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Active Match Rate vs. Open Match Rate: Which Matters Most for Your Programmatic Campaigns?
April 11, 2024 | 5 min read
In programmatic advertising, understanding your audience data is critical to campaign success. One key factor to consider is your match rate – the percentage of records in your dataset that can be matched to identifiers on a platform or within a data partner’s ecosystem. But not all match rates are created equal.
Two match rate metrics often discussed are Active Match Rate and Open Match Rate. While they sound similar, they serve very different purposes. So which one should you focus on when planning your programmatic campaigns? Let’s break down the differences and identify where your priorities should lie.
Not all Match Rates Are Created Equal
Your ad tech partner has provided you with their average match rate figures and they sound too good to be true. But which type of match rate are they talking about? And why does it matter for your campaigns?
Before we dive into the different types of match rates, let’s set the stage:
A match rate measures the overlap between your dataset (e.g., customer emails, phone numbers, third party data segments) and a partner’s database. The higher your match rate, the larger the portion of your audience you can reach through that platform. Match rates are crucial for:
- Maximizing your audience reach
- Ensuring campaign efficiency
- Understanding the quality of your data
However, not all matches are immediately actionable – and that’s where the difference between open and active match rates comes in.
Open Match Rate: An Ideal World
Definition: The Open Match Rate represents the potential match rate—the total percentage of records that could match under ideal circumstances. These matches include dormant, inactive, or unverified identifiers that are not ready for immediate activation.
Think of open match rate as a best-case scenario. It tells you what’s possible if all your data were refreshed, verified, and fully utilized.
Why It Matters:
- It highlights opportunities for data improvement
- It provides a ceiling for how much reach you could achieve
- It identifies gaps in your current data strategy, helping you uncover areas to optimize
Key Influencers of Open Match Rate:
- Inactive or outdated identifiers (e.g., expired cookies, invalid emails)
- Data latency (how often your matches are updated)
- Potential matches that require validation or enrichment
Active Match Rate: The Here and Now
Definition: The Active Match Rate is the percentage of records in your dataset that can immediately match to a partner’s audience data. These matches are live, verified, and ready for activation.
In other words, if you upload a list of emails, the active match rate tells you how many of those email identifiers can actually be used right now to target the owner of that email address programmatically.
Why It Matters:
- It reflects the real-time reach potential of your campaign
- A high active match rate ensures that your programmatic campaign will efficiently deliver impressions to the right audience
- It’s actionable and tangible—what you can actually work with immediately
Key Influencers of Active Match Rate:
- Data freshness (recent identifiers perform better)
- Data accuracy (valid emails, active cookies, etc.)
- The partner’s ability to resolve and match identities
Another important component with active match rates is the lookback window. The lookback window refers to the specific time range during which identifiers, such as cookies or device IDs, are considered active and usable for matching. For example, a 30-day lookback window means only identifiers that have been seen or validated within the last 30 days will count toward the active match rate.
Active vs. Open Match Rate: Which Should You Prioritize?
Open Match Rate
Focus: Potential matches
When to Prioritize: When evaluating data hygiene and planning long-term improvements.
When Open Match Rate Matters Most: If you’re taking a longer-term view, the Open Match Rate can be a valuable diagnostic tool. It helps you identify opportunities to clean, enrich, or update your data to unlock more potential matches. This is especially useful for brands investing in ongoing campaigns and building stronger identity graphs.
Active Match Rate
Focus: Immediate, actionable matches
When to Prioritize: When evaluating data hygiene and planning long-term improvements.
When Active Match Rate Takes Priority: If you’re about to launch a programmatic campaign, the Active Match Rate is your north star. It tells you how many of your audience members are reachable right now. A low active match rate means wasted impressions, lower ROI, and a smaller overall impact.
So, which match rate are you being quoted?
Most ad tech providers quote a “match rate,” without specifying whether the figure represents open or active. When working with a partner, be sure to plainly ask which type they are providing. If the range is in the upper 90s, you are most likely looking at open match rate, which has little to do with how much reach your campaign will actually achieve.
85%
IQM Active Match Rate
Assuming data received from our customers is up to date and hygienic, IQM’s open match rates are consistently in the 98 – 99% range. When IQM quotes a match rate to our customers, we are referring to active match rate – the percentage of people from your dataset that we can actually reach here and now. Our industry-leading active match rates average to 85% across verticals.
Final Thoughts:
When considering programmatic partners, it is important to ask critical questions surrounding their match rates to understand your opportunity for maximum campaign reach. High active match rates, while they have their place in the world of data strategy, are not the best metric for immediate and actionable reach potential.
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