Optivo for Ometria: Recovering Anonymous Visitors, PECR-Compliant

Ometria visitor identification through Optivo, by esbconnect, finds 10-30% of anonymous visitors not in your CRM, emails them, and adds those who opt in to Ometria via API.

Put simply, Optivo finds the people browsing your site who you have no email address for, emails them under consent they have already given, and invites them back to buy or to opt in to your brand in a single click. If you connect Ometria, those who opt in appear there as new contacts. Optivo’s retargeting is driving 4-18x ROAS across live UK ecommerce accounts.

What is Ometria visitor identification, and how does Optivo do it?

Ometria is built to segment and send to customers you already know, using the profiles and purchase history in your account. It has no visibility of the anonymous majority of your traffic: people who browse, add to basket or view a product and leave without logging in or giving an email address. Optivo’s tag sits on your own website, not inside Ometria, and identifies a portion of that anonymous traffic by matching it against a permissioned email graph. Optivo, never your business, sends the retargeting email, acting as sender of record under its own consent chain. This means you can retarget visitors who are not in your CRM by email, while helping protect the sender reputation and domain health of your own email programme.

If you choose to connect Ometria, only people who opt in to your brand from an Optivo email are pushed into your account, via Ometria’s API. Optivo does not add everyone it identifies as a contact.

Does Ometria need to be given API access for this to work?

Only if you want new opt-ins pushed into Ometria automatically, and optionally to manage suppression through it. This is a client-authorised connection set up with credentials you provide, not something that happens by default. Without it, Optivo still identifies and emails anonymous visitors under its own consent chain. The connection simply automates adding opted-in contacts and keeps your existing customers out of Optivo’s sends.

Suppression, meaning the removal of your existing contacts from any Optivo send, can be managed in three ways: through an API connection to Ometria, through a bulk upload to a secure S3 bucket, or through the tag on your site, which can add an email address to your suppression file in real time.

Why can’t Ometria see anonymous visitors on its own?

Ometria’s identity resolution is CRM-first, stitching together behaviour from people it already knows. Recognising someone before they have ever given an email address needs a tag that reads information about the visit, and that is only appropriate when the visitor has consented. Here is the process in detail:

1. Optivo’s tag is placed on your website.
2. A visitor accepts marketing consent on your own cookie banner (your consent management platform, or CMP).
3. With that consent in place, the tag reads technical information about the visit, such as IP address, device and browser details, and matches it against the 17 million consumers in the esbconnect email community.
4. If there is a match, and the person is not on your suppression file, Optivo emails them under the explicit consent they already hold to receive marketing email.
5. The email invites them back to your site to buy, or to opt in to your brand in a single click. They receive up to three emails unless they purchase or opt in to you directly.
6. Only if they opt in, and only if you have connected Ometria, Optivo pushes them into your account as a new contact via Ometria’s API.

The database behind Optivo belongs to esbconnect, and every consumer record in it has opted in to receive marketing emails through opt-me-in.com. At sign-up, people are shown the types of email they will receive and the brands esbconnect works with. During their welcome journey they also receive an email dedicated to Optivo, explaining what it does and the value it brings them. They can opt out at any point.

For the legal detail, see our full breakdown of how PECR applies to anonymous visitor identification, including the specific regulations and ICO guidance involved. In short, Optivo operates as sender of record under its own consent chain, so your business never holds or emails a list of matched identities directly.

What results should a UK Ometria user expect?

Two figures matter, and we would rather understate them than oversell. Typical match rates run 10-30% of qualifying anonymous traffic, and campaigns built on those matches have delivered 4-18x ROAS across live UK ecommerce accounts. Both depend on traffic quality, basket value and how closely the email reflects the browsing that triggered it.

Across esbconnect’s live UK ecommerce accounts, results in this range are typical rather than exceptional. Match rate also depends on how many of your existing contacts you choose to suppress, whether that is every record you hold or just your active customer base. We give a range rather than a single headline number for exactly these reasons.

How does the Ometria connection work day-to-day?

Optivo’s tag runs on your site and identifies and emails visitors continuously, whether or not Ometria is connected. Where API credentials are in place, each person who opts in from an Optivo email is added to Ometria as a new contact, and Optivo checks your suppression data before every send so existing customers and anyone who has unsubscribed are left out. This keeps Optivo focused on net-new email growth. Your existing Ometria segments and campaigns for known customers carry on exactly as they are.

Is this compliant alongside our existing GDPR obligations for Ometria data?

Your existing UK GDPR obligations around the customer data already inside Ometria are unaffected. Optivo only writes new contacts via the API connection you authorise, and only when the consumer explicitly opts in. It checks existing status to avoid duplicate targeting.

The compliance question specific to anonymous visitor identification sits under UK GDPR and is handled through your own CMP: a visitor must accept consent on your cookie banner before the tag reads anything about them. Consent to email them is held by esbconnect under PECR and UK GDPR, because every record in the Optivo database has opted in to receive marketing email through opt-me-in.com, where they are shown examples of the emails they will receive and the brands involved. Their welcome journey includes a dedicated email about Optivo and the value it brings them.

Next step: See how Optivo would connect to your Ometria account.