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Understand MNTN’s Identity Graph

Learn how MNTN connects audience data across devices and households to improve targeting precision.

Lauren Reedy avatar
Written by Lauren Reedy
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Overview

This article details the inner workings of MNTN's cross-device identity graph, which empowers marketers to drive and accurately measure performance across 120+ million households.

What if offers:

  • Unparalleled scale in CTV targeting

  • Accurate, patent-pending attribution on television

  • An ID-agnostic solution to drive performance


📝 Note: MNTN’s Identity Graph is built to be compliant with US and international privacy laws, including GDPR and CCPA.


How it Powers Verified Visits™

We continuously build our device graph:

MNTN Collects Device Information - First, we aggregate data with privacy compliance across unique, ID-agnostic sources:

  • MNTN’s Pixel: MNTN’s pixel fires when a user visits a brand’s website,
    sending device IDs, IP addresses, Google Analytics IDs, and
    behavioral signals back to MNTN.

  • Third-Party Partners: LiveRamp and other third-party partners pass
    device identifiers directly to MNTN every hour.

  • Household Devices: MNTN’s bidding technology accesses identifiers
    across every household device that receives an ad.

MNTN Matches Devices - Next, we match users’ device information to our Identity Graph to recognize and build a connected household. If We Have Seen This User...That means their identifiers and connected household devices are already synced with our Identity Graph.


📝 Note: MNTN updates user profiles in real-time, to ensure we have the most up-to-date understanding of their connected household devices.


Sample identifiers include:

  • IP Address—Has this record been matched across all MNTN advertisers?

  • The device identifier

  • Google Analytics User IDs

If We Have Not Seen This User... We’ll create a new record for that user, connecting their household devices for automatic identification. In the future, when this user is “seen,” MNTN will be able to sync the user with our Identity Graph.

We determine a Verified Visit:

We sync impression delivery with our identity graph - Once MNTN serves an impression to a household and our pixel confirms a visit, we determine if there is a cross-device connection between those events using our Identity Graph. Once a cross-device connection has been confirmed, we move on to our MNTN diagnostic.


We run an attribution diagnostic - Our system runs a diagnostic of the impression served and resulting visit to ensure the connection meets our strict attribution parameters. All visits attributed to MNTN must meet the following criteria or they will not be counted:

  • All CTV ads were played to completion

  • The user visits the site within your designated look-back window

  • MNTN uses our proprietary identity graph — which monitors cross-device connections across over 120 million households — to confirm that the consumer watched your TV commercial before visiting your website on a device in the same household.

We confirm a net new Verified Visit - Once a visit has passed our diagnostic, we cross-reference our database to confirm whether it’s a new visit or another visit that resulted from the same ad exposure.

If it’s a new visit that passed all of the prior parameters, then that visit is deemed a

Cross-Device Verified Visit and is attributed to MNTN.

Quick Answers

How does MNTN target users leveraging a VPN or firewall?

MNTN is ID agnostic, which helps rectify VPNs cloaking the IP addresses. MNTN’s Identity Graph remains ID agnostic by mapping a variety of signals for connected household devices, including IP addresses, device IDs, Google Analytics IDs, and more.

How often does the identity graph refresh?

The MNTN identity graph refreshes in real-time each time a pixel is fired, data is passed from our third-party partners, or an ad impression is served. We don't keep inactive device IDs on our identity graph longer than 30 days.

How many households does MNTN have the ability to target with the MNTN identity graph?

With our identity graph, MNTN is able to gain a distinct understanding of the cross-device connections for 99% of households within the US — offering marketers unparalleled scale in CTV targeting and accurate attribution.

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