What is marketing data collection?
Some significant changes are occurring in the internet and marketing landscape in 2023. As large tech companies move to ban third-party cookies, brands and marketing teams are responsible for creating marketing data collection strategies for the future. Let’s take a detailed look at what the future holds for responsible data collection.
Types of marketing data
Zero-party data collection
Zero-party data sources data from the customer with intent. The customer willingly participates in surveys, polls, or loyalty programs. The data is then used to personalize the user experience and add additional depth to first-party data.
1st party data collection
First-party data is information about an audience collected by a business. Advertisers collect the information via their own sources, such as their website or app, CRM lists, or Google Analytics. First-party data may be collected in various ways, such as requiring customers to enter an email address before finalizing a purchase on the website. By incorporating first-party data strategies, businesses can improve their conversions and brand awareness.
2nd party data collection
When it comes to second-party data, multiple parties will share information on a private basis. Typically, this means first-party data is shared for mutual benefit. This allows marketers and companies to build a more robust customer profile and work together to share information to reach a wider audience.
3rd party data collection
Generally, third-party data is information collected by a company that does not directly relate to the user data it is being collected on. The interaction is typically secured via cookies placed on an advertiser’s site. While this information is more accessible to acquire than first-party data, it may not provide value or personalized information for a specific audience.
What do we mean by responsible data collection?
Responsible data collection takes legislation and regulations into account. It allows users to consent to provide data or to choose to opt-out. Most importantly, it includes transparency regarding what will happen to user data. The driving factor for responsible data collection is prioritizing consumers’ rights to consent, privacy, security, and ownership. By incorporating responsible data collection into marketing strategies, brands can practice transparency and openness.
Vidhya Srinivasan, VP/GM Buying, Analytics and Measurement at Google, said, “The future is consented, it’s modeled, and it’s first party.” Google agrees that first-party data is the workhorse. A Google study showed that using first-party data for key marketing functions achieved a 2.9X revenue uplift and a 1.5X increase in cost savings.
Responsible data collection uses
Lead gen & traffic building
Generally, lead generation is user consent-based data collection. Some examples of generating this consent-based data are email/newsletter signups, contest entries, early access, gated content, loyalty programs, and promo codes or coupons. These strategies may take a bit more leg work but allow brands to lean into every element they have at their disposal to drive desired actions and invest in organic for long-term success.
Most importantly, you want your website to work harder and provide a greater measure of reporting. By conducting landing page testing, conversion rate optimization, and offering additional form fills, brands can increase and optimize first-party data organically.
GA4 audiences
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) allows marketing teams to build lists of users to show and target your ads. GA4 is a new property designed to collect website and app data to better understand the customer journey. In addition, it includes privacy controls such as cookieless measurement and direct integrations to media platforms to help drive actions. Essentially, brands can compare audiences and tailor marketing strategies or ads to a specific audience.
Uses for 2nd party data
When it comes to 2nd party data, there are a handful of benefits. 2nd party data enhances marketing based on new customer insights. Incorporating 2nd party data allows the user to build a layered and more complete view of an individual customer, which drives a far more relevant, meaningful, and personalized marketing strategy that can improve engagement and marketing ROI. Secondly, it is beneficial in increasing access to high-quality data. And last but not least, 2nd party data mostly contains non-PII information about the customers, ultimately reducing the usage of PII information, which makes a company compliant with data privacy measures.
As we near a post 3rd party cookies digital landscape, marketers will need to use new methods and tactics for data collection to remain successful and relevant. Marketers should begin the transition from traditional platforms and data aggregators to source data on a personalized and targeted level.
So, now is the time to get creative. Whether your marketing team decides to do this by acquiring data from personalized emails, SMS, or even ad messages, the creative opportunities for data collection are vast.
