Hashing (SHA-256)
Also called Hashed email, SHA-256.
Turning an email address or phone number into a fixed string of letters and numbers before it is sent. The same address always gives the same string, which is how Google and Meta match it to their own users without being handed the address itself.
Why it matters
It is how lead data can be matched without being sent in the clear. Google and Meta both require it, and both require the same clean-up first: spaces removed and letters in lower case, and a phone number with its country code. A missed step gives a different string, which matches nobody.
What goes wrong
Hashing is not anonymisation. It works precisely because the same input always produces the same output, so it protects an address in transit and at rest, not from a platform that already has the same address. That is also why the clean-up matters so much: John@Acme.com and john@acme.com are different strings until they are made the same.
Phone numbers are the usual failure. Without the country code the number is incomplete, and a local number hashed as written matches nothing.
What this product does about it
Emails and phone numbers are cleaned and hashed before they are stored or sent; from a file, that happens in your browser. A phone number needs its country code, and one without it is not sent.
Next to this
- Enhanced conversions for leadsGoogle AdsMatching an offline conversion to an ad click using hashed first-party data, usually an email address, rather than a click identifier.
- Match rateGoogle AdsThe share of your leads carrying something Google can join back to an ad click: a click identifier, or a usable email where enhanced conversions for leads is switched on.
- Conversions APIMetaMeta's server-to-server route for sending events, used alongside or instead of the browser pixel.
Where this comes up
- Meta Value Optimization for Lead Generation - The Complete GuideHow to give Meta a value for every lead, which of its three optimization goals your account can actually use, why the value has to arrive once and on day zero, and how to tell whether Meta is now finding better customers or just more leads.
- Google Tag Gateway for Lead Generation: What It Fixes and What It Does NotHow Google tag gateway makes measurement more resilient, what it changes for enhanced conversions for leads, and why it does not replace click-ID capture into the CRM.
How it applies in your trade
The same method, worked through for each kind of business: what a lead is worth, what is known on arrival and what to prepare.
The rest of this step
Measure this on your own data
The diagnostic reads a CRM export in your browser and reports your volume, your match rate and the spread between your leads against the thresholds in this glossary. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.