What is first party data and why is it important?

Source data is information you collect from your audience through your own digital channels. This makes it reliable and hassle-free, as people have given their consent for you to use their data to establish contact and interact.

What is first party data and why is it important?

Source data is information you collect from your audience through your own digital channels. This makes it reliable and hassle-free, as people have given their consent for you to use their data to establish contact and interact. Source data is used to redirect, encourage, and during the sales process. Marketers can create new retargeting strategies based on their improved customer knowledge.

They learn more about their ideal customer and can reach new audiences through different channels using their source data list.

Collecting your own data

makes it easy to know users and divide them into specific groups. You can analyze your web traffic and create audiences that are looking for specific products or are interested in a particular topic, such as sports or automotive. It allows you to create highly personalized messages and increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Learn more about audience segmentation on our blog. Compared to the digital marketing industry as a whole, respondents in the first-party data study are larger and a little more sophisticated in their use of data. Taking your data out of these silos and into one place will help you understand the big picture of the data you have, and your customer profiles will begin to take shape. By burying the true nature of their data collection efforts in their terms of service, many consumers gave up their personal data to technology companies without even realizing it.

It's safe to use first-party data segments for segmentation because you know the source of the data and how it was collected. This data can help a company achieve greater scale than relying solely on its own data, and since data is not sold openly, it can provide greater value than third-party data, which is typically available to anyone who wants to buy it. While source data is information that you collect free of charge through your own sources, third-party data is purchased from other companies. Third-party data is mostly aggregated, segmented and anonymized data acquired from larger, specialized companies that are not the original collectors of that data.

A data source mapping project gives you a clear picture of what customer data you have now and what data you still need to collect. Because you know where the data comes from and where it is stored, you maintain full control throughout the entire data usage process. Data compliance encompasses current standards and regulations to ensure that data is secure and protected from data theft, misuse and loss. With source data as your primary resource, there's no need to worry about privacy issues because you know exactly where it comes from, since you own that data.

If you need to know the interests, purchasing intentions, or demographics of your audience, you can use data from third parties. For years, marketers have turned to third-party data sources, investing millions of dollars in data about consumers who are supposed to be interested in their product to improve segmentation strategies. With your own data, you don't have to worry so much about privacy issues because, as data technology company Lotame said, “Privacy concerns around first-party data are minimal because you know exactly where it comes from, and as a marketer, you are the absolute owner. Source data is data that you collect directly from your customers and audiences through interactions with them.