Formatting guidelines for uploading hashed data

Follow the formatting guidelines to ensure a successful upload of your hashed data file.

Basic formatting guidelines

Your data must be in a CSV file, encoded in either ASCII or UTF-8 (UTF-16 is not supported). Use a template or create your own file using a combination of the following header names in English: "Email," "Phone," "First Name," "Last Name," "Country," and "Zip." You can upload your Mobile Device ID using this template.

To keep your data secure, you can hash your customer data yourself using the SHA256 algorithm, or Google Ads will hash it for you using the same SHA256 algorithm, which is the industry standard for one-way hashing.

Customer data must be collected in compliance with Customer Match policies.

If you run into any issues with the upload process, learn how to fix Customer match issues.

Tip: Use the required column header names in your data file

Column header formatting guidelines (Use English only)

Email address matching: Use “Email” as the column header name in your data file.

Phone matching: Use “Phone” as the column header name in your data file.

 

Mailing address matching: For mail address matching, your data file must contain these 4 column headers: “First Name,” “Last Name,” “Country,” and “Zip.” If any of the required column header names are missing, your upload will likely result in an error.

 

Combined email address, mailing address, and phone matching: Your file must contain these 6 column headers: “Email,” “Phone,” “First Name,” “Last Name,” “Country,” and “Zip." If you have multiple email addresses, mailing addresses, or phone numbers for a single customer, your file may include multiple “Email,” “Zip,” or “Phone” columns. You only have to include data fields that you find relevant to your customers.You may upload one data field, such as email addresses, or multiple data fields, such as mailing addresses and phone numbers.

 

Mobile Device ID matching: Use “Mobile Device ID” as the only column header in your data file. 

 

Each column header in your data file must be included in English only.

 

Formatting guidelines for uploading hashed data

The column headers names in your customer data file must be in English.

To keep your data secure, you can hash your customer data yourself using the SHA256 algorithm.

Email

• Include a domain name for all email addresses (for example, gmail.com or hotmail.co.jp)
• Lowercase all characters
• Remove any extra spaces before and after, or in between the email address

For example:

• [e-mail]
• [e-mail]

Phone

• Format phone numbers using the E.164 format
• Include the country code and "+" sign

For example:

• [phone]
• [phone]
• +0212345678

First Name

• Don’t include prefixes (ex: Mrs.)
• Accents are allowed
• Lowercase all characters
• Remove any extra spaces before and after.

For example:

• john
• zoë

Last Name

• Don’t include suffixes (ex: Jr.)
• Accents are allowed
• Lowercase all characters
• Remove any extra spaces before and after.

For example:

• smith
• smith-jones
• pérez

Country

​Don’t hash country data

• Use ISO two-letter country codes
• Include the country code even if all of your customer data is from the same country

For example:

• US for United States
• SG for Singapore

Zip

• Don’t hash Zip data
• Both US and international zip and postal codes are allowed
• For United States:
  • 5 digit codes are allowed
  • 5 digits followed by 4 digit extension are also allowed and may improve your match rate
• For all other countries:
  • Leave out postal code extensions

For example:

• 94303
• 94303-5300
• WC2H 8LG