Onboarding

Onboard refers to the process of linking offline attributes to online online identifiers. Examples of this offline attribute data can include in-store shopping events or call center activity. The linking process involves matching the directly-identifiable identifier (e.g., name, email, phone number, residential address) to a digital identifier (e.g., MAID or cookie-based identifier).

Typically marketers often rely on DMPs or CDPs to onboard their first-party information to pseudonymous digital identifiers, but they can also avail themselves of specialized onboarding service organizations that do not centralize and manage the marketers' customer data.

Large platforms also often provide this onboarding service themselves (e.g., "Customer Match" and "Custom Audiences").