Despite data-driven marketers’ historic reliance on third-party data, a new study released by Econsultancy and Signal reveals a shift in the industry. The study found that 81% of marketers reporting they obtain the highest ROI from their data-driven initiatives when using first-party data (compared to 71% of their peers in the mainstream) with only 61% citing third party data. This shift is expected to deepen, with 82% of all marketers surveyed planning to increase their use of first-party data (0% reporting a decrease), while 1 in 4 marketers plan to decrease their use of third party data.
What’s the Difference Between First-Party and Third-Party Data
First-party data is collected and owned by your organization. It can be proprietary data like customer survey results and purchasing data. Third-party data is collected by an other organization and either purchased in its entirety, appended to your current customer data, or available through third-party apps. Issues often arise with the accuracy and timeliness of third party data.
Second-party data is another option but underutilized by companies. Second-party data is collected through corporate partnerships. By sharing audience, response rates can be much higher, customer data may be more rich, and the data is still both accurate and timely. If you’re struggling to acquire more data on your customers, you may look at partnering with a company that shares your customers!
For years, third-party data has been the mainstay of digital marketing, but today’s highest performing companies are increasingly looking internally, to their first-party data.Better customer experiences demand better data. Brands have to understand individuals and audience patterns-channel interactions and their role the customer journey-what customers want and when they want it. In every case, first-party data from real customers is going to be the most useful.
The survey results are based on 302 marketers and was conducted in May 2015 by Econsultancy and Signal.
Key Information You Will Find in this Report
- What are the competitive advantages for companies that are more adept at using their owned data?
- Where do high performers collect their first-party data and how does that differ from the mainstream?
- What are the first steps for organizations trying to take better advantage of their first-party data?
- What specific data types are rated highest for accuracy and usefulness?
