As privacy rules tighten, relying on third-party data is becoming more risky. Most customer-facing brands will soon depend almost entirely on their own first-party information. A Customer Data Platform, or CDP, is poised to be the backbone of that new strategy.
For several years a growing wave of laws and tech changes has limited how companies follow and target people with outside data-that is, data collected by firms that never interact directly with the end user.
- Regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation or GPDR and California’s Consumer Privacy Act, CCPA, have already raised global standards for how data is gathered and used. More regions are sure to roll out similar rules in the near future.
- Smartphone makers are stepping in, too. Last year Apple’s decision to sunset the IDFA, or Identifier for Advertisers, made it much harder for brands to quietly track users across apps and sites and serve ads as they once did.
- The biggest jolt to online ads came from Google back in 2019 when the company said it would dump third-party cookies. To give brands and publishers time to adjust, that change was pushed ahead to 2023. Now, Google is pitching Topics, the replacement for its earlier FLOC plan, as the main tool for a cookieless future.
Consumers are speaking up more loudly about their privacy these days. A March 2022 survey by the Consumer Technology Association showed that roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults worry a lot about how internet gadgets use their personal information.
Because of that pushback, relying on third-party data to guide sales and marketing has become risky business. That change hits the 88% of marketers who traditionally leaned on outside data to build a fuller picture of every shopper. Moving forward, brands will need to gather insights straight from the people they actually interact with. You can already guess what that means for anyone in sales or marketing.
First, we have to make every effort-whether through helpful newsletters, free trials, downloadable guides, or quality blog posts-to encourage customers to share their contact info. Getting that permission is just the starting line for a solid first-party data game plan.
Not starting from scratch
Large companies almost always have piles of first-party data just waiting to be put to good use. The trouble is that when this data sits in separate programs and departments, it fights against the seamless, on-line experience everyone keeps talking about. In fact, more than half of marketers (54%) say poor quality and missing data is the single biggest roadblock to running campaigns that really feel data driven. And as newer platforms like TikTok and connected TV become standard parts of the mix, that problem is unlikely to get better on its own.
Think of first-party customer data as a stack of loose tiles all over the floor of the business. If you want a tidy picture, you need a tool that picks those pieces up and lays them out in a clear pattern. That’s exactly the role a Customer Data Platform (CDP) was built to play.
Unlike the familiar Data Management Platforms that mainly focus on outside data, a Customer Data Platform pulls in every piece of information you have-even Personally Identifiable Information or PII. It collects both clearly named and pseudonymous data from every channel and arranges everything in one clean format. While sorting, the system filters out weird data points and mistakes, raising the overall trustworthiness of what you see. Strong usage rules then help make sure the data is handled openly and fairly, giving customers more power over their own PII.
Now that customer data platforms are a bit older, many of them use Artificial Intelligence to fill in missing pieces of a customer’s story. Over time, they will even craft digital twins-a kind of educated guess profile-for shoppers whose past behavior you can’t see, borrowing clues from people who look similar.
With this tech, your team can gather clear, privacy-friendly profiles without spending days manually stitching emails, website clicks, and in-store visits together. The platform can also suggest the best moment to gently ask a buyer for new information. Just as important, the CDP should work in real time, so every decision sits on the freshest data, not yesterday’s news. Taken together, a real-time system gives brands one united 360-degree picture of each shopper, making truly personal, seamless experiences possible across every channel.
The Best Survivors are the Best Adapters
A Real-Time Customer Data Platform lets you pull together first-party info from websites, apps, and other channels and show all that data in one clear place. By doing so, you can replace what third-party cookies once did and still learn what each person prefers at this very moment.
The clearer view lets you send the right message at the right time-today, tonight, or next week-rather than hoping you guessed correctly in advance.
When your outreach feels personal and accurate, customers notice, trust grows, and long-term relationships form. That kind of agility keeps your business moving forward even in a cookieless future.