Data

Digital advertising relies heavily on data to target and personalize ads, measure performance, and optimize campaigns. Data in digital advertising refers to the collection, analysis, and utilization of various types of information to deliver targeted and effective advertising messages to the right audience at the right time. This data-driven approach allows advertisers to optimize their ad spend, improve audience engagement, and achieve higher conversion rates.

Types of Data in Digital Advertising:

User Data: User data is collected from various sources, including website registrations, app usage, social media interactions, and other online activities. It includes demographic information (age, gender, and location), browsing behavior, interests, and preferences. This data helps advertisers create detailed user profiles and target specific segments with relevant ads.

Behavioral Data: Behavioral data tracks users’ online activities, such as websites visited; pages viewed, and content consumed, search queries, and click-through rates. This data helps advertisers understand user preferences, interests, and intentions, allowing them to deliver personalized and contextually relevant ads.

Contextual Data: Contextual data involves analyzing the content of web pages or apps where ads are served. By examining keywords, topics, and other contextual cues, advertisers can match ads with relevant content, ensuring higher visibility and engagement. For example, an ad for running shoes might be displayed on a blog post about marathon training.

Geo location Data: Geo location data provides information about a user’s physical location based on their IP address, GPS, or Wi-Fi signals. Advertisers can leverage this data to target users in specific locations or deliver location-specific ads. For instance, a restaurant chain can display ads promoting its nearby locations to users within a specific radius.

Device and Technical Data: This type of data includes information about the user’s device, operating system, browser, connection type, and screen size. Advertisers use this data to optimize ad formats and placements for different devices, ensuring a seamless user experience and maximum ad visibility.

Customer Data Platform:

A customer data platform (CDP) centralized customer data in one place, from which marketers, sales reps, and customer success managers can run analysis to better understand audiences.

CDPs are primarily focused on collecting and aggregating first-party data, but they can also store second and third-party data as well. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the difference between the three terms, and which type of data is best for your business.

First Party Data

First-party data is data that a company has collected directly from its audience, whether customer, site visitors, or social media followers.

Essentially you or your businesses are the first party that has collected unique information about your audience directly from your audience. First party data can include things like:

• Demographic information
• Behaviors or actions taken across your website, app, and or product
• Data in your CRM
• Social media conversations
• Subscription-based emails or products
• Survey data
• Customer feedback
• Customer purchase history
• Online chat transcripts

Importance of First Party Data:

First party data is important because it’s collected directly from the people you have the most to learn from — your own audience. There is no third party collecting the data or getting in the way of collection; it’s just you and your audiences.

Having this information also makes it easier for you to retarget and nurture your audiences based on what you’ve learned about them.

According to Think with Google and Boston Consulting Group, brands using first party data in key marketing functions achieved a 2.9X revenue lift and a 1.5X increase in cost savings.

How is first party data collected?

First party data is collected by adding tracking pixels to your website, product, or social media profile that collects information about behaviors and actions and records it within your CRM or CDP.

So, for example, whenever a visitor lands on or clicks on your website, looks at your products, or engages with a social media post, the pixel will collect and record that action.

You can also collect first party data from customer surveys you send to your audiences, conversations with customers, or from any direct information about their experience that customers have shared with you or your business specifically. A good example of how first party data is not collected is if you were to aggregate customer product reviews from Amazon, as that would be second party data.

How is first party data used?

First party data is used for retargeting via advertisements, nurturing, and during the sales process. It’s also used to learn what an ideal or best-fit customer looks like, giving you more information about how to reach out to new audiences.

Second Party Data

Second party data is information you didn’t collect yourself — in other words; you’re using it secondhand. Businesses often get it by working with a trusted partner that shares audience insights in a mutually beneficial relationship.

For example, a software company working with an agency partner to re-sell its products might share its first party data with the agency to use as second party data to target and attract new clients.

How is second party data collected?

Second party data comes from another source rather than direct actions taken by your business, like sending product satisfaction surveys.

An easy way to obtain second party data is to purchase it from a source that has what you need. However, while it’s certainly faster than collecting it yourself, it’s riskier, as you can quickly spend a lot of money on data that is not useful to you. It’s a best practice to ask for a preview or a summary of the data you’ll receive to ensure it’s relevant to your company.

How is second party data used?

First and second party data are used in the same way; to create ads, nurture leads, and remove friction within the sale process.

The difference is that second party data can offer you a new perspective on your customers. You may uncover trends or patterns you overlooked or didn’t include in your own search, helping you spot customer needs or interests that you can further incorporate into your business processes and products.

Third Party Data

Third party data is any data collected by a business without any direct link to your business or audience. Its scope is much wider than first and second party data.

Third party data is sometimes compiled from multiple different sources and is sold to or bought by companies to learn more about audiences. However, since it’s not directly collected from your actual paying customers and is also available to your competitors, it may not be as useful as first or second party data.

How is third party data collected?

Third party data is collected the same as first and second party data. Researchers use surveys, interviews, feedback forms, etc., to gather information about a large audience. Then, like second party data, organizations can purchase this information for their own use.

Another difference lies in that much third party research is conducted on random sample sizes, often by anyone that is willing to fill out the form, which is why the results don’t directly come from your customers. While this yields more participants and responses, the information might not always be useful for your business.

How is third party data used?

While it may be tempting to use it in place of your own research, third party data should be used as a complement to your first party data. Remember that just because there are more results it isn’t necessarily more relevant to your business.

Instead, you should first analyze your first party data for trends and patterns in customer behavior. Then, you can compare your findings with your third party data, specifically targeting respondents who fit your buyer personas. That way, you can see if the behaviors you observed align with the majority of your marketplace.