Universal IDs like UID2 and LiveRamp RampID are the ad tech industry’s solution to cookie deprecation—but they’re solving a problem you don’t have. These identity frameworks were built for publishers selling programmatic ad inventory. If you run a WooCommerce store, you’re not selling ad space. You’re tracking your own conversions. And for that, you already have something better: customer email addresses captured at checkout.
Here’s what nobody mentions in the UID2 hype cycle: Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions both accept SHA-256 hashed email directly. No Universal ID infrastructure required. No integration with DSPs and SSPs. No token generation or bid stream protocols. Just hash your customer’s email and send it to the platform. The ad networks do the matching.
What Universal IDs Actually Do (And Who They’re For)
UID2, RampID, and ID5 all solve the same problem: how do publishers monetize ad inventory when third-party cookies disappear?
The architecture works like this: A user visits a publisher site and logs in with their email. The publisher hashes that email into an alphanumeric identifier. That identifier gets passed through the programmatic supply chain—SSPs, ad exchanges, DSPs—so advertisers can bid on impressions from that specific user across multiple sites.
The Trade Desk claims UID2 can raise effective CPM by 116% compared to cookie-based targeting. LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) has been adopted by over 400 publishers, including 70% of the Comscore top 20 and 65% of the Comscore top 50. Microsoft Advertising reported a 40% increase in CPMs on authenticated impressions.
These are impressive numbers—for publishers selling ad inventory. But they describe a completely different business model from running an online store.
The Publisher Problem vs. The E-commerce Problem
Publishers need to answer: “Who is this user so advertisers will pay more to reach them?”
E-commerce stores need to answer: “Did this user buy something, and which ad drove them here?”
These are fundamentally different questions. Universal IDs solve the first one. They enable cross-site identity matching for the programmatic advertising ecosystem—the world of real-time bidding, demand-side platforms, and publisher monetization.
For WooCommerce stores, the conversion tracking problem is simpler. You have the customer’s email at checkout. Facebook and Google can match that email to their logged-in users. You don’t need an intermediary identity layer.
What Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions Actually Need
Both platforms accept hashed first-party customer data to improve conversion attribution. The process is straightforward:
Facebook Conversions API accepts hashed email, phone number, first name, last name, city, state, zip, and country. The platform uses this data to match conversion events to Facebook user accounts. Higher match quality means better ad optimization.
Google Enhanced Conversions uses the same SHA-256 hashing algorithm. When a customer converts, their hashed email (or phone, name, address) gets sent to Google. Google matches it against signed-in accounts to attribute the conversion to the correct ad click.
In both cases, the ad platform handles the identity resolution. You provide the customer data; they do the matching. No Universal ID framework required.
Why WooCommerce Stores Already Have What They Need
Every WooCommerce checkout captures:
- Email address (required for order confirmation)
- Full name (billing details)
- Phone number (optional but common)
- Complete address (shipping/billing)
This is exactly the data Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions need. You’re not missing identity signals—you’re missing the plumbing to send them.
The Universal ID pitch assumes you need industry infrastructure to solve identity challenges. But that infrastructure exists to connect different parties across the open web. You’re not connecting different parties. You’re connecting your store to your ad accounts. That’s a direct integration, not an ecosystem problem.
The Complexity UID2 Would Add to Your Stack
Implementing UID2 as a WooCommerce store owner would require:
- Integrating with a UID2 operator to generate tokens
- Managing token refresh cycles (UID2 tokens rotate regularly)
- Understanding DSP/SSP protocols for passing identifiers in bid requests
- Compliance with UID2 governance and consent frameworks
- Participation in the IAB Tech Lab’s identity ecosystem
Compare this to what Facebook CAPI needs: hash the customer email with SHA-256, include it in your conversion event, send it to Facebook’s endpoint.
The complexity difference is massive. And the outcome? Facebook still does the matching. You’re just using a more convoluted path to get customer data to the platform.
When Universal IDs Actually Make Sense
Universal IDs serve legitimate purposes—just not for direct e-commerce conversion tracking.
If you’re a publisher: You need UID2 or RampID to monetize authenticated traffic. Advertisers pay premium CPMs for identity-backed inventory.
If you’re a major brand running programmatic: Universal IDs help with cross-site frequency capping and attribution across the open web.
If you’re building a retail media network: Identity frameworks enable you to offer advertisers audience targeting on your properties.
But if you’re running a WooCommerce store and just want to track which ads drive purchases? You need server-side tracking that hashes customer data and sends it to ad platforms—not participation in a programmatic identity consortium.
The Server-Side Approach That Actually Solves Your Problem
For WooCommerce stores, effective conversion tracking means:
1. Capture customer data at checkout. Email is mandatory. Name and phone improve match rates.
2. Hash sensitive data with SHA-256. Both Facebook and Google require hashed customer information. The hashing happens on your server before transmission.
3. Send conversion events via server-side APIs. Facebook CAPI, Google Ads Enhanced Conversions, and GA4 Measurement Protocol all accept server-originated events.
4. Include attribution parameters. The Facebook click ID (fbclid), Google click ID (gclid), and UTM parameters tie conversions to specific ad clicks.
This is exactly what the Transmute Engine™ does. It captures WooCommerce order data, hashes customer information, and fires conversion events directly to ad platform APIs. No browser dependency. No blocking by ad blockers or browser privacy features. And definitely no Universal ID infrastructure.
The Match Quality Numbers That Actually Matter
Facebook rates Event Match Quality on a scale of 1-10. Higher scores mean better attribution. The key factors:
- Email address: Highest impact on match quality
- Phone number: Significant improvement
- Full name: Moderate improvement
- Address components: Incremental improvement
Universal IDs don’t improve these scores. What improves match quality is sending more customer data parameters—which you already have from checkout.
The businesses seeing Event Match Quality scores below 6 aren’t lacking identity infrastructure. They’re lacking proper data transmission. Their tracking plugins either don’t send customer data at all, or only send partial information.
What Ad Tech Vendors Won’t Tell You
The Universal ID ecosystem is built on a business model: charging for identity services. UID2 is open-source and free, but the platforms and integrations around it aren’t. LiveRamp’s RampID and ATS are commercial products.
For publishers, these costs make sense. Better identity means better CPMs. The ROI is direct.
For e-commerce stores, you’d be paying to access identity infrastructure when the ad platforms already provide identity matching for free. Facebook matches hashed emails to Facebook accounts. Google matches hashed data to signed-in Google users. You don’t need a third-party identity layer in between.
The Universal ID pitch works because it sounds sophisticated. Hashed identifiers, rotating tokens, bid stream protocols—it all sounds like the serious technical solution to cookie deprecation. But for WooCommerce stores, it’s solving the wrong problem with unnecessary complexity.
Key Takeaways
- Universal IDs like UID2 and RampID solve publisher monetization problems, not e-commerce conversion tracking. They enable cross-site identity for programmatic advertising, which isn’t relevant to tracking your own store’s purchases.
- Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions accept SHA-256 hashed email directly. You don’t need Universal ID infrastructure—just proper server-side implementation that sends customer data to ad platforms.
- WooCommerce checkout already captures everything ad platforms need: email, name, phone, address. The gap isn’t identity—it’s transmission.
- Event Match Quality improves by sending more customer data parameters, not by using Universal IDs. Scores below 6 indicate missing data, not missing infrastructure.
- Server-side tracking that hashes and transmits checkout data solves the actual problem without the complexity of programmatic identity ecosystems.
Frequently Asked Questions
UID2 (Unified ID 2.0) is an open-source identity framework that creates encrypted identifiers from email addresses for programmatic advertising. It was designed for publishers selling ad inventory across the open web—not for e-commerce stores tracking their own conversions. For WooCommerce, you already have customer emails at checkout. Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions accept SHA-256 hashed email directly. You don’t need Universal ID infrastructure; you need server-side tracking that properly transmits customer data to ad platforms.
LiveRamp RampID is a people-based identifier used in programmatic advertising. It helps publishers monetize authenticated traffic—70% of Comscore top 20 publishers use LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution. However, RampID serves the programmatic ecosystem (DSPs, SSPs, ad exchanges), not direct conversion tracking for stores. E-commerce sites sending conversions directly to Facebook or Google don’t need intermediary identity services. The ad platforms handle identity matching when you send hashed customer data.
Both platforms use SHA-256 hashing to anonymize customer data before transmission. When a customer completes checkout, you hash their email address using SHA-256, then send that hash to Facebook or Google via their server-side APIs. The platforms match the hash against their databases of logged-in users. Facebook can match to Facebook accounts; Google can match to signed-in Google users. This attribution happens automatically—you provide the hashed data, they handle the identity matching.
Low Event Match Quality scores typically indicate missing customer data parameters, not missing identity infrastructure. Facebook rates match quality based on the data you send: email has the highest impact, followed by phone number, name, and address. If your tracking plugin only sends the purchase event without customer data, or only includes partial information, your match quality suffers. The solution is sending more complete hashed customer data—email, phone, full name, and address components—not implementing Universal IDs.
Not for conversion tracking. Cookie alternatives like UID2 were designed to preserve cross-site targeting and measurement in programmatic advertising when third-party cookies disappear. E-commerce stores don’t rely on cross-site tracking—they track conversions on their own sites. Server-side tracking via Facebook CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions bypasses cookie limitations entirely by sending conversion data directly from your server. You need proper server-side implementation, not programmatic identity infrastructure.
Skip the ad tech complexity. See how Transmute Engine sends hashed customer data directly to ad platforms—no Universal IDs required.
