Marchex, Inc.
Correlated consumer telephone numbers and user identifiers for advertising retargeting

Abstract:

A method and system that performs cross-channel advertisement targeting based on consumer telephone numbers. The system utilizes a targeting database to determine which consumers should be re-engaged on behalf of a business. The targeting database correlates a telephone number associated with a consumer with a masked user identifier associated with the tracking of online behavior of that consumer. The targeting database may include a confidence level representing the likelihood of correspondence between the telephone number and masked user identifier. The targeting database is used by the system to target advertisements to consumers. A telephone number of a consumer is used to identify a masked identifier of the consumer. Advertisements are then targeted to the consumer using the masked identifier. The stored confidence level may be used by the system to control the aggressiveness of re-targeting.