Custom Matching Identifiers
Warning
Deprecation Notice
The Marketing Version 202311 (Marketing November 2023) and earlier versions (excluding 202306 and 202307) have been sunset. Additionally, the unversioned APIs will be sunset soon. We recommend that you migrate to the versioned APIs as well as migrate to the new Content and Community Management APIs to avoid disruptions. See the Migration page for more details.
If you haven’t yet migrated and have questions, submit a request on the LinkedIn Developer Support Portal.
Overview
Starting with the 202410 version, we’ve introduced an optional externalIds
field to the user object in the request payload on POST /conversionEvents
for Streaming Conversion Events, which allows sending unique custom identifiers (such as external cookie IDs or unique advertiser owned user IDs). This improves signal quality, identity resolution, and match rates in cases where other matching parameters are available for some of the events or channels.
Why Use External IDs?
External IDs provide a way to leverage unique/proprietary identifiers for improved signal quality and identity resolution. This helps in accurately matching users across devices and platforms, thereby enhancing the overall effectiveness of advertising efforts while complying with global privacy regulations.
How to Use External IDs in Conversions API?
Assign a Unique Custom Identifier: Assign a unique custom identifier to a potential buyer within your system. This identifier can be any ID that you own and want to use for tracking purposes.
Send Conversions API Events with External IDs: When a user completes the conversion action, send events via Conversions API with the standard matching parameters (such as SHA256_EMAIL, LINKEDIN_FIRST_PARTY_ADS_TRACKING_UUID, etc.) and a list of
externalIds
. The maximum supported size of the list is 1 at the moment. If the list contains multiple external IDs, only the first external ID will be used for association.LinkedIn Matching: LinkedIn matches this information to associate the conversion event with a LinkedIn member, utilizing the standard matching parameters.
Continuous Tracking: Subsequent events will maintain the association with the user through the
externalIds
, ensuring continuous tracking without relying on the standard matching parameters. Once yourexternalIds
are successfully matched in an ad account, they can also be used in other ad accounts that are owned by the same Business Manager.
Example
POST https://api.linkedin.com/rest/conversionEvents
{
"conversion": "urn:lla:llaPartnerConversion:123",
"conversionHappenedAt": 1730017211229,
"conversionValue": {
"currencyCode": "USD",
"amount": "50.0"
},
"user": {
"userIds": [ {
"idType": "SHA256_EMAIL",
"idValue": "bad8677b6c86f5d308ee82786c183482a5995f066694246c58c4df37b0cc41f1"
}, {
"idType": "LINKEDIN_FIRST_PARTY_ADS_TRACKING_UUID",
"idValue": "df5gf5-gh6t7-ph4j7h-fgf6n1"
} ],
"userInfo": {
"firstName": "mike",
"lastName": "smith",
"title": "software engineer",
"companyName": "microsoft",
"countryCode": "US"
},
"externalIds": ["mike_smith_external_user_id"]
},
"eventId" : "abc12345"
}