Merging in HockeyStack
Last updated
Last updated
HockeyStack pulls data from various sources, each with its own way of identifying companies and users. To make sense of it all, HockeyStack needs to unify this data. This process is called "merging" and happens on both the company level (e.g., aligning LinkedIn impressions with Salesforce accounts) and the user level (e.g., connecting web sessions to CRM contacts).
Merging creates a single, cohesive view across your marketing stack—but it also means what you see as a company or user in HockeyStack might not always match exactly what you see in your CRM.
Company and user are the foundational concepts to sales and marketing reporting. Due to the complexity of data HockeyStack handles (multiple formats from multiple sources), HockeyStack might display the journey slightly differently than you'd expect.
HockeyStack identifies each unique email as a user. So all the datapoints we receive are automatically connected with the email they're linked to. User properties get overwritten based on the most recent data. For example, if you had a contact with xyz@company.com email in your CRM and then a new contact with the same exact email gets created, the created_date in HockeyStack will be overwritten with the date of the second contact.
HockeyStack identifies each unique domain as a company. However, it's not as simple as the users' logic.
We automatically trim the path information from domains. For example, is counted the same as .
Two company records with the same domain will get merged, regardless of whether or not the URL includes 'https' or 'www', e.g. hockeystack.com and .
If one of the domains is a subdomain of another, e.g. and hockeystack.com, they will not get automatically merged.
Same with country code top level domains: e.g. hockeystack.com.tr will not get merged with hockeystack.com.
While merging accounts, HockeyStack needs to decide which one has the precedence. This affects which record's properties are being used in the final record.
Here are the specific rules of precedence, from top priority:
Salesforce Account records that are marked as "Parent"
Other Salesforce Account records
HubSpot Company records
Lead records from Salesforce
Companies from Marketo
Companies from LinkedIn
Companies from G2 and Bombora
Companies from de-anonymized website data
If two records have the same priority according to the rules above, the one that was more recently modified takes precedence. However, if they were both modified within a short period of time, we pick a randomized primary record that would not change over time.
If HockeyStack considers two companies separate, but you would prefer to report on them as one single entity, you can merge them in the UI as well. This process replicated our merging logic for the specific companies you choose to merge.
Go to Journeys, on the right side pick User Grouping -> Company. Search for the companies you want to merge. Hover over one of them on the left side, and then select each.
Then, click on "2 Companies Selected" and click "Merge Companies". This operation usually takes a couple of hours to complete.
