Retargeting and the Role of First-Party Data

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With the sheer size and scale of the Internet, it is no surprise some individuals choose to browse several sites before committing to a product or service. However, every website visitor lost is a missed opportunity to create a loyal customer. This means that getting a visitor to return to a website is a monumental task. Here is where retargeting comes into play.

Retargeting is a form of online advertising which helps keep your brand front and center with website visitors by encouraging them to return to your site. The beauty of retargeting is the ability to stay top of mind with your site visitors.

Retargeting works. Venturebeat cited an AdRoll survey that found more than 90 percent of marketers claimed retargeted advertisements are as good or better than search ads, which are quite popular in modern digital marketing. In fact, according to the source, 71 percent of organizations surveyed by AdRoll spend as much as 50 percent of their digital marketing budgets on retargeted ads, which is up 34 percent compared to 2013’s statistics. However, there are better methods out there.

The best way to retarget consumers and businesses is to understand visitors’ intent. Adam Burke, president and CMO of AdRoll, explained to VentureBeat that marketers are finally discovering the many ways to leverage their website’s internal behavioral data to meet advertising goals. However, retargeting campaigns need to rely more on finding new first party data sources in order to craft successful strategies. On top of first party data, organizations can also leverage third- and second-party data. Below we examine the different types of data and some of the benefits and challenges digital marketers face using each.

First-party data
Now is the best time to start leveraging first-party data. For one, this is information that the company already collects from CRM data to Web analytics data to customer feedback. It can be made up of concrete facts, such as a visitor lives in Michigan, or it can be more abstract, like if someone is just browsing or actually ready to buy a product.

First-party data is the most relevant information that an organization can collect. On AdExchanger, Peter Kim explained that first-party data is critical for the future of marketing mainly because no competitor can access it. Its completely proprietary. In this way, advertising and retargeting campaigns will be unique in every way, and interactions can become more personalized. Both of which are virtues in the modern era.

Second party
Second-party data can be compared to anything else that is secondhand. In essence, the term refers to someone else​’s first-party information. Using a co-marketing ecosystem – whether marketer to market or marketer to publisher – organizations can acquire second-party data and learn how to better execute advertising campaign. In particular, it is great for finding and extending a website’s audience without any preconceived assumptions about demographics that third-party information offers. AdWeek reported that it helps fine tune augmentations to available information, but in that way it can be too specific to be valuable for a wide audience.

Also, because of the nature of its source, second-party data might not relate to any specific industry. This can be solved purchasing it from a direct competitor, that is just not a good business move. In fact, to gain any valuable insights that stand alone, an organization is going to have to combine second-party data with more reliable sources of information, like first-party data.

Visitors’ behavioral trends, for example, area form of first-party data.

Last but not least
This leaves third-party data, which is information that can be useful to identify larger scale trends such as general demographics and their behaviors and associations. The problem with third-party data, however, is that it is sold by organizations, which means everyone, including competitors, has access to it, and, therefore, third-party data is less valuable than the other two forms of information.

Third-party data is by no means useless, but it often works better when combined with other information. Digiday reported that combined with third-party information, first-party data will provide more context in specific areas, especially in retargeting efforts.

Retargeting armed with data
Retargeting is going to work best if visitors are first segmented into groups. This is where first-party data in the form of visitor intent comes in – it allows organizations to segment by the goals of the individual, such as whether they are a purchaser, doing research or anything else. Visitor intent is not about the person, instead it’s their purpose for visiting a website. First-party data allows for the personalization of retargeting advertisements that second- and third-party data alone could never achieve. Narrowing the playing field is essential when crafting new campaigns.

First appeared in Business 2 Community

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Duff Anderson
Duff Anderson is a visionary in digital Voice of the Customer research with over 20 years' experience. As SVP and Co-founder at iPerceptions, Duff is responsible for providing expert advice to organizations on how to gain a competitive advantage across the digital customer lifecycle and become more customer-centric.

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