email which Ezoic will hash for you for maximum coverage before passing it to our vendors.
window.ezoicIdentity = window.ezoicIdentity || {};
window.ezoicIdentity.queue = window.ezoicIdentity.queue || [];
window.ezoicIdentity.queue.push(function(){
window.ezoicIdentity.setIdentity({
email: PLAINTEXT_EMAIL
});
});
});
});
Phone Number (Hashed or Unhashed)
When providing a phone number, you are able to pass in either a hashed or unhashed phone number. If you pass in only an unhashed phone number, Ezoic will hash it for you before passing it to our vendors. You are also able to hash the phone number yourself using the SHA-256 algorithm and provide only the hash when calling the function. When hashing the phone number, please note the following before hashing:
- Ensure the phone number is in E.164 format, e.g., through use of a regular expression
- E.164 phone numbers can have a maximum of fifteen digits
- Normalized E.164 phone numbers use the following syntax with no spaces, hyphens, paraenthesis, or other characters:
[+][country code][area code][local phone number]- US Example:
1(234)567-8901 would be normalized to +12345678901
- Signapore:
65 1234 5678 would be normalized to +6512345678
- Sydney, Australia:
(02) 1234 5678 is normalized to drop the leading zero for the city then prepend the country code to +61212345678
window.ezoicIdentity = window.ezoicIdentity || {};
window.ezoicIdentity.queue = window.ezoicIdentity.queue || [];
window.ezoicIdentity.queue.push(function(){
window.ezoicIdentity.setPhoneNumber({
phone: UNHASHED_PHONE_NUMBER,
sha256: SHA256_HASHED_PHONE_NUMBER
});
});
Boost Ad Value with Audience-Matched URL Variables
You can include a user id or email hash in any url parameter formatted to the below specification and Ezoic will automatically read the parameter from the URL and provide the identity information to advertising providers. You can include these in links, email campaigns, logins, and more!
*We recommend using a UTM parameter, though any parameter will work.
Here are some examples of accepted values:
If using one of our supported providers, further information regarding the adding of UTM tags to links can be found via the relevant links below:
BeeHiiv
ActiveCampaign
MailChimp