Getting started with clearbit.js
The clearbit.js snippet loads a client-side JavaScript library that makes it easy to send data from your website to Clearbit. With this library, you can send page views and custom person or company traits to Clearbit X.
Add the clearbit.js snippet to your website HTML
Next, add any domains that you'll be loading Clearbit tags on to the Allowed Referrers list. This is a security measure that will ensure your public API key won't be used on any other sites.
If you just want to send your web traffic to Clearbit X, you're all done! Clearbit will automatically identify which companies are visiting your site. Visit your Clearbit Companies Dashboard to see your live web traffic.
If you want to be more precise about which known people (as opposed to which companies) are on your site at a given time, you'll want to identify your users.
Identify your users
Identifying users allows you to add page view data as well as custom attributes to people in Clearbit X. Note that clearbit.js uses cookies to save all of this data to the session.
The `identify` method is how you associate your users and their page views to a recognizable `user_id` and `email`. Here is the `identify` method definition:
clearbit.identify([userId], [traits]);
The `identify` call has the following fields:
Here's an example of a basic `identify` call, where only the userId and email trait are defined:
clearbit.identify("77e21cfd-2198-4000-944c-529097fc7019", {
"email": "alex@clearbitexample.com"
});
Wait a moment! When you copy and paste the above code on your site, you’ll need to replace all those hard-coded strings with details about the currently logged-in user. We suggest using a backend template to inject an `identify` call into the footer of every page of your site where the user is logged in. That way, no matter which page they are on, they will be identified.
Depending on your templating language, it might look something like this:
clearbit.identify('{{ user.id }}', {
'email': '{{ user.email }}'
});
Note: A common mistake is to put values directly into this script tag without the surrounding quotes. This may cause an error, like "Unexpected Token." To avoid data loss, be certain to check that the identify call is working as expected when your page is loaded, and that no errors show up in the JavaScript console.
Traits
Traits are values that are associated with the user. Using traits, you can append custom data from your user database that may not exist in your CRM.
Important: The safest way to identify traits is to wrap them in quotes to avoid JavaScript syntax issues.
clearbit.identify("77e21cfd-2198-4000-944c-529097fc7019", {
"email": "alex@clearbitexample.com",
"User Location": "San Francisco"
})
Person Traits
Simply include attributes in your identify event to attach that trait to the person. Note that traits are totally customizable and you can pass in as many as you'd like. However, the table below lists specific traits that Clearbit treats with unique behavior:
"customer"
This identify event will create a person with the email`alex@clearbitexample.com` if one doesn't already exist, and attach a `customer` trait with the value `true`.`
It will also create a company with the domain `clearbitexample.com` if one doesn't already exist.
Company Traits
Company traits allow you to add custom attributes to companies in Clearbit X. To add a company trait you would use a group event. Note: this requires the visitor to already be identified.
clearbit.group('ACCOUNT-GUID-1234-5678-9012', {
'plan': "enterprise"
});
In this example, a `plan` trait with the value `enterprise`, would be added to the company associated with the identified person.
Troubleshooting
The best way to troubleshoot clearbit.js is to take a look at your browser's developer console. The console allows you to write JavaScript and execute methods manually. You also can inspect the Network Tab in the developer console to view requests going from the browser to Clearbit's servers.
Are you loading clearbit.js?
Open the JavaScript console. Type in `clearbit` and hit enter.
If you see the data type being loaded, then it's working! Otherwise, it means that clearbit.js is not being loaded onto the website.
Have you listed your domain(s) in Allowed Referrers list?
The Allowed Referrers list tells Clearbit which domains to accept requests from. If it's not in this list, then Clearbit will not accept requests from that domain.
What's next?
Clearbit X is as good as the data you provide it. To level up your data:
After you've added your data sources, then:
