If you’re going to work with first-party data, you’ve got to first understand what it is, where it comes from and whether it is consented. 

At its most simple, first-party data is the information you collect directly from your audience or your customers. For example, publishers get this data when they register a user. Brands get it when they take an order from a customer. Most organizations have this in some form or another in their CRM or other databases.

But there’s a lot more that people will tell you about themselves. And this is where first-party data goes from simply being authenticated data, such as an email, to becoming a rich, multi-dimensional portrait or cohort that is built from consented data and doesn’t reveal personal information. This comes from behavioral data (what a person does), contextual data (what person is interested in) and declared data (what people volunteer to tell you about themselves).

For publishers, this information comes from a range of sources: from what audiences—both registered and unregistered—are reading, watching or listening to. A person who searches for and reads an article about the best smart doorbells is likely a homeowner, maybe going through a renovation, and is interested in connected home technology. But publishers also have broadened their offerings. So, that profile becomes richer after the person registers for an event, attends a conference, watches a series of videos or makes a purchase.

Publishers are then able to use this richer information to group their audiences into publisher cohorts that help advertisers reach these segments with relevant, engaging messages and content. These cohorts are based on the behaviors and interests that these people exhibit, as opposed to identifiable information or just relying on demographics like age, gender or income.

Brands and advertisers have first-party data, too. But this comes only from the websites they control, the loyalty programs they have in place, the interactions consumers have with their brands via customer service or support, or other aspects of their direct relationship. So, they may know how a person behaved when purchasing or using their product, but they often are blind to the broader behavior of that person—and that broader behavior may be critical to what drives consumers to purchase their products or services.

For many brands, first-party data can be made more powerful when it is combined with the richer insights and cohorts that publishers have, insights that are based on data that their readers consent to share. This is where collaboration comes in. Both sides bring their data to the relationship (in a fully privacy-compliant way) so that ads can be served to the audiences who really want to see them.

How It’s Done in the Real World

The Guardian figured out how to leverage its subscriber and reader data to benefit other brands. First, it parsed the first-party data it had on its audience into 350 unique personas. It then matched those consumers with marketing clients looking to access those types of folks.

When those audiences were fed ad-content that was more relevant to them, the result was a lift 65% higher than Brand Metrics’ average and a 39% jump in the proportion of impact on preference and intent. And when luxury furniture brand Rimadesio collaborated with The Guardian for its marketing campaign, the publisher created a bespoke first-party segment for readers interested in art, architecture, interiors and luxury. This resulted in Rimadesio seeing consideration increase by 102% and intent by 79%.

To discover which publishers will help your ad campaign, you’ll have to test how their first-party data performs. The goal, of course, is to help you discover which programs can get the results you need so you’re able to run the most impactful campaigns going forward.

The first step is to determine whether a publisher’s audience personas or cohorts match what you’re looking for. For example, if you are selling high-performance motorcycles, you might be looking for an audience who overindexes on segments related to excitement, risk, independence and certainly an interest in motorsports. But often the key to personas is not a direct and obvious connection; your publishing partners should be able to guide you to the most appropriate cohorts based on what you share from your own first-party data insights.

But once you find a match, you also want to start deliberately. This may be a totally new approach for your organization, so this is the time to experiment. Like anything using the scientific method, you’ll have hypotheses related to what you expect to happen. And you’ll also need to have clear KPIs so you can tell if your test is successful.

A brief word on choosing publishers: First off, make sure that the cohorts they are sharing are based on their first-party data analysis and that they are targeted without the use of third-party cookies. Also make sure that their privacy policies are both compliant and aligned with your own approach.

Let your test-and-learn process be iterative. Once you see initial results, start making adjustments. Are the cohorts you’re targeting delivering? Is the creative fully aligned? What happens when you make adjustments? The goal throughout is to get data that can scale your campaign.

How It’s Done in the Real World

Livingly Media has made partnering with advertisers in search of first-party data a big part of its business model. The Silicon Valley-based publisher provides advertisers with the option to test their first-party data against existing third-party audiences and creates data packages for clients looking to serve ads to its female audiences.

Brands that have partnered with Livingly reduced their reliance on third-party data, reduced wasted impressions while increasing scale, saw an average 10% improvement on viewability and doubled their sell-through rates year-over-year.

Now it’s time to take what you’ve learned from your tests and apply it to a broader selection of publishers.

Building a business model that includes giving and getting first-party data insights from multiple publishers and organizing it in a way that’s useful is not easy. It requires the ability to transfer, take in, make sense of and activate thousands or millions of data points. The whole process operates and scales through technology that links you with publishers and safely parses the data you share with one another.

Remember, the idea is to scale your audience—identify as many consumer cohorts that align to your target audience as you can, with as many publishers as makes sense. You’ll likely need help from an outside tech partner to build out your data-sharing and persona-parsing toolbox.

As you sift through potential tech partners, you’ll want to find out how effective each can be in privacy-strong environments that restrict third-party cookies. Make sure that your publisher partners are as savvy about privacy and responsible marketing as you intend to be. 

You’ll also want to investigate a tech partner’s approach to addressable audiences. Is it sustainable and does it stand up to current and oncoming privacy regulation? Does the approach replicate or avoid the data leaks and lack of transparency that have marred digital advertising? Also, steer clear of those that use fingerprinting techniques to identify consumers by tracking their devices—remember, this is about reaching consumers based on their behaviors and desires, not following them across all their devices.

How It’s Done in the Real World

Insider Inc., the parent company of Business Insider, collaborated with Permutive on its first-party data strategy, and the publisher launched a data platform called SÁGA. The tool allowed the company to organize the first-party data it had compiled on its global audience of 275 million people and share it with advertisers keen on serving them relevant ads.

The campaigns that followed showed that audiences targeted with first-party data were 35% more likely to act vs. those targeted with third-party data, and brands that worked with SÁGA experienced a 140% rise in visits to their subscription sign-up pages.

Taking a first-party data approach to your advertising campaigns is ultimately going to go beyond the boundaries of your marketing department. The customer data that will drive your execution is a valuable competitive asset with company-wide implications. Which is why getting buy-in for your strategy across the organization is a critical part of your first-party data journey. 

What exactly does this look like? Certainly, your own organizational and strategic structure will define your overall efforts. But for many organizations, getting the buy-in of your finance, strategy and technology departments—as well as the overall C-suite—is going to be essential.

As you seek buy-in, it is going to be important to demonstrate your past successes. And that is where the earlier steps in the journey where you’ve tested your approach, measured your outcomes and scaled your efforts will come in. The data and insights that come from these programs will show the impact of first-party data.

Some key questions you’ll want to consider include:

What is your company-wide data strategy?

A democratized data strategy—where everyone has access to insights and analytics relevant to their responsibilities—is the foundation of a successful first-party data strategy. Business success can be tied back to full access to data and quick action. That starts with tearing down silos and other barriers, but it is really about creating a data-savvy company culture.

How will you acquire first-party data?

The answer for companies that sell directly to consumers is obvious—from your customer data. But not every company has that direct relationship with its audience. This can be particularly challenging for brands that sell through distributors (like CPG) or where there may be regulatory restrictions (like with alcoholic beverages or pharma). This may require you to enhance interactions with consumers across your online properties.

What is your approach to privacy?

A successful first-party data strategy requires trust and transparency related to what you are collecting and how it will be used. When extending your data strategy, consider how your organization will be committed to protecting the privacy of your users and what you will require of your data partners.

What tools will you need?

Working with first-party data often requires a rethinking of your technology infrastructure that supports both accessibility and privacy. You will need to work with your IT teams related to internal infrastructure, ensuring that you have tools in place that support your overarching first-party data strategy. You may also need to work with your web developers to ensure that your ability to capture first-party data transparently is up to date and clear.

Who are your valued partners?

Do the technology partners you’ve chosen to help trade and organize all the new first-party data you’re working with have the capacity to scale with you? What are realistic growth metrics, and how much of an investment will it take to get there?

How will your budgets be built?

Contemporary marketing budgets need to be flexible and agile. You may need to quickly adjust your spending and your approaches based on real-time results. If you’re still setting your marketing and media budgets in quarterly increments, you may need to work with your finance, planning and modeling teams to adjust your approach.