Brands Lack Urgency on Customer Data Activation

Given the heavy reliance of most advertisers on 1st party audience data in driving digital marketing performance, the seeming lack of urgency of these same advertisers to adopt and effectively utilise customer data, in the face of cookie deprecation, is somewhat perplexing and requires pause for thought. There could be several factors contributing to this apparent hesitation, including delays by Google in removing third-party cookies, internal silos, and the challenges of limited activation scale. 

Delays by Google to Remove Third-Party Cookies

Google's announcement to phase out third-party cookies by 2024 was initially seen as a catalyst for change. Without cookies, the default response for data-driven audience targeting appeared to be utilising customer data. However, several years on, and few have made significant progress on this front. Perhaps Google themselves are to blame for advertiser complacency? Google has delayed the removal of third-party cookies multiple times. This may have created a false sense of security among advertisers, who may believe they have more time to transition to customer data or other alternatives.

The US / ROW Divide

It’s important to distinguish, in this conversation, between two very different market dynamics we see appearing between the US, and frankly, every other market. The US has thus far benefited from relatively lower regulatory interference and enjoys the fruits of a single, large market with limited geographic fragmentation. This has led to a situation where, for instance, onboarding partners can reach 90% of the adult population, where in the EMEA market, the same suppliers would be lucky to achieve a 60% reach across 4-5 of the 25 markets in the region. Customer data in the US, therefore becomes significantly more useful and usable than it is in any other market

Silos in Internal Teams

Another significant barrier to the effective adoption of customer data could be the presence of silos within organisations. In many companies, marketing, IT, procurement, and privacy teams operate in isolation, leading to fragmentation, disjointed strategies and significant delays. This lack of collaboration hampers the ability to create a unified strategy and implement comprehensive approach to customer data management and activation.

Questions Remain Over Value

As I’ve alluded to in past articles, the question over use cases related to customer data remains. With the lack of intent present in most customer data, many looking to customer data as a like-for-like replacement to more timely data-driven strategies like website retargeting will be left bitterly disappointed. On the whole advertisers still need to work through strategic thought exercises over the most effective ways to leverage customer data in media personalisation, aligned to their needs, their customer journey and their KPI framework.

Limited Activation Scale

To add to the challenges of identifying the appropriate use cases, outside the US we must also consider the scale at which use cases can be delivered, and the number of partners or “adtech tax” required to bring a use case to fruition. To date, if brands have activated customer data, it’s been through direct integrations with major media platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon. These have provided a degree of global scalability and consistency but leave a lot on the table in terms of open market operations and premium publisher activation, with limited opportunities to scale this part of the digital ecosystem.

Overcoming Customer Data Hesitancy

Most brands, out of necessity, will need to diversify their data asset portfolio, in the face of 3rd party cookie redaction. Customer data can be a powerful tool in the toolkit of modern marketers, but must be thought through and executed effectively. I recommend thinking about customer data in three distinct steps of phases, detailed below

1. Collection – Review data collection and ensure there is a strong customer experience that encourages voluntary, consented data collection with clear value exchange
2. Segmentation – Think through the use cases and applications of customer data, the majority of which will likely lie in modelling and suppression. Ensure minimum volumes to support these use cases
3. Activation – Establish the direct pipeline to major media platforms as a baseline before expanding to open-web integrations via onboarding and clean room solutions. Evaluate the cost benefit analysis on the latter solutions closely before locking yourself into long-term license agreements