Individual Level Data

Intro¶

As noted several times previously, FollowGraph can be delivered at an individual or geographic level. The Delivery Format section provides an example table with some context on the differences in a table's format.

With that understanding, we wanted to use this section to explain how you can receive individual level FollowGraph data or make complete use of the dataset without even needing to handle data at all. There are primarily 2 ways to work with FollowGraph data:

Append FollowGraph variables to your customer data.
Generate audiences based on FollowGraph data and deliver them directly to your advertising platform.

We'll get into both of these in the sections below.

Method 1: Appending FollowGraph variables to your customer data¶

When you do this on our platform, we'll walk you through it. The following sections re-iterate the steps involved and provide useful context on each step.

Step 1: Prepare your customer data for upload¶

We use whatever information you can provide to match an individual person or household.

Required Fields¶

At a minimum, we need an address (or another location component such as block group or latitude and longitude) for each customer. Adding additional information like first name, last name, etc. can improve the match rate. Follow instructions in the upload tool for more specifics and examples.

Match Level¶

In cases where we can't match a customer at a name/address level, we will use the block group or zip code of the customer to assign a value. We include a "match level" column in results which specificies at what level we matched a customer.

Step 2: Select variables to append to your data¶

There are well thousands of variables in our standard dataset, as well as thousands more available to create on request. Advanced data analysts and developers may simply wish to have all FollowGraph variables appended to their data. In this case, these users may simply select all variables, but other users may request specific variables to append to their data.

Most use cases do not require every variable and reducing the number of variables requested will significantly reduce processing time and file size. We especially recommend this for large customer data files. FollowGraph contains a LOT of high-quality data. Even just 1,000 customer records with all variables may prove difficult to work with if you are looking to analyze it with standard spreadsheet softwares such as excel.

Choosing the variables you need on use case by use case will not only reduce the processing time and file size. It also may cut down on the amount of data analysis needed, quickly getting you to actionable insights.

Step 3: Name and Submit¶

After you've uploaded customer data and chosen your variables, you may name the request and submit. Once processing is completed we'll email you a link to download the appended data.

Notes on privacy and security¶

All PII (personally identifiable information) uploaded to our platform is immediately encrypted and then deleted after processing. For this reason, make sure you include a ID with each record you upload to our platform. When you receive an output file, it will contain the ID field you provided, a match level, and the requested FollowGraph variables.

Method 2: Advertise using FollowGraph audiences¶

Method two is targeted towards the advertising use case. Create powerful and flexible audiences that can be automatically delivered to advertising platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and more. You can create an audience without the need for manually handling the data at all.

Follow the prompts on the platform and throughout the process we will update the projected size of your audience as you make changes.

In order to share audiences with you on a chosen advertising platform, we need your account ID number on the advertising platform. With this number we will be able to share the audience directly with your account.

Step 1: Choose Location¶

Where would you like to target your advertising? For FollowGraph audiences, you may select individual or combinations of DMAs and states. The largest area that you can target is the entire USA.

Step 2: Choose Variables¶

Base your audience on any one variable or combination of FollowGraph variables.

Step 3: Set Variable Logic¶

Audiences default to the top 10% of the individuals in your chosen geography for the chosen variable(s). This percentage(s) can be adjusted to suit your use case.

If you have chosen multiple variables in your audience you can set the threshold for each variable. By default, the variables will use "or" logic, but you may toggle to "and" logic as well.

Step 4: Choose Advertising Destination¶

Choose where to send your audience. Options include major platforms such Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Step 5: Name and Submit¶

Choose a name for your audience and submit. Once processing is completed we will notify you.