Custom Data Onboarding

This guide walks you through the steps to securely upload your customer data to Experian for audience activation to supported destinations. It provides all the details needed to prepare and format your audience files.

Who to contact:

Your Data > Secure Transfer Service (STS) > Experian Activation

Acceptable file transfer methods: 

• STS web application (browser-based upload)
• SFTP via STS
• AWS S3: Given access, STS can read audience files from an S3 bucket you own.

Ask your Project Manager for the STS User Guide for step-by-step instructions.

You will create one file for each audience you want to onboard. The file and field requirements are outlined below. Several file types are accepted. Please follow these guidelines closely to avoid errors.

• US records only
• Max file size < 20 GB
• File Types
  -    pipe-delimited (|) end in “.psv” extension
  -    comma-delimited (,) end in “.csv” extension
• Optional compression: Gzip (.gz) only
  -    When using gzip compression, you must ensure the extension .gz is added to the file name: MyAudience.psv.gz

Audience files consist of a header row containing column names, followed by rows of data that identify the audience members. See Section 6 for the complete list of allowed column names and descriptions for each. Supported columns are:

• PII (Name, Address, One or more email addresses – up to four)
• MAID
• IP address

To build an audience file,

1. Choose the columns that match the identifying information you have for your audience,
2. Write those columns into a header row in any order you choose, and then
3. Fill in the rest of the file with the identifying information rows, ensuring the data meets the formatting rules for each column.

Pipe (the “|” character) and comma (the “,” character) delimited files are accepted.

• Each file represents one complete audience.
• The first row of a file must be a header row containing column names.
• Column names may appear in any order.
• Subsequent rows will contain data records, each consisting of consumer identifiers for individuals in the audience.
• Empty or blank data values look like two consecutive delimiters (e.g. “,,” or “||”), or just one preceding or trailing delimiter at the beginning or end of the file.

Example of a comma-delimited file:

The naming convention you use for your audience file will define how the audience is displayed within our system. Each file must include your company name and the audience name. Each file must include the company name as the prefix to ensure it lands in the properly location in our system. The underscore (_) should be used to separate the company name prefix and your audience name. The company name should also be included in the audience name & both can be separated with a space.

Keep file names under 100 characters. Only letters, numbers, and underscores after the company name prefix (_) are allowed.

Examples shown are in comma-delimited (.csv) format.

Example 1: Just email addresses

Let’s say your audience data contains only email addresses and for some people you have two emails. Your audience file would look like this:

Example 2: Name, address, and hashed MAID with embedded delimiter

Example 3: IP addresses

We ask that you create a test file once you have established your file transfer method and understand the file requirements. Once delivered to Experian, your PM will review the file, help you correct any errors, and provide approval to start sending real files for Onboarding.

Only include the columns for the identifiers you are submitting in the file. Your file cannot contain the same column name multiple times; they must be unique.