Deduplication

When you run campaigns across multiple channels simultaneously, it is common for the same prospect to submit their details more than once, from different ads or platforms. Without deduplication, these leads all reach your CRM as separate records, cluttering your database, wasting your sales team's time, and, if you work with affiliate publishers on a cost-per-lead basis, costing you money you shouldn't be spending. Deduplication in Driftrock automatically identifies and handles duplicate leads before they ever reach your downstream systems.

What is Deduplication?

Duplication is Driftrock's built-in mechanism for detecting when the same person submits a lead more than once. It works across all your connected lead sources, in real time, and requires no manual setup to get started. The system adds deduplication data to every lead record automatically, which you can then use in routing rules to block or flag duplicates.

Why use Deduplication?

Duplicate leads typically make up around 20% of affiliate publisher submissions and are common across multi-channel campaigns. Removing them has a direct impact on your business:

Cleaner CRM: Your sales team sees each prospect once, not multiple times under slightly different records.

Lower cost per unique lead: For campaigns where you pay publishers or affiliates per lead, deduplication prevents you from paying for the same person twice.

More accurate reporting: Lead volumes and conversion rates reflect real unique prospects, not inflated counts.

Better customer experience: Prospects aren't contacted multiple times by different salespeople from the same organisation.

How it works

Driftrock's deduplication operates on three levels:

First, identical events (the exact same lead data submitted at the same moment) are removed automatically before processing. Second, Driftrock enriches every lead with deduplication fields showing whether the same email address has been seen in the last 30, 60, or 90 days across all your lead sources. Third, when sending leads to a CRM, Driftrock can check whether a contact already exists and update the existing record rather than creating a new one.

For affiliate publisher Captures specifically, you can configure custom deduplication rules: for example, reject a lead if the same email and vehicle model of interest has been submitted by any publisher within the last 30 days.

Getting started

Account-wide deduplication is on by default. The deduplication fields are added to every lead automatically. To actively block duplicates from reaching your CRM:

Navigate to a Capture in Your Captures and open the Destinations step.

Set up a routing rule on the destination you are sending leads to.

Select the deduplication field (for example, duplicate_30_days) as the condition.

Set the condition to false so only leads that are not duplicates within the last 30 days are forwarded.

For affiliate Captures, find the dedicated deduplication step in the setup wizard to define custom matching rules (fields to match on and the lookback window).

To review how many duplicates you are receiving, go to Reporting and use the Lead Quality report template. You can also build a custom chart using the duplicate field as a filter.

Tips for getting the most out of Deduplication

Set the lookback window based on your typical sales cycle. If a prospect is likely to convert within 30 days of first enquiry, a 30-day window is usually appropriate. If your sales cycle is longer (common in premium automotive), consider a 60 or 90-day window to avoid contacting the same prospect twice.

For affiliate campaigns, share your deduplication criteria clearly with publishers before a campaign launches. This reduces disputes and helps publishers understand which leads will be accepted and paid for.