How marketers should think about building a first-party data strategy

Nacia Walsh: Hi there! I’m your host, Nacia. And in this video, we’re going to take a look at how to think about putting together a first-party data strategy. To be privacy ready, marketers need to rethink practical strategies and marketing opportunities with first-party data in mind.

Nacia: As I’m sure you’re aware, new regulations, and device and platform developers, have given people the power to choose who can use their data. What’s important now is making it clear how your customers will actively benefit from sharing data with your brand.

Here to tell us how he thinks about making that happen is Jaylen Baca, a global product lead at Google. Take it away, Jaylen.

Jaylen Baca: Thank you, Nacia. Hello, my name is Jaylen Baca. I’m here to help you think about building a first-party data strategy so you can build stronger, more direct relationships with your users. With third-party cookies being phased out, we all need to acknowledge the importance of user-shared data and the necessity of creating clear privacy policies that provide user control and transparency.

Jaylen: Before we get into it, let’s define first-party data. First-party data is the information collected from your users during direct interactions with your business, whether on your website, app, in-store, or over the phone. Every touchpoint your customer has with your business offers an opportunity for you to learn more about them so you can build a stronger relationship. That’s why it’s so important that you have the tools and consent to manage their data.

So how do you do that? Let’s start with site-visitor data. Building a strong tagging infrastructure will help you leverage the data users share when they interact with your website. Sitewide tagging methods can help you set first-party cookies to measure conversions more accurately. This type of tagging can be done with Google’s global site tag or with a tool like Google Tag Manager.

First-party data can also be shared by mobile app users. You can add a software development kit into your mobile app. This will help you gather data from the actions people take downloading and engaging with the app.

But what do you do if direct-to-consumer isn’t viable? You can use partnerships or B2B deals to help you connect directly with users and build up your first-party data. For example, if you’re a food and beverage company, you could consider partnering with a home-meal-kit seller like Home Chef or HelloFresh to broaden your audience reach and build up your data.

So what’s the key takeaway here? Lean into the first-party data from your site visitors and mobile apps to gain insights into how people interact with your business and how you can serve them better. Partnerships or B2B relationships can also be a great way to extend your reach and build on first-party data insights.

At the end of the day, when you can serve more personalized ads, your users will feel like what they’re seeing is more useful and more relevant. The rule of thumb here is this: The more value and relevance your ads offer, the more receptive your users will be. I hope that was helpful, and thanks again for joining me. Back to you, Nacia.

Nacia: Wow. Thanks so much for sharing that advice, Jaylen. Turns out the shift to first-party data is more of an opportunity than people think. In fact, it means every user touchpoint gives you insight into building meaningful relationships and providing relevant, personalized experience for your users. And it’s important to test and tweak your first-party data plan to ensure your marketing efforts have the information necessary to deliver peak relevance.

Stay tuned for more episodes from our How to Think About series by subscribing to our channel. See you guys next time.