There are typically two schools of thought when it comes to matching consumer identities — deterministic and probabilistic. Throtle believes in purely deterministic matching and at the individual level (of course, you can have household roll-up’s too). We are not in the business of compromising quality for scale, and we have been able to achieve top-notch quality matching that outperforms even higher scale match networks.
Let’s look closer into what these two terms really mean?
- Deterministic matching means it is a factual, exact match of one piece of identity data to another. That same identity is found across multiple independent sources to be certain of a direct match. This is a precise, scientific approach – with facts and validation.
- Probabilistic matching uses fuzzy linkages that are inferred or proxied based on assumptions and best guesses. In this case, algorithms are used with sample data, which can lead to false-positives. Some data companies use a blend of deterministic and probabilistic matching to get greater scale – a higher volume of matched identities in their database and the data is not validated.
Why Throtle Chooses Science Over Art
When it comes to marketing data practices, there’s usually some combination of art and science at play. There are times when a blend of art and science make sense and there are situations where pure science is better. But when it comes to consumer identities, there’s no reason to use art; the science alone provides the very best answer. The facts say it all while the imagination should be left to the art director.
How Throtle Does Deterministic and Individual Matching at Scale
- We use dozens of independent data sources to corroborate each identity linkage as truth. We see each email plus name connection three times or more before incorporating it into the Throtle Truth Set (ID Graph).
- We scour the universe of potential providers and curate the highest quality data sources. We have evaluated over one hundred potential data sources.
- We are continuously optimizing and fortifying the Throtle Identity Graph. Every month, the graph is refined and refreshed with additional data as well as combed for data hygiene and quality. It’s a living repository of the most comprehensive consumer identities in the U.S.
- We constantly validate our graph with external sources to improve and maintain accuracy and consistency.
