Achieve Advertising Data Independence When the World Feels Out of Control
By Amol Waishampayan, Chief Product Officer
As humans, we are frustrated. Over the last couple of years, several events have left us yearning to break free from all the controls that prohibit us from continuing our daily routines. The COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions enabled, and the polarized feelings surrounding those regulations create a feeling that we are spiraling.
One thing we all know for sure—there's no going back to normal.
AdTech Changes
In the AdTech space, marketers are losing even more control over their day-to-day life, with the deprecation of cookies and seismic technology changes. Google plans to sunset third-party cookies in late 2023, leaving advertisers and marketers scrambling to find an alternative. Additionally, privacy laws are becoming stricter as consumers demand transparency on how their data is being used.
For some of us in the AdTech industry, these changes have greatly affected us already. They are removing our ability to target and measure advertising the way we have always done. For the rest of us, it may be more subtle, such as increases in cost per acquisition, lower reach and frequency between behavioral targets, and the inability to complete the loop by measuring down to transaction.
Where We Never Had Control
These changes have also made us re-evaluate where we never had control and are now left feeling a sense of desire to claim that power. In the past, we had retargeting data that sat in walled gardens (prisons?), such as Facebook or Google, since cookie-based targeting delivered great on-site performance metrics (bounce rate, time on site, events). However, never did we fully own the data.
Not only are we losing control over daily practices — we're also realizing there are things we could never control, such as our data. Now, we ponder why we do not have ownership in the things we should.
As the world finds its new normal in our day-to-day personal lives, marketers are left searching for what the new practices look like in their industry. We are all sick and tired of not having control and the search for “normal” is only amplifying our anxiety.
The Way Out?
The opposite of a lack of control is independence and ownership.
In the world of advertising and marketing technology, the only way to be independent is to have a relentless focus on high-quality, attainable data, while owning your audience.
Leaning into first-party data is the only option. Ultimately, it will make you more resilient to the changes that will come.
CDP's and Data Lake In-House
You’ll need to store your actionable data, usually within a data lake, data warehouse, or a shiny new CPD (Customer Data Platform). For some of our clients, we help custodian their newly formed first-party data until their internal strategy is in a better place. This way, you’ll have control over your database and who accesses the data, and be able to manage it all yourself, minimizing any over-reliance on a single vendor. Along with the perks of storage and access comes the benefit of ensuring privacy compliance around all your data collection.
We're very passionate about helping brands, agencies, media companies, and publishers achieve data independence. Our flagship first-party data generation and transformation ability is powered by patented technology, made to future-proof your business. It’s your data—we just help you collect and activate it. You no longer need to miss out on your first-party data. Take back your control!
