At a glance: Enrich your first-party data with ID5 identifiers to unify fragmented user data and improve match rates with activation partners, resulting in larger audiences.
About ID5 enrichment
AppsFlyer’s Data Collaboration Platform integrates with ID5, a leading identity solution provider for the open web. ID5 connects disparate identifiers such as IP addresses, hashed emails (HEM), and mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs) into a unified, privacy-first ID. This increases match rates across collaborators’ datasets, enabling more users to be recognized, joined, and activated in audiences. This guide explains how ID5 enrichment works in DCP, how to set it up, and how to use it for collaborations and activation.
ID5 enrichment helps you:
- Increase match rates between your first-party data and media partners or collaborators
- Maximize target audience size
- Bridge identifiers such as HEM, MAID, and IP + timestamp into a unified identity
- Future-proof your activation as third-party cookies phase out
Common use cases include:
- Brand first-party data enrichment - A brand uploads its first-party data source to DCP and enriches it with ID5 IDs using their ID5 connection.
- Retailer-brand collaboration - A retailer collaborates with a brand and shares access to their ID5 subscription. Within the secure collaboration scope, the brand enriches its customer data using the retailer’s ID5 connection, improving match rates without requiring its own direct ID5 account.
- Partner activation - Enriched sources can be sent to supported activation partners to increase match rates, meaning more users from your data can be matched and included in the audiences on the partner side.
How ID5 works
DCP uses the returned ID5 IDs to enrich your source, resulting in a new enriched source available for segmentation and activation.
Two supported enrichment flows:
| Flow | Description | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Tagged flow | The data owner already applies ID5’s site tagging on their domain, so their uploaded data already contains an ID5 ID column. | When you manage ID5 tagging directly on your site and want to use DCP without further enrichment. |
| Server-to-server (S2S) enrichment flow | AppsFlyer sends your selected data source to ID5, ID5 enriches it with ID5 IDs, and returns it to DCP as an enriched source. | When your source does not include an ID5 column or when you want AppsFlyer to handle enrichment automatically. |
Get started with ID5 enrichment
This section describes how to create an ID5 connection in DCP and use it for enrichment.
Prerequisites:
- An AppsFlyer account with DCP permissions
- An ID5 token (provided by your ID5 account manager)
- A source containing at least one of the supported identifiers: HEM, MAID, or IP + timestamp
Create an ID5 connection
To use ID5 enrichment, first create a Data & Identity connection in DCP.
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Access the Data Collaboration Platform by clicking Collaborate > Data Clean Room, in the AppsFlyer side menu.
- Go to Manage connections (on the upper-right).
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Under the Data & Identity tab, select + New connection.
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Select ID5.
- Enter your ID5 token (if relevant).
- Click Save.
Once saved, the connection becomes available for your sources and collaborations (subject to permissions).
Enrich a source with ID5
You can enrich your sources using the S2S flow.
To enrich a source:
- Access the Data Collaboration Platform by clicking Collaborate > Data Clean Room, in the AppsFlyer side menu.
- Go to the Sources tab and hover over the relevant source.
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From the action menu, select Enrich.
- Click Start enrichment.
- After the enrichment flow is done, you will have a new source that is connected to the original source with the addition of ID5 IDs.
Note: If the original source is ever deleted, the new source will also be deleted.
Grant ID5 permissions in a collaboration
Collaboration owners can allow collaborators to use an ID5 connection in a collaboration (subject to the commercial agreement with ID5).
To grant ID5 permissions to a collaborator:
- Access the Data Collaboration Platform by clicking Collaborate > Data Clean Room in the AppsFlyer side menu.
- In the Collaborations tab, open an existing collaboration or create a new one.
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Click Collaboration with “your collaborator”.
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Click Edit collaboration policy.
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Click Access permissions.
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Enable ID5 connection.
- Click Save.
Collaborators can then associate their own sources with the collaboration and enrich them using the partner’s ID5 connection.
Traits and limitations
This section outlines some key traits and limitations.
| Trait / Limitation | Description |
|---|---|
| First enrichment and daily updates |
The first enrichment run begins immediately and typically completes within several hours. After the initial run, enrichment continues daily at a fixed processing time, ensuring fresh identity mappings. You can pause enrichment at any time to stop daily updates. |
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Source dependency
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If the original source is deleted, the enriched source is automatically deleted. |
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Activation scope
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In a collaboration, an advertiser can use enriched data for activation but cannot download or query it. |
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Status restrictions
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You can enrich only sources in Active status. |
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Enrichment latency
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Sources in Waiting or Processing continue enrichment but become usable only after reaching Active status. |
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Retention window
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ID5 stores mappings for 14–90 days, depending on activity. |
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Identifier requirement
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If the source lacks HEM, MAID, or IP + timestamp, enrichment is disabled. |
| Connection conflicts | A collaboration can include only one ID5 connection. If both parties have their own ID5 connections, neither connection can be used within the collaboration. In this case, each party must enrich their data separately in their own environment, and only the resulting enriched sources can then be used in the collaboration. |