Cross Device Tracking

C3 Metrics includes a proprietary probabilistic methodology for tracking users anonymously across their different devices.  There are multiple steps to connect different devices and this article will outline these steps.

Step #1:  Connect the Path of the Converting Device

As a user interacts with your different media channels, C3 is connecting the user along their different paths.  When the user converts, they are on one of several devices and C3 connects all of the unique paths.  Every user path is comprised of periods of No Activity where the user is idle and not interacting with your media and periods of activity where they are viewing ads, clicking on links and engaging with your brand.

Step #2:  Find Other Devices at the Same Location also 'Shopping'

At the moment of conversion, C3 will do a lookup to locate other devices which are also shopping/browsing during the same time-frame and connect their paths.  These other devices will also have periods of No Activity spliced with Activity.

Step #3:  Eliminate Devices with Path Overlap

Research from Google and others have shown that users rarely if ever utilizes multiple devices at the same time for the same campaign.  Utilizing our 'puzzle-piece' probability path matching, when C3 locates a device with a Path Overlap, that device is eliminated from the analysis as our methodology has determined that it not the same user.

Step #4:  Match Devices with the Path Match

When C3 locates a devices where the Path matches the path of the Converting Device and fills a period of No Activity, the device is determined to be the same user.

The Final Result is a path which represents the user and all of their devices as they made their journey to conversion.