Household Reach

Household Reach expands an audience to include people who belong to the same household as your qualifying users. You define what “same household” means by either having mParticle figure it out automatically using an automated household definition, or specifying a shared household identifying attribute yourself in a manual household definition (manual household definitions work the same way as the former Group Identity feature.)

Use Household Reach when you want to:

• Reach more people in the same household without changing who you’re targeting.
• Include everyone in a household when the purchase decision is likely shared, like family plans and subscriptions.
• Suppress an entire household when one member opts out.

How Household Reach works

When Household Reach is enabled on an audience connection, mParticle includes both the users who directly qualify and the other members of their households in delivery to that connected output.

Household membership is based on a household definition that tells mParticle how to group users together. You can create either automated or manual household definitions:

• Automated: mParticle uses a trusted third-party data provider to identify household relationships across your existing users automatically.
• Manual: You choose a user attribute that acts as the household identifier. Any profiles that share the same value for that attribute are grouped into the same household. For example, if you use account_id as the identifier, all profiles with account_id:1234 are grouped together.

Both types support household attributes, which are user attributes that are inherited and shared across all members of a household, based on an aggregation of each member’s individual values. Household attributes are visible on individual user profiles.

Household Reach only adds household members who already have an existing user profile in mParticle. Household members without an existing mParticle profile aren’t added to the audience.

Use cases

Loyalty reach expansion

A retailer targets households where at least one member is enrolled in their loyalty program. With Household Reach, the subscriber’s household members are automatically included, reaching the full household from a single qualifying profile.

Shared subscription cross-sell

A streaming service targets active premium subscribers and uses Household Reach to reach everyone else in their household via paid social, on the assumption that the subscription is shared.

Suppression for compliance

A financial services brand needs to suppress not just the user who opted out, but their entire household. Referencing the household definition ensures all related profiles are excluded from delivery.

Limitations

• Only one automated household can be created per organization.
• Automated households can contain up to 10 users.
• Manual households can contain up to 50 users.
• Household Reach can only be enabled on active audience connections.
• Household Reach can only be enabled on individual audience connections, not at the output configuration level.
• Household Reach only adds household members who already have an existing user profile in mParticle.
• If you delete a household, it will be removed from any audience connections it previously boosted. Household Reach will be automatically disabled for an audience connection if all households boosting it are deleted.
• Direct matches and household members are reported together. The connected ad platform is the source of truth for split reporting.
• Household members are populated after each daily sync job.

Using Household Reach

Step 1. Create a household definition

Before enabling Household Reach for an audience connection, you must create a household definition.

Create an automated household definition

1. Go to Customer 360 > Household Reach in the left-hand navigation.
2. Click Create Household.
3. In the Select householding type modal, select Automatic and click Next.

mParticle begins forming households automatically. Wait for the initial sync to complete before creating an audience that uses this household.

mParticle uses a third-party data provider to establish household relationships for automated households. No PII from the third-party provider is written to or persisted on user profiles.

Create a manual household definition

1. Go to Customer 360 > Household Reach in the left hand navigation.
2. Click Create Household.
3. In the Select householding type modal, select Manual and click Next.
4. Use the dropdown to select the user attribute that will serve as the household identifier, then click Next.
5. Enter a name for your household definition. This is how it will appear when you enable Household Reach in the Audience Builder.
6. Optionally, enter a household description. For example: “Users who share the same account ID”.
7. Click Create Household.

mParticle groups profiles that share the same value for your chosen attribute into households on a recurring daily schedule.

Household identifier requirements

The attribute you choose as the household identifier must meet the following:

• Minimum 5 characters, maximum 32 characters
• Alphanumeric only (a-z and 0-9)

Step 2. Add household attributes (optional)

Household attributes are user attributes shared across all members of a household. When the grouping job runs, mParticle calculates a value for each attribute across all members and writes it back to every profile in the household.

To add household attributes to your definition:

1. Open your household definition from Customer 360 > Household Reach.
2. In the Household Attributes section, click Select Attributes.

3. For each attribute you want to add:

   • Use the User Attribute dropdown to select the attribute to share across the household.
   • Use the Aggregation Logic dropdown to select how the value is calculated across members.
4. Click Save.

You can add up to 10 household attributes per definition. Attributes are aggregated and written to all household members on the next sync.

Aggregation logic

Aggregation type	Supported data type	How it works
boolean or	Boolean	Set to true if any member has the attribute set to true.
latest	Boolean, string, number, integer	Set to the most recently updated value across all members.
sum	Non-negative number or integer	Set to the sum of all members’ values.
average	Non-negative number or integer	Set to the average of all members’ values.

Boolean or aggregation example: A household has a boolean or attribute called has_premium. If any one member has has_premium = true, all other members receive has_premium = true on the next sync.

Latest aggregation example: A household has a latest attribute called street_address set to 123 Main St. When a new member joins the household, they inherit street_address: 123 Main St on the next sync.

Household attribute display on profiles

When viewing a user profile, household attributes are distinguishable from regular user attributes by a prefix equal to the household identifier name. For example, if your household identifier is household_id and you have a household attribute called premium_subscriber, it will appear on profiles as household_id:premium_subscriber.

This means a user can have {your-household-name}:premium_subscriber = true (meaning someone else in their household is a premium subscriber) even if their own premium_subscriber attribute is not set.

Step 3. Enable Household Reach for an audience connection

Household Reach is enabled per audience connection, using the same Boost control as Match Boost. You can enable it on an existing connection, or while creating a new one.

To enable Household Reach on an existing audience connection:

1. Select Audiences in the left-hand navigation.
2. Find the audience you want to boost and select it to open the Audience Builder.
3. Navigate to the Connect tab.
4. For the connection you want to boost, click Boost, and select Household Reach.

You can also reach the Connect tab from the Audience Group Editor by clicking the Boost/Boosted button on the audience card:

To enable Household Reach while creating a new audience connection:

1. Select Audiences in the left-hand navigation.
2. Select the audience to open the Audience Builder, then navigate to the Connect tab.
3. Click Add Connection and configure your connection settings.
4. In the Performance Accelerators section, check Enable Household Reach.
5. Save or activate the connection.

Disable Household Reach for an audience connection

To turn off Household Reach for a connection, use the Connect tab of the Audience Builder:

1. Open the audience in the Audience Builder and select the Connect tab.
2. Click the Boosted button next to the connection, and uncheck Household Reach. You can also uncheck it in the connection’s settings, under Performance Accelerators.

Verify your household

To confirm that a household definition is working:

1. Go to Customer 360 > User Profiles and open a profile you expect to belong to a household.
2. Under Profile Enrichment > Household Membership, confirm that the household identifier (for example, $automatic_household) and any configured household attributes appear on the profile.
3. After the next daily sync (up to 24 hours), check delivery counts in your destination platform. Household-expanded delivery should exceed your direct audience size.