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Rokt SFTP setup

For security and privacy reasons, Rokt encourages all clients to implement automated solutions to handle personally identifiable information (PII), rather than manual handling. This applies to both, where Rokt is sending you customer PII (such as referrals), and where you are sending customer PII (such as custom audience lists or conversions) to Rokt.

We suggest that you use real-time API integration to automate PII transfer. For data you want to receive from Rokt, we encourage you to set up an API that we can call each time we generate a referral for you. For delivery of custom audience lists or conversion data to Rokt, we encourage you to call our APIs.

If your CRM or ERP doesn't support APIs, we also support FTP (in the form of SFTP or FTPs) as transfer mechanism, to deliver referral files to you (as a CSV file), or to receive custom audience or conversions files. For files that we export to you, we can deliver these to your FTPs/SFTP server. If you do not have an FTPs/SFTP server, we can deliver the files to our own FTPs/SFTP server and create an account that your system can use to collect the files from our server. Note that in the interest of security we only store files on our server for seven days.

If you wish to have your system automatically send us custom audience lists or conversions data as CSV files, you need to have your system put those files on our FTPs/SFTP server, using the account we create for you.

If your system is not capable of automating transfer of PII via API or FTPs/SFTP, and you need to receive this data manually, you can use One Platform to upload files. You can work with your account manager to set up a task that regularly emails you a link where you can download referral data.

Downloading referral or transaction data

Purpose

  • If you don’t have an FTP server of your own, you can use Rokt’s FTP server to transfer files.

How does it work?

  • You can do this by creating an FTP task in One Platform. FTP tasks routinely send a CSV file containing all of your new referrals with the data you want, when you want it, to an FTP server of your choice.
  • Click here to learn how to create a new FTP task. Make sure you select Use Rokt hosted FTP server in step 7 when setting up the FTP task.

Importing conversion data

Purpose

  • As an alternative to integrating with the Rokt Tag, using the Event API, or manual importing, you can import conversion data into One Platform via Rokt SFTP.
  • Sending this information to One Platform in real-time will help improve conversion tracking for the purposes of understanding campaign performance.

How does it work?

  • You will need to drop your conversion file (see below for required file formats) onto the Rokt FTP server. Once a file is dropped, the system automatically picks up the conversion file and adds it to your Rokt account.

Importing custom audiences

Purpose

  • Rokt SFTP enables you to add or remove one or more email addresses (or MD5 or SHA-256 hashes of email addresses) from your Rokt custom audience list. This Rokt custom audience list is then used for inclusion or exclusion targeting in your campaigns on the Rokt platform.

How does it work?

  • You will need to drop your custom audiences file (see below for required file formats) onto the Rokt FTP server. Once a file is dropped, the system automatically picks up the file and adds it to your Rokt account.

Import nurture unsubscribes

Purpose

  • As an alternative to the Nurture Unsubscribe API, you can immediately send unsubscribed customers back to the Rokt system for real-time removal of all advertiser communications.

How does it work?

  • You need to drop your nurture unsubscribes file (see below for required file formats) onto the Rokt SFTP server. Once a file is dropped, the system automatically picks up the file and adds it to your Rokt account.

How do I get access?

Contact your account manager and assess whether an FTP solution is suitable for your situation. Setup of the FTP account will be organized by your account manager. Access credentials will be securely submitted to all nominated recipients.

FTP folder structure

Your provided FTP space on Rokt's server is divided into a purpose-based folder structure outlined below.

Referral or transaction data download:

PathDescription
/downloadsDownload the referrals or transaction data provided by Rokt.

Conversion import:

PathDescription
/upload/conversionUpload conversions attributed to Rokt.

Custom audience import to default list:

PathDescription
/upload/custom-audience/include/AdvertiserDatabaseList of customers you want to add to the list associated with your account.
/upload/custom-audience/exclude/AdvertiserDatabaseList of customers you want to remove from the list associated with your account.

Creating a specific custom audience list:

PathDescription
/upload/custom-audience/include/MyListList of customers you want to add to a non-default custom audience list named "MyList."
"MyList" is a sub-folder you have created in the "include" folder.
/upload/custom-audience/exclude/MyListList of customers you want to remove from a non-default custom audience list named "MyList."
"MyList" is a sub-folder you have created in the "exclude" folder.

Sharing data with your account manager: Additionally, Rokt FTP offers the ability to securely share data in a non-automated fashion (e.g., quarterly results, design assets, etc.) between you and your account manager.

Note: Do not send us files with PII via email.

How do I connect to Rokt SFTP?

Establishing a connection from a host computer (e.g., your laptop) to a secure FTP server requires third-party client software. This tutorial suggests the popular and free client FileZilla which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

  1. In your browser, navigate to https://filezilla-project.org/ and click Download FileZilla Client.
  2. Install FileZilla on your computer. If you already have FileZilla installed, ensure you are running the latest version.
  3. You should have received an email from Rokt with the subject "You've been granted access to Rokt's SFTP server."
  4. Download the attached file and unzip the encrypted file using the password provided in a second email "Email for password for file with instructions."
  5. The encrypted file you have just unzipped contains a .pem file which is your key file to access Rokt's SFTP folder.

The following steps are the same for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems and are based on the latest version of FileZilla.

  1. Open FileZilla and navigate to File > Site Manager

Rokt SFTP Setup

  1. On the left, click New Site and fill in the following:

  • Protocol: SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol

  • Host: ftp.rokt.com

  • Port: 22

  • Key file: Browse to your local key file (.pem) and select it from your local drive (see image below).

    Rokt SFTP Setup

  1. Click Connect. You should be connected and able see your accessible folders to upload files.

Required file formats

Files uploaded to the secure FTP server must meet certain standards in order for Rokt to process them correctly.

  • File format must be .csv or .txt
  • Charset UTF-8 (UTF-16 or UTF-32 with an appropriate byte-order mark)
  • Email addresses must be:
    • in one single column
    • without a column head
  • Email addresses can either plain text or hashed
  • If you provide hashed email addresses please meet the following criteria:
    • MD5 or SHA256 hash algorithms.
    • Ensure that all email addresses are lowercased before hashing them.
    • Do not mix plain and hashed email addresses per file (they must be either all plain, all MD5, or all SHA256)

Any file not matching the above format will be rejected by Rokt’s system and not processed accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

What if I don’t have the option to choose a key file as logon type?

  1. Go to Edit > Settings (on a Mac: Filezilla > Settings.

Rokt SFTP FAQs

  1. Navigate to SFTP > Add key file > Browse and select the key file from your local drive.
  2. Navigate to File > Site Manager > New Site.
  3. Choose Protocol SFTP and enter the host and port, but select Normal for Logon Type and enter user name found in your email. Leave the password blank.
  4. Click Connect, and you should be able to access the server.

What if FileZilla only accepts .ppk key files but not .pem?

  • Ensure your FileZilla version is up to date. Updating resolves this problem in most cases. FileZilla converts a .pem file to .ppk and the rest of the process is the same as above.
  • If FileZilla doesn’t convert your file to .ppk and it won’t accept .pem files either, you can manually convert the file by following the instructions in this article.
  • Download PuTTYgen here.
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