Profile merging in BlueConic uses rules to identify which profiles likely belong to the same person.
Because BlueConic stores a history of IP address for each profile (encrypted for privacy reasons) visiting a website channel, you can check whether profiles being combined share an IP address or not.
How to use IP addresses in profile matching rules for profile merging
Select Settings > Merging in the BlueConic navigation bar to open the Profile Merging page. Here you can create rules for identifying profiles that likely belong to the same person, and specify whether and how IP addresses should match. Note that profiles created from connection imports will have no IP address.
Each profile merge rule is based on a profile property that is used as a unique identifier. Click Add rule based on profile property and select a profile property to find profiles with matching identifiers.
Use the IP check dropdown menu to specify whether to check for IP addresses and how strict the match should be. Options include:
No IP check
Neither profile’s IP address is checked by the merge rule.
Note: When you do not check IP addresses during a merge, there can be unintended merges which are not reversible.
Regular IP check
Profiles can be merged if either both profiles have an IP address in common, or at least one profile has no IP address (default choice).
Strict IP check
Profiles will be merged only if they have one IP address in common.
You can add subrules to add additional matching criteria. See Profile merging for details on adding subrules.