As the threat of signal loss continues to loom over the industry, this change gives brands more time and freedom to put the right infrastructure in place, run tests to future-proof their marketing strategies, and continue to deliver targeted ads that reach the right people at the right time. This includes combining first-party and third-party data to improve data quality, enabling precise targeting and precise measurement that can have an immediate impact on ROI.
That’s why data providers are working together to help brands build effective marketing strategies now and in the future, with a focus on enhanced data, interoperability, and data compliance.
In this Q&A, Chris Moore, head of strategic partnerships at Publishers Clearing House (PCH) Media, and Scott Kozub, vice president of product management at Experian, discuss how connectivity is paving the way for data-driven advertising and why collaboration between brands, marketers and data providers is essential to make it a reality.
How can marketers combine first-party and third-party datasets to better understand consumer behavior and preferences?
Scott Kozub: Combining these data sets improves data quality and provides rich insights that help marketers deliver more personalized messages. This deepens engagement and improves conversion rates. Enrichment services add Experian demographic and behavioral attributes to clients’ first-party data. This allows them to know more about their customers and run more precise campaigns to deliver the rich insights they need. Our focus on data distribution and actionability, as well as identity resolution capabilities, supports Experian’s mission to power data-driven advertising through connectivity. Our top-ranked marketing data can be consumed at a granular level or delivered to key destinations as syndicated audience segments. So whatever way marketers want to consume and use data, we have a solution.
Chris Moore: PCH Media is able to build and enhance marketers’ existing datasets based on trusted first-party insights. Our co-branded sweepstakes provide brands with access to a privacy-compliant dataset acquired with user permission (PCH users who have agreed to share their data) to overcome the lack of first-party data for brands. PCH users are highly enthusiastic and respond favorably to co-branded sweepstakes offered by PCH Media brand partners. This data can then be transferred to other platforms for activation.
Alternatively, PCH Media can run custom surveys on its existing database of known users and build relevant audiences for its partners based on their responses. In the past two months alone, it has added nearly 750,000 first-party attributes from the Question API to its database, including updated demographics, political affiliations, purchasing behavior and more.
Once marketers have worked with their data partners to enrich their data, how do they ensure that the collaboration continues to be successful and secure?
Chris Moore: Data partnerships allow for the sharing of first- and third-party data to create enriched data sets or to link disparate data sets to identifiers. Interoperability is key in any data collaboration. Interoperability is the ability of different systems and organizations to work together seamlessly. Without interoperability, integrating data from multiple sources becomes a difficult and time-consuming task.
Companies that work together to establish data standardization and agree on common formats to address interoperability make it easier to map, merge, and integrate data across different systems, so that enriched data can be used to power smarter marketing initiatives like insights, activation, and measurement.
PCH Media doesn’t rely on clean rooms, allowing partners to quickly and easily match our first-party data with their existing databases, and LiveRamp has hundreds of pre-built segments, providing clients with turnkey activation by adding the accuracy and efficiency of data from over 38 million consumers to their media campaigns.
Scott Kozub: We work with leading platforms and agencies and have partnerships across the ecosystem that brands can leverage to leverage their own data. Our identity capabilities are built into our partner integrations, helping our clients achieve higher match rates and improve addressability. Additionally, Experian has a suite of collaboration solutions, including clean room partnerships, that allow brands to match and combine data sets with Experian and its partners in a secure way.
Given the importance of security and data compliance, how do data providers handle privacy?
Scott Kozub: Data privacy is paramount for brands as consumers are increasingly eager to control their data: According to PCH’s Data Privacy and Ethics Report, more than half (58%) of Americans over the age of 25 would stop engaging with a company that has a poor data reputation.
Our deep roots in data protection and security, backed by Experian’s Global Data Principles, provide brands with the most trusted way to match data and protect consumer privacy. Partnering with companies that have access to datasets obtained with user permission, such as PCH Media, and using well-respected collaboration solutions from companies like Experian, enables brands to meet and exceed consumer privacy expectations. For example, Clean Room anonymizes user data so brands can match and securely combine data sets across partners.
What does the way forward look like for marketers battling signal loss?
Chris Moore: As brands and marketers focus on overcoming signal loss and expanding their first- and third-party data capabilities, working with partners that enable data-driven advertising will be key to success. With a focus on data connectivity and interoperability, these partnerships foster privacy-first data collaboration, resulting in more effective marketing and a competitive advantage.
Sponsor: Publishers Clearing House Media