• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 10, 2023

Email and postal addresses are not easily matched, judging by a new study from data-validation platform Truthset, in partnership with The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). 

This is happening as cookies and mobile ad identifiers (MAIDs) are being phased out, the study says.  

Truthset and CIMM analyzed the linkages between 3.9 billion hashed email records and 90% of known U.S. postal addresses.

They found that matches between email and postal vary widely based on provider, from a low of 32% to a high of 69%, reflecting different data-capture processes and updated rules. 

In general, these hashed email and postal linkages are accurate 51% of the time. 

The study posits that a CPG advertiser can improve its return on investment from $1.08 to $1.54 per dollar spent by increasing those match rates.

“The industry is making rapid progress in developing and improving the quality of identity spines as buyers and sellers develop a more robust understanding of the quality of different datasets,” says Jon Watts, managing director at CIMM. 

Watts adds: “Consumers change their email addresses pretty regularly, and we need robust practices for ensuring that identity data is accurate and up-to-date.” 

Truthset says it can help with these processes. The company was set to provide an update on an initiative to validate demographic and identity data at the CIMM Summit in New York on Tuesday.  

“Big Data is going to play an important role in the future of the advertising ecosystem, but right now, the industry is focused solely on scale,” says Scott McKinley, founder and CEO at Truthset.