For marketers trying to squeeze value out of first‑party data in a privacy‑first world, audience match rates have quietly become one of the biggest performance killers. You can have the cleanest CDP in the world—but if downstream ad platforms can’t recognize your users, targeting and measurement fall apart fast.
Rokt mParticle thinks it has a fix. The company is continuing the rollout of Match Boost, a new capability inside its real‑time customer data platform designed to enrich first‑party audiences at the exact moment they’re activated. The goal: close the growing “match‑rate gap” caused by missing identifiers, fragmented identities, and ongoing signal loss across the ad ecosystem.
Unlike traditional data enrichment approaches, Match Boost works automatically, requires no engineering support, and doesn’t permanently store enriched identifiers—an important distinction as privacy expectations tighten.
Why Match Rates Matter More Than Ever
Audience match rates—the percentage of a brand’s audience that an ad platform can actually recognize—have been under pressure for years. Email gaps, missing phone numbers, device churn, platform‑specific hashing, and cookie deprecation have all contributed to shrinking addressability.
The result is a familiar frustration for marketers: strong first‑party data upstream, disappointing reach and performance downstream.
“Every percentage point of match‑rate improvement translates into real gains in reach and efficiency,” said Jillian Burnett, SVP of GTM at Rokt mParticle. “Match Boost delivers those gains automatically.”
That framing is more than marketing spin. Even modest increases in match rates can unlock meaningful improvements in scale, frequency control, and ROAS—especially as media costs rise and targeting options narrow.
Enrichment at the Point of Activation
What sets Match Boost apart is where and when enrichment happens.
Instead of appending identifiers to customer profiles inside the CDP—often triggering privacy and governance concerns—Match Boost enriches audiences only at the point of activation, as they’re being delivered to ad platforms. Missing identifiers are filled in just‑in‑time, increasing the number of users recognized by platforms like Meta and Google.
Crucially, those enriched identifiers are not persisted back into customer profiles or stored within the Rokt mParticle platform.
That privacy‑first design reflects a broader industry shift: doing just enough to improve activation outcomes without expanding long‑term data risk. As regulators and consumers scrutinize data usage more closely, ephemeral enrichment models are becoming more attractive than permanent profile augmentation.
Broad Platform Coverage, Minimal Effort
Match Boost currently supports major advertising platforms, including:
- Meta
- Google Ads
- Google Marketing Platform
- Rokt
Additional platforms are planned as the rollout continues.
From an operational standpoint, the feature is designed to be frictionless. Brands enable Match Boost through a simple toggle within their existing Rokt mParticle audience workflows. There’s no need to onboard a new vendor, stitch together pipelines, or pull in engineering teams.
That simplicity matters. Many enrichment solutions promise better match rates but come with hidden costs—long setup cycles, custom integrations, or ongoing maintenance that slows teams down. Match Boost positions itself as an upgrade rather than an overhaul.
Early Results: Big Gains From a Small Change
According to Rokt mParticle, brands using Match Boost are already seeing substantial improvements in audience reach and activation efficiency. Reported gains in match rates range from roughly 30% to well over 100%, depending on platform and audience composition.
Those are eye‑catching numbers—but they also align with what many marketers suspect: a significant portion of their addressable audience is slipping through the cracks due to incomplete identifiers.
By increasing the number of matched users, Match Boost helps brands:
- Reach more customers with relevant ads
- Reduce wasted spend on partially matched audiences
- Improve the overall performance of first‑party data strategies
- Activate faster, without engineering bottlenecks
- Frequent refreshes of third‑party data from vendors also help ensure that enrichment remains current—another key factor as identities change rapidly across devices and sessions.
Tackling the Root Causes of Match‑Rate Gaps
Match Boost is designed to address a set of challenges that have become increasingly common across digital marketing:
- Missing email, phone, or device identifiers
- Privacy restrictions and the decline of third‑party cookies
- Platform‑specific hashing and identity standards
- Users moving fluidly across devices, browsers, and sessions
Rather than trying to “fix” identity at the profile level, Rokt mParticle’s approach accepts fragmentation as a given—and optimizes for recognition where it matters most: inside ad platforms.
That’s a pragmatic stance in a landscape where no single identifier is universal anymore, and identity graphs are increasingly probabilistic.
A Smart Bet on Activation‑Layer Innovation
Zooming out, Match Boost reflects a broader shift in CDP strategy. As upstream data collection becomes more regulated and constrained, value is increasingly created at the activation layer—where first‑party data actually turns into media performance.
Instead of competing solely on profile unification or analytics, CDPs like Rokt mParticle are leaning into features that directly improve outcomes across paid media.
It also places Rokt mParticle in closer competition with identity resolution vendors and clean‑room‑style solutions—while sidestepping some of their complexity.
Availability and What’s Next
Match Boost is available now for U.S.-based audiences within Rokt mParticle’s Real‑Time and Composable Audiences workflows. Support currently spans Meta, Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, Reddit, Pinterest, and Rokt, with additional markets expected to launch later this year.
For brands already struggling with declining match rates, the appeal is obvious: better reach, better efficiency, and better use of first‑party data—without adding operational drag.
In a world where every signal is harder to come by, Rokt mParticle is betting that smarter activation—not more data—will define the next phase of performance marketing.
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