In a world where ad budgets are under scrutiny and the signal from third-party cookies is going dark, marketers face a critical challenge: how do you prove your paid media is working?
For years, attribution leaned on last-touch and channel-centric reporting. These models obscure the customer journey, miss key interactions (especially offline), and fail to link behavior across devices, platforms, and environments. The result? Gaps in visibility, wasted spend, and underperforming strategies.
That’s why more marketers are turning to person-level attribution: an approach that links every impression to a real person, and then to a real outcome.
From fragmented touchpoints to full journeys
Traditional measurement asks: Which channel performed best? But customers don’t shop by channel. They might see a travel ad on CTV, click a search ad days later, and then book through a third-party site. Channel-based models miss this entirely—because they only credit the last touch, not the full journey.
That’s a problem for upper- and mid-funnel campaigns. These touchpoints - like CTV, display, or paid social - build awareness and intent, but rarely drive immediate conversions. And when those conversions happen offsite, like through an online travel agency or in-store, there’s no easy way to connect the dots. As a result, these influential campaigns go uncredited and are often undervalued or cut, even when they’re working.
A real-world Solution: Identity-powered attribution
Amperity, in partnership with The Trade Desk and Databricks, bridges the attribution gap with a privacy-safe, person-level measurement framework. At the center of this approach is the Amperity ID: a durable, unified customer identifier that quickly connects online and offline interactions using AI. This creates a granular view that shows which touchpoints drove sales for each individual customer.
This ID becomes the foundation for associating ad exposure with customer actions across the journey, ensuring maximum addressability across media partners. The solution is powered by two key components:
Unified ID 2.0 (UID2): A persistent, privacy-compliant identifier that enables cross-device and cross-channel tracking by linking ad interactions to a known individual.
Raw Events Data Stream (REDS): Log-level ad event data from The Trade Desk, updated hourly, capturing impressions, clicks, views, and conversions, each tied to a UID2.
With UID2 mapped to the Amperity ID, marketers can connect the dots between ad exposure and outcomes across any platform or environment.
Take for example a loyalty program member who browsed a product online while logged in, was served a personalized ad the next day via The Trade Desk inventory, and later redeemed an in-store coupon. Because each interaction was linked via UID2 and resolved back to their Amperity ID, the entire journey was measurable and attributable.
How it works: From audience to attribution
Onboarding & Identity Matching Amperity helps brands assign UIDs at the individual Amperity ID level and send audiences to The Trade Desk. These UIDs are managed in the customer profile in Amperity's Customer 360.
Daily Event Ingestion The Trade Desk sends REDS data - impressions, clicks, views, and conversions - tied to UID2s to Amperity.
Data Analytics in Databricks Data flows to Databricks through Amperity’s zero-copy integration, where teams can run custom analytics.
Closed-Loop Attribution Because UID2s link back to known customers, Amperity connects ad exposure to online and offline conversions, allowing brands to see true performance with custom dashboards.
Why person-level attribution changes the game
This isn’t just better reporting. It’s a better strategy. With person-level attribution, brands can:
Optimize campaigns across the full funnel.
Refine audiences based on real outcomes.
Test creative by timing, frequency, and sequence.
Attribute conversions even when they happen offsite or in store.
One global travel brand discovered that 71% of revenue came from offsite bookings. These were conversions traditional models missed entirely.
Why it matters now
The landscape is shifting. Cookies are fading. Privacy standards are rising. Budgets are tight.
Marketers can’t afford reporting full of guesswork. With Amperity, The Trade Desk, and Databricks, person-level attribution is now within reach. It delivers the speed, transparency, and accuracy needed to move faster, spend smarter, and prove performance.
Want to See It in Action? Check out the on-demand webinar “Unlocking True Paid Media Impact with Amperity & The Trade Desk.”