Location Detection
PostUp uses Location Detection through geolocation IP lookup to gather and store location data on email recipients, allowing for improved targeting capabilities. This data is stored in the following location data fields:
- City
- State
- Postal Code
- Country
In this topic:
Tracking
When a click or open event is processed a geolocation IP lookup is performed on the recipient’s IP address and location data is stored with the event. Additionally, the recipient’s location data is updated to the latest known values.
Configuration
You can choose one of three options for managing the geolocation IP lookup data. (Location Detection options for their site in the Settings tab.)
- None: We don't look up location data upon open or click. No data is saved.
- Overwrite: We overwrite the Recips location fields with the new lookup data every time we perform a lookup (on clicks or opens).
- Smart Merge: We merge the location lookup data into the existing recipient’s location fields without overwriting any user specified location data.
Smart Merge Scenarios
Below describes how smart merge works for PostUp senders.
Scenario 1 - The PostUp user has specified state and country for this recipient, but has left city and postal code empty. The lookup results match what the user specified at the lowest levels of detail (state and country). Since these are in agreement, we will populate the higher level of details (city and postal code) and mark those fields as set by the lookup.
Scenario 2 - The PostUp user has specified the country for this recipient but the state was previously populated by a geolocation IP lookup and the postal code and city are still empty. The smart merge results show that all of the lookup data is recorded since the country matches and the previous state value was set by a lookup. However, the country is not marked as set by the lookup as it was previously set by the PostUp user.
Scenario 3 - The PostUp user has specified the country and city but the state was previously populated by a geolocation IP lookup. Since the user specified the city Little Rock and it does not match the new IP lookup of Austin, we cannot merge any of the lookup fields, but we do leave the flagged location.
Scenario 4 - None of the stored fields were set by a lookup. The user specified fields remain in the result and we cannot take the postal code since the cities do not match.
Data imported by end users is not overwritten by the Location Detection process. If the IP lookup data matches existing data supplied by the end user, any missing data will be added. If the IP lookup data does not match pre-existing data supplied by the end user, no updates will be made. Data supplied by an IP lookup can be updated by additional IP lookups.
Importing with Smart Merge Activated
When an import is performed, the new, imported data takes precedence over any geolocation lookup results. However, if the import has an empty value where a previous smart merge populated it, we don't want to overwrite with an empty value as long as the lower detail levels align. We can use the same equation for whether or not to add the import fields to where we had previously stored location data from the geolocation IP lookup.
Scenario 1 – The PostUp user has specified a new state field that does not match to the state identified previously by geolocation IP lookup. The lookup data is removed.
Scenario 2 – The state provided by thPostUp user matches the state pulled in by IP lookup. All data is kept, but the state is no longer marked with the lookup flag.
Scenario 3 – When an import includes every location field, the merge result will always overwrite the IP lookup fields and reset to indicate the data was populated by the user.
Scenario 4 – The existing IP lookup state matches what is included in the import and the city field is empty, thus we keep the Location Detection value for city and the city lookup flag remains.
Data imported by end users is given precedence over data imported by Location Detection. If the data contained in the import file does not match what was supplied by geolocation lookup, any fields not being imported by the end user will be cleared out of the lookup data. If the data being imported by the end user matches what the Location Detection returned, the geolocation IP data will remain. The PostUp system will err on the side of the end user, and as such will use the data supplied by the end user over what is returned by a geolocation IP lookup.