An internet protocol (IP) address allows devices to communicate on the internet — much like a postal address or email address. For years, IPv4 has been the standard IP form.
But, there are over 5 billion internet users today. That’s more than IPv4 can handle, since its 32-bit numbers can only produce 4.3 billion unique combinations.
To correct these limitations, IPv6 was created using 128-bit numbers capable of generating 340 trillion trillion trillion unique addresses.
Whereas an IPv4 address might look like this…
192.168.10.150
… an IPv6 address looks like this:
3002:0bd6:0000:0000:0000:ee00:0033:6778
The only problem? Well, for ABM practitioners, nobody could match IPv6 addresses to specific company accounts. Until now.
To that end, 6sense is proud to announce our platform will be the first in the industry to match accounts based on their IPv6 addresses — a more robust, secure, and privacy compliant system.
Let’s look at why this shift to IPv6 is a huge win for 6sense customers.
IPv6: Futureproofing, and Better Account Matching
In the sales and marketing world, the rise of IPv6 addresses has made it harder to more accurately uncover the buying activity happening at key accounts.
In addition to addressing the need for more unique online IDs, IPv6 also incorporates more security for individuals with respect to data privacy laws. However, this can make account identification more difficult because IPv6 rotates addresses frequently among online devices, making it more difficult to match accounts with IP addresses due to the lack of a static identifier .
While individuals can remain unidentified, 6sense’s new IPv6 Graph is the first in the industry to be able to match IPv6 addresses at the company (account) level for account-based marketing.
6sense continues to match accounts to IPv4 addresses, and the ability to also match IPv6 addresses to accounts performing critical buying activities offers a lot of advantages for 6sense users.
Preparing for the Cookieless Future
Many platforms rely on cookies to match web activity to accounts. However, we’re quickly hurtling toward a cookieless future — where browsers are blocking third-party cookie tracking. Platforms that rely on third-party cookies exclusively will eventually lose their ability to uncover key buying intelligence.
6sense has consistently stayed ahead of the decline of cookies. Our patented account identification system, 6signal™, has always used IP addresses as an identifier. Our addition of IPv6 for company matching means 6sense users will continue to benefit from our industry leading account based marketing, despite the sunsetting of cookies.
Better Account Matching
Since our 6signal graph is predictive (not deterministic), our first-to-market strategy means we are ahead of the curve in training our models and optimizing our company matches on IPv6. So far, our coverage and accuracy are looking good!
We will continue to adjust our parameters and mappings over time, using our early lessons to build robust solutions for various use cases. As more companies adopt IPv6, this will provide 6sense customers the most optimal company match experience.
Conclusion
6sense’s ability to match accounts to IPv6 addresses is another example of 6sense’s commitment to offering best-in-class service and technology. We anticipate that organizations will continue to transition to IPv6 in the coming years, which offers numerous advantages over IPv4: more addresses, stronger unique identifiers, more security protocols, and compliance with privacy regulations.
6sense is the first revenue platform in the industry to leverage its capabilities to deanonymize IPv6 addresses and match accounts, ensuring more accuracy and better marketing and sales intelligence.
