# Platform Overview

## Core Concepts

MadConnect serves as a dynamic connectivity layer between your cloud-based data systems and your marketing and advertising platforms. It simplifies the process of moving high-value data for audience targeting, event tracking, and performance measurement — all while maintaining strict control over privacy, schema validation, and platform-specific formatting.

#### How MadConnect Works

MadConnect acts as a data pipeline orchestrator. It:

* **Authenticates** with your source (e.g., Snowflake, S3, Redshift) and destination (e.g., Meta, Google, Amazon)
* **Validates** data against each destination’s required schema before transfer
* **Executes** secure, trackable transfers via UI or API with full logging

#### Core Concepts

* **Platform**: A system you connect to (e.g., Snowflake, Meta, The Trade Desk)
* **Connector**: A prebuilt integration for platform-specific transfer logic and schema enforcement
* **Connection**: A configured pairing of a source and destination using active connectors
* **Schema**: The expected data structure needed for each platform to process and activate your data

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#### Supported Platforms

MadConnect supports a growing list of platforms that can act as sources, destinations, or both depending on the use case. This includes cloud storage systems, data warehouses, and advertising platforms.

* **Common Source Capabilities**: Platforms like Snowflake, AWS S3, Google BigQuery, and Redshift can serve as origins for audience, conversion, or reporting data.
* **Common Destination Capabilities**: Platforms such as Meta Ads, Google Ads, The Trade Desk, Amazon Ads, TikTok, and Snapchat support audience ingestion, conversion receipt, and reporting data extraction.
* **Dual-Role Platforms**: Many platforms support bidirectional integrations. For example, Snowflake may act as both a source (for audience delivery) and a destination (for reporting ingestion).

> We are continuously expanding support for new platforms and use cases. Reach out if your required integration is not yet listed.

#### Use Case Overview

MadConnect supports a wide range of advertising data workflows:

**Audience Activation**

Push first-party identifiers — such as UID2s, hashed emails, or mobile advertising identifiers — from your environment to platforms for audience creation and targeting.

**Conversion Syncing**

Send post-event conversion logs to platforms for measurement, optimization, and lookalike expansion.

**Measurement and Analytics (Reporting)**

Pull campaign performance data (impressions, spend, conversions, video views) directly from ad platforms into your warehouse for centralized analytics.

#### Why Schemas Matter

Every platform has its own data expectations. MadConnect enforces schema validation on every transfer to:

* Ensure successful ingestion by the destination
* Catch formatting mismatches before errors occur
* Maintain data quality across dynamic campaign environments

#### Security and Privacy

* **Encryption in Transit**: All data is transferred over HTTPS, ensuring end-to-end encryption.
* **Authentication Options**: OAuth 2.0 or API Keys depending on platform
* **Data Minimization**: No persistent data storage, and transfers are logged but not retained


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