What happens when you plug dirty website visitor ID data into your ad stack and email flows?
What happens when marketers push magical-sounding tech without disclosing how wrong it really is?
In this no-holds-barred conversation, I sat down with Sanjay Jenkins to discuss the shocking truth about most visitor ID solutions — and what we’re doing differently at Customers.ai.
Key Moments in “Customer Acquisition Magic: Visitor ID“
00:46 — What is Visitor ID?
“It’s a magical promise: tell me who’s on my site, even if they’ve never filled out a form. But it only works if the IDs are accurate.”
02:22 — The Big Problem with Visitor ID
“If this tech is so magical, why isn’t every major brand using it? Because most of it doesn’t work. Accuracy rates are horrifically low — 70-95% wrong.”
04:13 — Bad Data is Worse Than No Data
“Marketing malpractice: sending spam to strangers based on false positives. The impact is catastrophic.”
07:04 — Email Deliverability Carnage
“Industry benchmark: 0.3% spam complaint rate. These ID vendors? Try 3%. That’s 10x higher than what’s acceptable.”
09:18 — Real-World Comparison
“In a head-to-head test against Opensend, they had a 1.5% spam rate. We had 0.1%. That’s 15x lower. And we did 5x more revenue per email.”
11:39 — How We Test for Website Visitor ID Accuracy
“You compare emails generated by IDs with actual purchasers. If the guessed identity isn’t the buyer, the Website Visitor ID vendor was wrong.”
18:28 — Why Trust is So Damaged in This Space
“Every brand has tried this tech and gotten burned. They’re reluctant to try again — but we’re showing results and accuracy that are impossible to ignore.”
20:35 — What Makes Customers.ai Different
“We’re a second-generation visitor ID solution. We built our own identity graph. We don’t just license third-party junk or suck your CRM dry.”
27:40 — The Taste Test Approach
“We don’t ask for trust. We ask for a side-by-side trial. And the difference isn’t subtle — it’s 5x, 10x, sometimes 20x.”
42:23 — The Spam Test from Hell
“We sent 10,000 emails from a brand to inboxes we controlled. 70% landed in Promotions or Spam. Up to 40% were in Spam alone.”
45:36 — Why Some Vendors Still Thrive Despite Bad Data
“The worse their data, the better your deliverability looks — because no one opens the emails, so no one marks them as spam.”
47:48 — What’s Next: Universal Form Prefill
“We’re close to exposing identity on-site via form prefill. But we won’t ship it until we’re 95%+ accurate.”
52:39 — Why Visitor ID Matters
“It’s a growth hack. And if we can clean up the category, it becomes a growth engine for the entire DTC and SaaS ecosystem.”
Visitor ID War Report: Conclusion
The Visitor ID space has been filled with hype, overpromises, and data malpractice. But there is a better way — and we’re building it.
Watch the full interview with me and Sanjay Jenkins on Replo’s “Shop Talk” podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wzjs_sxwmI.
DM me or book a call if you want to run a side-by-side test and see the truth for yourself.
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