Account Settings - Subscriber ID
Why do you need a Subscriber ID
The Subscriber ID is the unique identification of the recipient of the email message.
Although Subscriber IDs are not an absolute necessity for all Liveclicker elements, Subscriber IDs are crucial for accurate user(opener)-level reporting on your campaigns as well as for targeting and click-through URLs.
For optimal results, Liveclicker recommends the use of Subscriber IDs in all campaigns. This is because a Subscriber ID is a value that's unique to each opener.
If there is no Subscriber ID in place, Liveclicker will fall back on the opener's IP address, which can be problematic since an IP address can change, or multiple devices can share the same IP address.
If there are multiple Subscriber IDs used in different campaigns for the same audience, this will have an impact on user-level reporting making it difficult to get accurate reporting per opener.
Where is the Subscriber ID used
Location | Usage |
---|---|
LivePoll | Mandatory for tracking poll answers and results. Without a Subscriber ID, LivePoll will still function but will be unable to report on the votes of specific users. It may also be unable to change the content displayed based on users' actions, e.g. showing post-vote images. |
LiveReveal | Mandatory for tracking who has and has not revealed the hidden image.
Without a Subscriber ID, while LiveReveal will still function, it may be unable to show a revealed image to re-openers and may ask them to re-reveal the hidden image or revisit a landing page. |
LiveCalendar | Without a Subscriber ID, LiveCalendar may cache an experience by the first device used to open an email and may show an incorrect experience on later opens. |
Impressions for a single email open | Used to match the impressions for a single email open. |
Matching clickthroughs to impressions | When matching clickthroughs to impressions, Subscriber ID is critical since the clickthrough may not be in the same email client as the impression. |
Matching the email landing page play-through to impressions | When matching the email landing page play-through to impressions, Subscriber ID is critical since the clickthrough may not be in the same email client as the impression. |
Matching conversions/revenue to impressions | When matching conversion/revenue to impressions; Subscriber ID is critical since the conversion may not be in the same email client as the impression, and may not be timely (could be hours/days delay between the two). |
Identify bad/spoofed requests | Errors or malicious users can be detected by enumerating all the users who had impressions for a campaign; |
User action Targeting rules | Subscriber ID must be set up in order for Liveclickerto successfully target content based on the number of opens, and/or the number of clicks. |
A/B test accuracy | Without Subscriber IDs, in some cases, it will not be possible to correlate a click-through to an original A/B test impression |
How to set up your Subscriber ID
You have the option to set up more than one Subscriber ID (for example when multiple ESPs are used), but one will always be the default one. This default Subscriber ID should preferably not contain any personally identifiable information, such as an email, and should be the same for all your campaigns.
Creating a Subscriber ID
1. From the top toolbar, click the Gear icon to access the Account Settings:
2. Go to the tab Custom fields and click the Subscriber ID tab just below:
When no Subscriber ID has been configured for your environment, a warning is raised, informing the user of the impact of not defining a Subscriber ID.
3. To define the Subscriber ID, fill out the following fields on the first available line:
Field name — By default, this field is named Subscriber ID, but this can be any name you wish to assign to it. For consistency and clarity, it is recommended to align this name in Liveclicker with the name of the field in your ESP.
ESP Tag — This is the syntax that is used in your ESP to reference profile fields.
Examples of ESP tags:
- ESP = Marigold Engage => [%[Table_Name.Field_Name]%] where Table_Name can be MASTER to reference the Audience List or the name of the profile extension.
- ESP = Engage by Sailthru => {profile.vars.first_name}.
- ESP= Engage+ => {(email)}, {(firstname)}, {(country)}
Note: Ideally, the Subscriber ID should, for security reasons, not contain any personally identifiable information, such as an email address. Choose a unique hash or random set of characters that is totally obfuscated and reveals nothing about the recipient.
Make default — If this is the first field that been configured here, the Make default option is automatically checked and cannot be unchecked. When multiple Subscriber IDs are configured, the default one can be changed.
Note: The default Subscriber ID should remain the same for the different messages sent out through your ESP. You can however configure multiple Subscriber IDs, for example when your company uses multiple ESPs. Each ESP can have a different Subscriber ID in that case.
4. When finished, click the orange check to confirm the changes and Continue.
Adding an additional Subscriber ID
It is possible to have multiple Subscriber IDs within your environment. For example, when using multiple ESPs you might need a different Subscriber ID per ESP. Or when using different audiences, a dedicated Subscriber ID might be needed to match with a unique ID in the audience.
Do note that when you would use different Subscriber IDs in different campaigns sent to the same audience in your ESP, this might have an impact on your user-level reports. When using the Subscriber ID field, information is returned and linked to a specific opener. When using different Subscriber IDs in different campaigns, it might not be possible to link information to a single opener cross-campaign.
1. To create an additional Subscriber ID, click Add new +:
2. An additional row is added. Perform the same steps as for the first row.
3. If you want to change the default Subscriber ID to this now field, you can do it now.
4. Make sure to check the orange check box and confirm your changes when done.
Subscriber ID example
You sent out a campaign using a Subscriber ID with the variable code of %%email_address%% to a fictional opener, Michael Smith. When Michael Smith opens this campaign, it returns an impression with a Subscriber ID value of 'michael.smith@example.com'.
Next, you sent out another campaign to Michael Smith that uses an alternative Subscriber ID with the variable code of %%sub_id%%. When Michael Smith opens this campaign, it returns an impression with a Subscriber ID value of '12jku8970'.
Because Michael is identified by 2 different Subscriber IDs for the same opener, this will reflect in the reports:
-
When comparing data for Michael Smith across these two campaigns, the data will show that these impressions are from two different users, and considered as from different openers.
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Conversion tracking can also be affected. The conversion tracking pixel is placed on your website using Subscriber ID. The Subscriber ID used in your campaigns must return the same values for openers as the Subscriber ID used in your conversion tracking pixel on your website. If the Subscriber IDs are different and do not return the same values, no conversion/order data will be reported.
Use of Subscriber IDs in campaigns
When a Subscriber ID is used in a Liveclicker campaign, it is included in the embed code generated for the different elements in that campaign.
Frequently asked questions
- I use two different ESPs, can I set up multiple Subscriber IDs?
- Are Subscriber IDs considered personally identifiable information (PII)?
- Do I need to use the Subscriber ID used by our ESP?
- Why should I use an obfuscated user ID or a hash, instead of an email address?
- What if I don't have a Subscriber ID?
- What if I can't use my ESP's Subscriber ID?
I use two different ESPs, can I set up multiple Subscriber IDs?
Yes. Just keep in mind that Subscriber IDs have to correspond with variable codes that exist as a field inside the ESP you are using to send your Liveclicker campaigns. Because many businesses use more than one ESP to send all of their email campaigns, you have the ability to create more than one Subscriber ID to use in your Liveclicker campaigns.
However, it is not advised to use different Subscriber IDs for separate elements in the same campaign because the user-level reporting will not be accurate. (Refer to Reporting Limitations above.)
Are Subscriber IDs considered personally identifiable information (PII)?
They can be depending on what you decide the variables to be, just like the above example that used an email as the variable. But that example was merely to help illustrate the possibilities; Liveclicker strongly prefers to never receive personally identifiable information.
The Subscriber ID can be any random set of characters or a unique "hash" that is totally obfuscated and reveals nothing about the recipient, which is preferred to PII and was also shown in the above example.
Do I need to use the Subscriber ID used by our ESP?
No. Any random characters can be used as Subscriber ID, as long as each recipient has a unique ID.
Why should I use an obfuscated user ID or a hash, instead of an email address?
The primary benefit is security since personally identifiable information will never be passed to Liveclicker.
What if I don't have a Subscriber ID?
Nearly all modern email marketing platforms identify records by a unique ID. If you are unable to identify what Subscriber ID to use, contact your ESP.
What if I can't use my ESP's Subscriber ID?
In this case, a set of hashes will need to be created and associated with each email address on file. The association of those hashes with the email addresses stored within your ESP will need to be completed by your own internal staff or ESP account team.