The inevitable vanishing of third-party data is one of the most recent issues of discussion in digital circles.
Do you run a Facebook ad campaign? Then you’re aware that, as with iOS 14.5, you can no longer collect data from Apple iPhone customers for marketing purposes.
Third-party data has been a rich mine for digital consumer profiling and marketing for years.
It’s what allows you to establish an audience on Google Ads or Facebook, as well as retargeting and remarketing. It also influences your ad designs, creative language, and landing pages for campaign conversions, as well as a variety of other crucial strategic marketing decisions.
Consumers have been considerably more conscious and protective of their data rights in the recent decade, and regulations like the California Consumer Protection Act of 2018 (CCPA) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation of 2016 have backed them up (GPDR). Consumers want to know how their data is used, have the opportunity to opt out of data gathering, and even have their data destroyed if they so desire.
Third-party browser cookies have already been disabled and stopped in browsers like Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. Google had stated that it would do the same with its own Chrome browser by early 2022, but it recently revealed that it will delay this commitment until late 2023.
Even your perception of your own website visitors will shift.
Because traditional metrics like page views, transactions, and user timings are eventually going away for good, Google has been phasing customers into its new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) platform.
Even if some firms and marketers are in true fear, we must respect customers in this new Age of Privacy, if we are to believe them.
There’s Still First-Party Data Available
There are alternatives, despite the fact that many advertising and strategic strategists believe this is the end of the world. It just takes a little getting used to.
It’s time to return to first-party data that you already have.
Data is gathered from a variety of sources by good marketers. Transactions on the market. Subscriptions to newsletters. Customer service encounters, both online and offline. Your CRM database is a good friend of yours.
Your website can still track visitor behavior if the appropriate permissions are granted. We’ll all have to get used to Google Analytics’ events tracking, but businesses can still collect data on website visits and usage.
The advantage of first-party data is that it belongs to you. It’s yours, it’s reliable (since you gathered it), and you’re not obligated to share it. You’ve built it up with your consumer base and spent money on digital marketing initiatives to get it. It’s information about your company, not someone else’s.
Is It Enough?
If it isn’t, you can come up with different ways to acquire data from your clients.
Data freely offered by a consumer in exchange for personalization or better service is referred to as “zero party data” by digital marketers. We’re all aware that this is permission marketing in a new guise.
The simplest approach to obtain this information is through content subscriptions and email marketing.
You can also create gated content areas on your website or create promotional activities that ask your customers for information in exchange for access or eligibility.
Is this something you’ve heard before? Isn’t that the case?
To earn your customer’s trust, you’ll need to provide them something worthwhile in return, therefore the information you want should make sense to them.
Will they be able to provide superior customer service? Is it possible to get better recommendations from your website?
You have complete freedom to utilise the information you acquire from your customers; all you have to do is agree to be upfront about how you use it. You have enough ingredients to make a pie, even if the cookie crumbles.