How to Build a First-Party Data Strategy for Publishers?
Introduction
With continuous phasing out third-party cookies and tighter regulations around privacy, publishers are left in uncharted territory.
This could mean some tools and strategies publishers rely on to gain audience insights and optimize revenue may not match all their needs.
However, the silver lining is that publishers can leverage first-party data strategy to build audience trust and protect their revenue streams.
In this guide, we explore sources of first data, their benefits, and how to build a first-party data strategy.
Understanding First-Party Data
First-party data is the information publishers collect directly from customers, app users, and website visitors, which the users have consented to provide.
It should be collected from publishers’ own sources, unlike third-party which have no direct interaction with the original source.
Some of the first-party data include demographic information, survey data, customer site interaction, purchase history, online chat transcriptions, customer feedback, and more.
Sources of First-Party Data
Publishers leverage various first-data sources to segment users for cross-channel harmonization and personalization.
Ideally, publishers that link all their first-party data sources may generate double the incremental revenue from one ad placement or outreach.
Here are different sources of first-party data for publishers:
User interactions on websites
Although websites are not the leading source of first-party data, they take up a 52% share after surveys and account registration.
Source: Capterra
When users access a site, they may interact with content, linked pages, sign-up forms, or make a purchase, leaving a trail of their journey across the site.
Publishers utilize this valuable information to improve user experience (UX) and the usability of their site.
They can also use a website analytics tool, like Google Analytics, to gain insights into the number of users, page visits, bounce rate, page sessions, time spent on a page, and more.
Email subscriptions and engagement
Email remains an integral part of e-communication, with 4.37 billion users. The number is projected to reach 4.89 billion by 2027, with a market share of 17.9 billion, making it a valuable deliverability for first-party data.
Source: Statista
Implementing email marketing campaigns and newsletters allows users to voluntarily provide their email addresses and demographic data through email signups.
Publishers can then use the collected emails to obtain extra first-party data, such as sending a survey or poll email to users to rate their products or services.
Customer feedback and surveys
Surveys offer premium, first-party data on products or services’ usability and customer satisfaction.
So, if a customer completes one, they voluntarily provide publishers with information they can use to modify their marketing strategies.
Feedback forms allow publishers to gather quick and real-time feedback on a user’s event experience.
Although surveys provide more comprehensive data than feedback forms, both allow publishers to convert user information into valuable facts and formulate strategies that address users’ preferences.
Benefits of a First-Party Data Strategy
Compared to other data types, first-party data is more accurate and its benefits include:
Enhanced Customer Insights
First-party data is qualitative and comprehensive, with relevant customer data sets across various digital touch points.
It allows publishers to get valuable insights about user behavior and interactions from multiple channels, which they can use to create a full user view.
They can then link this to the user behavior and historical contextual data for personalized ad experiences.
It is a no-brainer that personalized ads have a higher ROI, with publishers reporting a 100% success rate. Still, brands that leverage personalized ads boost customer experience (CX) and gain more than double the revenue of those who don’t.
Source: McKinsey
Improved Personalization
A first-party data strategy provides publishers with an extensive context for personalizing user experiences as they source the data directly from them.
By analyzing user behaviors, publishers customize recommendations with highly personalized content to meet the expectations of 74% of users who feel frustrated when website content is irrelevant to their needs. This includes adjusting content based on the current context to give real-time experiences and drive meaningful interactions.
Increased Engagement and Conversions
First-party sources let publishers study user behavior and customize ads to match their needs. This includes using personalized email campaigns to boost click-through rates (CTR) by 14% and conversions by 10%.
Although this applies to promotional emails, publishers can still optimize transactional emails focusing on specific user actions, such as subscription confirmations or account updates, with 40-50% open rates and 10-20% CTR.
However, transactional emails should only be 20% promotional and 80% informational to avoid diluting their intention of delivering crucial information to the user.
Building Trust
Customer insights from first-party data allow publishers to build ongoing interactions and experiences that promote loyalty.
However, users need assurance that their data is used responsibly and securely, an aspect they critically value.
Source: Adobe Experience Cloud
So, publishers should understand their customers’ values, preferences, and behavior to expeditiously align their first-data strategy to customer’s needs and enhance trust.
This directly translates to revenue, as 59% of customers would buy from a brand they trust, and 67% would stay loyal and recommend it to others.
Key Strategies for Building a First-Party Data Strategy
Define Clear Objectives
Before crafting a first data strategy, publishers should set clear data collection and utilization objectives. Failure to which they will only collect data for its own sake without an optimal guiding strategy.
Whether looking into improving UX through personalized content, refining ad targeting, or boosting reader personalization, publishers should set measurable KPIs to focus on the most relevant data points.
Encourage User Logins
Implement and encourage user logins to create a unique ID for every user. This empowers publishers to identify distinctive users, track their behavior, and create personalized UX.
For example, when users sign in, publishers can utilize their email addresses to derive a unique ID to reference across their site. This allows publishers to tie user sessions as they navigate, allowing for targeted attribution and audience segmentation.
Remember, without a user ID, Google Analytics 4 regards every user as new whenever they change devices or clear cookies. This inflates user numbers and distorts user derivative metrics, necessitating a user ID.
Utilize Multiple Data Touchpoints
Collecting data from multiple touchpoints such as websites, email newsletters, mobile apps, and more enhances ad targeting capabilities and supports a first-party data strategy.
For example, publishers can combine on-site user metrics with newsletter CTR to distill user personas and optimize content dissemination approaches.
Multichannel insights have richer data to correctly segment audiences and effectively target niche components, boosting ad revenue.
Create Value Exchanges (discounts, exclusive content)
75% of customers are more willing to share personal data for more customized rewards and 45% for personalized offers.
Publishers should consider encouraging them by offering additional benefits like early access to premium content, discounts, or loyalty rewards.
They can also use a dynamic paywall that adapts depending on user engagement. For example, they could offer three free articles for new visitors while a regular visitor is prodded towards subscribing.
Email Marketing Strategies Utilizing First-Party Data
Segmentation for Targeted Campaigns
Email segmentation uses first-party data to categorize email subscribers based on demographics, preferences, and buying patterns.
Publishers can distribute relevant content in targeted campaigns that users are more likely to engage with, boosting deliverability, CTR, and conversion rates.
Personalized Email Content
Email personalization leverages first-party data insights to customize email content that aligns with the audience.
Publishers can use dynamic content blocks depending on the user’s preferences or interactions, product recommendations that align with user purchase or browsing history, or location-specific offers.
Investing in personalized, targeted email campaigns can enhance audience engagement while consistent nurturing of email subscribers ensures sustainable traffic sources.
Email marketing serves as a counterbalance to the uncertainties posed by algorithmic changes on other platforms.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting maximizes first-party data to trigger emails relevant to users’ specific interests and habits. For example, publishers can send a ‘cart abandonment’ email with reminders or discounts to encourage users to complete a purchase.
They can also send emails based on the user’s browsing history for product recommendations or complementary content.
Lifecycle Email Campaigns
Sending emails to customers during the different stages of their purchase journey boosts customer retention and engagement and increases revenue by 320%.
For example, publishers can implement an ‘onboarding series’ by offering guides to new subscribers, retention campaigns to keep them engaged, and win back campaigns to re-engage dormant users.
These campaigns, alongside behavioral data, ensure every email is timely and relevant based on the user’s activity, creating a proactive user engagement. For example, onboarding emails increase open rates by 83.63%, more than double the average email open rate of 35.63% and improve CTR by 26.9%.
Source: CampaignMonitor
Leveraging Logged-In Users for Enhanced Data Collection
With a single sign-on, publishers have confidence in the user data collected as it is richer, more personalized, and respects the user’s privacy.
It also gives a more precise data attribution for users’ actions, whether navigating the internal software or completing a form.
Publishers can use log data to:
- Develop unified user profiles and cluster activities across devices and sessions.
- Monitor user behavior and identify trends.
- Audit logs to identify errors or investigate malicious activities.
- Integrate an analytics tool to generate reports, track trends, and highlight areas for improvement.
- Use cumulative profiling to gradually gather data and lower user fatigue.
Content Delivery Personalization
Multimedia content allows publishers to deliver presentations customized to meet their customer’s interests and preferences.
Publishers should optimize every selling opportunity with relevant messages to acquire, retain, and satisfy customers.
This is achieved by:
- Using geo-targeting strategies to distribute local-specific content.
- Utilizing product offers, rewards, and suggestions to personalize email campaigns.
- Integrating interactive aspects like polls to further streamline personalization.
- Applying A/B testing to appraise personalized user experiences to refine their effectiveness.
Continuous Optimization and Testing
Publishers should periodically analyze performance metrics and optimize their first-party data strategy based on the gathered practical findings.
Optimization and testing allow them to streamline targeting, messaging, and channel selection while maximizing content syndication execution.
Publishers can achieve this by using:
- Multivariate testing to concurrently examine multiple elements.
- KPIs to monitor optimization impact.
- Heatmaps and session recordings to get user interaction insights.
- Algorithms to personalize recommendations
- A/B testing to compare content, design, and functionality.
Conclusion
Building a robust first-party data strategy is a solid foundation for publishers to grow a stronger segmented audience, improve ad performance, and sustain revenue growth.
It is a sure way to optimize user data while respecting user trust and future-proofing publisher’s business models. This is not just about compliance but capitalizing on first-party data to develop a sustainable publishing environment.
