Cross-channel user tracking systems, methods, and devices

Abstract

In part, the invention relates to systems and methods suitable for operating a client side platform for deterministically correlating a unique mobile user across multiple marketing communication channels using a universal identifier to provide a deterministic mapping of individual channel user identifiers. In an embodiment, the invention relates to systems and methods suitable for operating a client side platform for probabilistically correlating a unique mobile user across multiple marketing communication channels to provide a mapping of individual channel user identifiers. The systems and methods can be used to identify user activity across different marketing communication channels accessed with a given mobile device.

1 - 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . A computer-based method of tracking a user across a plurality of communication channels comprising:
 generating a first non-universal user identifier associated with a first communication channel in response to a first action of a mobile device;   generating a second non-universal user identifier associated with a second communication channel in response to a second action of the mobile device;   storing the first non-universal user identifier and the second non-universal user identifier in a data repository;   correlating, using an application installed on the mobile device, the stored first nonuniversal user identifier and the stored second non-universal user identifier with a universal identifier having an associated user profile, wherein,
 the user profile is generated using deterministic matching utilizing a plurality of mobile device channel specific identifiers, and 
 the mobile device channel specific identifiers comprise one or more of cookies and product identifiers; 
   associating the universal identifier with a plurality of actions performed with the mobile device wherein the user profile comprises a mapping between the universal identifier and a plurality of activities performed by the user across the plurality of communication channels; and   tracking the user.   
     
     
         21 . The computer-based method of  claim 20 , further comprising: generating a third non-universal user identifier associated with a third communication channel in response to a third action of the mobile device. 
     
     
         22 . The computer-based method of  claim 21 , wherein the first, second, and third communication channels are selected from the group consisting of receiving text messages, receiving emails, viewing a video, viewing a webpage, viewing a video ad, viewing a webpage ad, interacting with social applications, and downloading an application. 
     
     
         23 . The computer-based method of  claim 20 , further comprising: generating the user profile using approximation methods after storing the first non-universal user identifier and the second non-universal user identifier in a data repository, wherein,
 the approximation methods include clustering and probabilistic matching using the plurality of mobile device channel specific identifiers; and   associating the universal identifier with the plurality of actions comprises using a computing device running a Bayesian network to perform the probabilistic matching.   
     
     
         24 . The computer-based method of  claim 20 , further comprising comparing one or more user profiles to incoming request profiles using a probabilistic Bayesian network running on computing device. 
     
     
         25 . A computer-based method of generating user profiles for tracking users, comprising:
 identifying, via a receiver layer, one or more events at a mobile device, wherein each event is associated with a communication channel in response to an action of the mobile device;   issuing an event identifier for each of the one or more events, wherein each event identifier is one of a non-universal unique identifier and a non-universal non-unique identifier;   receiving, at a multi-channel tracking data store, information pertaining to the one or more events and the each of the event identifiers; and   matching at least a portion of each of the event identifiers with a universal identifier using one of deterministic matching or probabilistic matching based in part on the receiving, wherein.   the matching comprises one of updating or generating the universal identifier, and   the universal identifier is associated with a user profile.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 collecting, via a client-side agent in the mobile device, the one or more events and each of the event identifiers using Universal User Tracking JavaScript, wherein a script tag associated with the Universal User Tracking JavaScript is inserted into content or advertisement delivered over each of the communication channels; and   sending the one or events and each of the event identifiers to the receiver layer.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , further comprising:
 logging the one or more events and each of the event identifiers at a mobile ad server; and   generating the unique identifier based in part on estimating that a correlation of the logged one or more event identifiers exceeds a threshold, wherein the estimating is based at least in part on an approximation algorithm.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the probabilistic matching further comprises:
 comparing one of the one or more events and the issued event identifier for the one of the one or more events with a threshold, wherein,
 the threshold is based at least in part on a plurality of mobile device channel specific identifiers for the mobile device, 
 the plurality of mobile device channel specific identifiers are selected from a group consisting of a first party cookie, a third party cookie, and a plurality of product identifiers; and 
   one of updating the universal identifier with information related to the matched event identifier and generating the universal identifier for the associated event identifier based at least in part on the comparing.   
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the client-side agent is configured to track one or more of page views and content object user interaction events. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein,
 the client-side agent is further configured to store user identifier mappings between the universal identifier and one or more product channel identifiers accessed by a user of the mobile device; and   the user identifier mappings are stored in a database of the mobile device.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the universal identifier comprises a universal identifier cookie, and wherein the universal identifier cookie is generated at the mobile device. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the matching further comprises:
 generating and storing one or more mobile device channel specific identifiers at the mobile device based at least in part on accessing a channel associated with each of the one or more mobile device channel specific identifiers, the mobile device channel specific identifiers selected from a group consisting of a first party cookie, a third party cookie, and a plurality of product identifiers;   generating the universal identifier at the mobile device; and   deterministically or probabilistically cross channel correlating at least a portion of the mobile device channel specific identifiers with the universal identifier.   
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 identifying and capturing one or more attributes associated with the one or more events at the mobile device, wherein the one or more attributes comprise one or more of a MSISDN telephone number for SMS and MMS messaging products, an email address for CRM channels, application identifiers for native applications, mobile web browser cookies, and network operator information;   assigning a hash number to each of the one or more attributes, wherein the assigning comprises hashing each of the one or more attributes with their associated hash number; and   mapping the one or more hashed attributes to the universal identifier.   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein probabilistic matching is based at least in part on one of determining a probability of a successful deterministic matching is below a threshold, and an absence of deterministic matching. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the one or more event identifiers are selected from a group consisting of a user identifier issued by a mobile device operator of the mobile device, first party cookies stored in the mobile device, session identification identifiers stored in the mobile device, and user tracking cookies stored in the mobile device. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 passing one or more 3 rd  party ad server cookies to the mobile device, wherein passing the one or more 3 rd  party ad server cookies comprises translating the one or more 3 rd  party ad server cookies to the first party cookies or the user tracking cookies;   generating, at an ad server, the universal identifier;   tracking at least one event at the mobile device using a combination of the generated universal identifier and one or more of the first party cookies and the user tracking cookies.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 including a universal URL in an ad request, wherein the ad request is transmitted from the mobile device to a third party ad server based on accessing a mobile site from the mobile device;   receiving, at the mobile device, a response to the ad request, wherein the response includes a file for tracking user interactions with the mobile site or an ad;   correlating a communication channel associated with the third-party ad server to the universal identifier based in part on the tracking.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 accessing a native application within the mobile device, wherein the native application comprises a custom URL, and wherein the native application is associated with a native application communication channel and native application identifier;   appending a browser ad request URL to the custom URL based in part on the accessing;   presenting a browser ad within a browser of the mobile device based in part on the appending, wherein the browser ad includes at least a tracking JavaScript and the universal identifier, and wherein the presenting further comprises tracking user interactions with the browser ad;   retrieving the custom URL from the browser, wherein the retrieving comprises storing the native application identifier and the universal identifier in a database of the browser; and   correlating the native application identifier and a device identifier for the mobile device with the universal identifier based in part on the retrieving.   
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 generating a compact URL, wherein the compact URL is associated with a hash and a Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) for the mobile device;   generating an event identifier based in part on the custom URL;   transmitting a SMS or MMS message comprising the compact URL to the mobile device; and   correlating the event identifier with the universal identifier based at least in part on accessing the compact URL via the mobile device.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein at least one event identifier is a mobile device channel specific identifier.