Do you know the difference between first party and third party data?
Proprietary data (or first party data ) are those that the advertising company acquires through its own sources, for example, website, social networks, CRM… They are “first-hand” data that the company extracts from the interaction with its customers. clients or potential clients.
The deeper the knowledge about the consumer, the more efficient and personalized the brand’s communication will be. This type of data allows companies to generate important competitive advantages and better results at no additional cost. In this sense, it is key to have control over the platforms that capture and process this data.
On the other hand, third party data is extracted from sources external to the advertiser, usually from data providers, and is acquired on a large scale. These data are available to any company that wants to acquire them. For this reason, although accessing them is easier, if they are not used correctly, their competitive advantage is not as great as with first party data.
Difference in sending/receiving data to the server.
So, how does cookieless tracking affect your digital marketing strategy?
Without third-party cookies and with more restrictions to promote user privacy, key aspects of digital marketing are seriously affected.
What about limiting campaign frequency and attribution?
Exposing a user to the same ad repeatedly can arouse negative sentiment towards a brand, which is why frequency limitation exists. Currently, it ensures that a user or device receives an ad a set number of times, based on the marked exposure level. To limit the frequency with which advertisements appear, cookies and personal identifiers associated with each user are used. The gradual incorporation of the cookieless system into browsers will interrupt the traditional form of frequency limitation.
Campaign attribution is another key to digital marketing that will be affected. Nowadays, third-party cookies also serve to link the exposure of advertisements to user actions (click, purchase, visit…) on a website. If this data disappears, it can’t be used to show where an ad’s success is coming from, and you’ll likely have to resort to last-click attribution again.
But is there a way to mitigate the effects of cookieless tracking? Let’s find out how to take advantage of first party data!
Take advantage of your first-party data
As we explained, companies extract first-party data from their relationship with their clients or potential clients: their tastes, online behavior with the brand… As you can imagine, the main advantage that this data has is that it is free, companies They do not have to pay a third party to access them.
There are two types of data that a company can collect through its own sources: declarative data, for example, filling out a form (name, email, country…) and behavioral data, for example, the actions carried out in the company. web page or the device you used to make the query. This second type of data is collected through the pixel: the code inserted into the website that will help us track user behavior. Knowing the importance of the conversion pixel in your digital strategy is key to measuring its effectiveness.
Install the pixel and add it to your Ads
You may have seen that taking advantage of first-party data can give your company a competitive advantage. Let’s see what benefits the use of proprietary data brings:
- A more real vision of the online environment that will allow us to make decisions based on data (data-driven) .
- Get insights. Both through declarative and behavioral data collected through the pixel, first-party data helps companies gain greater knowledge about their target audience.
- Update. With the company in control of the data, it can adjust it according to the circumstances that occur. For example, a change in objectives or a change in habits among consumers.
- Segment the audience based on the needs of your company and not have to depend on third-party criteria. With the data collected and the audience well segmented, the marketer can create personalized messages that increase user engagement with the brand.
- Improve the retargeting of your digital campaigns. Throughout the nurturing and sales process, first-party data is used. With greater customer knowledge, marketers can design much more effective retargeting strategies that can even reach new audiences.
Although first-party data is the property of the company, it is very important to have the consent of the users to be able to use it. Since 2018, companies are required to follow the criteria established in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on user data and privacy on the internet . In order for the data to be used in marketing campaigns, the company needs the consent of the users. Remember to include a legal notice in all data collection sources so that the user can consent or deny their use.
In this new era in which cookieless tracking will reign, data collection becomes a basic pillar of practically all digital marketing strategies. The more data companies manage to obtain through their own sources, the more knowledge they will have of the user. For this reason, it is important to know exactly what channels your company has in order to collect data and develop a collection and storage strategy. For example: the website, the forms and newsletter subscriptions, social networks, paid media campaigns, the CRM, the sales department and the customer service department…
Let’s find out how to use two of these sources to make effective retargeting campaigns in the new cookieless world.
How to run retargeting campaigns in a cookieless world
First of all, what does retargeting mean ? Retargeting campaigns are those that aim to re-impact the user after they have interacted with the brand. Although they are campaigns with a limited audience, the user has a very high interest in the product or service, and this makes the return on investment (ROI) very high.
In this type of campaigns, it is essential to do a good segmentation of the audience to target the ads based on the behavior that the user has shown with the brand. Therefore, cookies also play a fundamental role, since they are the ones that provide specific information about the behavior and characteristics of each user.
What do we need for retargeting campaigns to work?
- A tight segmentation.
- A clear, direct landing page that corresponds to the objective of the campaign.
- Establish a frequency limitation on the daily impacts that the user will receive and a limitation on the period in which the campaign will be active.
- Multiple creatives and copies to avoid causing ad fatigue to users and generating rejection towards the brand.
- Create a strategy that covers, in an orderly manner, all stages of the conversion funnel, so that users have a complete experience.
And in a cookieless world, how do we do retargeting campaigns? With the limitation of cookies, it is very important to collect a large amount of data through first-party sources and make the most of it. Let’s look at two strategies that work in this new environment.
1. Conversions API
As you have seen, not being able to use cookies will mainly affect retargeting, ad personalization and conversion tracking. For this reason, Facebook brought its solution to light months ago.
What is Conversions API? Maintaining data privacy and reinforcing the role of first-party data, Facebook launches an interface that will allow companies to send information from their servers to those of the application. This information is sent through events and conversions to Facebook Ads Manager, maintaining the user’s privacy at all times.
To implement this new information sending system and be able to continue carrying out retargeting campaigns, Facebook asks companies for 3 requirements: a Business Manager account, an access identifier and having the Pixel correctly installed.
With CAPI, Facebook guarantees companies can continue sending data despite blocking cookies in order to continue running personalized campaigns with a good return on investment.
Top, Pixel-Facebook process and bottom, Pixel-Server-CAPI process.
2. Email marketing
The second strategy is email retargeting. That is, specific marketing campaigns for a list of email subscribers. Currently, it is one of the most advanced and effective advertising options. With precise database segmentation based on subscriber behavior or demographics, you can run highly personalized and creative campaigns to attract and convert those potential customers into consumers.
Retargeting is one of the most affordable and most converting types of campaigns. In the case of combining it with email marketing campaigns , it is essential to take into account the demographic data of potential customers, their behavior, the activity they have on the website and the engagement they have with the brand.
In a cookieless world, a well-crafted email marketing strategy gives marketers access to specific data on potential customers. This allows companies to continue carrying out retargeting campaigns through information from their own data sources. Let’s see in 4 simple steps how this process could work:
- Export the segmented subscriber list.
- Add it to the Ads platform.
- The Ads platform will anonymously identify your subscribers.
- Your subscribers will see your ads.
With the new cookieless tracking system, it is important to be prepared so that the impact on the ROI of your campaigns is as little as possible. First-party data is the new trending topic among marketers who want to improve and increase the results of their marketing strategies. And retargeting campaigns, an advantageous solution to safely take advantage of the data collected by companies through their own channels. Do you dare to put them into practice?
