Group Session: The Necessity of First-Party Data (MDC)

The third-party cookie isn't going away after all, but it raised the question -- should you be relying on others anyway?

This article stems from the August session of the Media Data Collaborative. You can see the full session below. Shout out to all of our friends/data geniuses in attendance: Kenny Katzgrau, Jason Yee, David LaFontaine, Greg Krehbiel, Robbie Haas, Will Hill, Jim Breiner, Blair Barna, Jacob Fogg.

Own Your Future

Google isn’t killing the third-party cookie after all.

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
~Mark Twain

But that whole kerfuffle raised an important question in the minds of media companies — how much should you rely on others for your business?

It’s the classic case of “build vs buy”. What is core to your business and worth building (and maintaining) in-house? Or what is okay to purchase from a vendor or provider?

Media companies will draw that line in different places.

Some want to take everything in-house and have zero reliance on other platforms.

Others are okay relying on platforms to a degree, while building other important tools in-house.

Here are some thoughts about why you might want to make data one of the things you take ownership of.

Not just ownership. Control.

Owning your first-party data allows you to do a serious level of identification and segmentation. To a degree that isn’t quite possible with third-party services.

Make your audience think “They get me.”

This segmentation allows for several critical things.

More targeted contact points
Don’t just send emails to your entire list. Send hyper-targeted emails to unique audience segments.

More targeted advertisements
Connect advertisers with the audiences they care most about. Skyrocket your engagement metrics.

On- and off-site targeting
Follow your audience off-site with ads and target them on other platforms. Something your advertisers want desperately.

In short — waste not.

Targeting and truly knowing your audience gives you laser-pointed control. There’s no wasted ad spend, no wasted content production, and your audience is happier than ever.

Taking strategy in-house

Your tooling can dictate your strategy.

Only using the metrics that Google Analytics provides out of the box starts to drift your organizational strategy toward optimizing for those metrics.

But are page views really the silver bullet? What about engaged readers?

A more direct and targeted strategy calls for answering some questions:

• What data are you collecting? Where? Why?

• Where are the gaps in your current strategy? What tools might best fill those gaps, or replace existing tools in your arsenal?

• What data, if you had it, would unlock new opportunities and new revenue sources for you?

It’s time you take control of your data. Nurture your audience. And grow your business.

PS: If you liked this, it’s taken from the latest meeting of the Media Data Collaborative. You can view the full video on YouTube.