Is privacy a myth in the digital age? The answer is yes… and no. Every one of the billions of smartphone owners and social media scrollers has a massive digital footprint, whether they want to or not. Like Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson, who hasn’t wanted to throw out their desktop and go off the grid now and then?
But even though online anonymity is almost impossible in the mid-2020s, consumers still want privacy. They want brands to handle their information with care, and they place greater trust in companies that act ethically and emphasize data privacy and compliance.
To be one of those trusted brands, you can start by prioritizing first-party data collection methods and stepping away from less-trusted and more invasive forms of collecting and activating data. Let’s explore why first-party data should be your go-to every time.
4 key marketing data collection types
While customers may not know which data collection method you use, they know when marketing feels invasive versus when it feels authentic and trustworthy, which comes down to data. Marketers typically collect up to four different data types, on a scale from least to most trusted:
- Third-party data gets collected by a data provider that has no direct relationship with the customer. In fact, the audience typically doesn’t even know the data is being gathered or consent to collection. Most people are familiar with the third-party cookies pop-ups that they either accept or deny. Due to privacy concerns, this type of data is gradually being phased out, though the timeline is uncertain.
- Second-party data gets collected by a trusted partner that the customer likely knows they interacted with, such as Facebook or Google. This type of data can be expensive, and it typically offers anonymized and aggregated insights. It can help you understand your audience as a whole, but its separation from your audience makes it less trusted.
- First-party data stems from your audience’s behavior and their direct interactions with your brand, website, or marketing channels. The steps they take to make a purchase, add something to their cart, sign up for or interact with emails, scan a QR Code, or engage with customer support can give you valuable behavioral data or even demographic data. Because customers have knowingly engaged with your brand, they typically trust campaigns that rely on this data more than second- or third-party data.
- Zero-party data comes from your customers when they actively provide you with intel via channels like surveys, polls, quizzes, and interviews. These ways of collecting data are highly trusted and provide in-depth information about your audience’s attitudes and opinions. They’re also time-consuming, can be expensive to collect, and, depending on the data type, require in-depth analysis.
Your customer data strategy might involve some or all of these data types. If you’re relying more heavily on the first two, you’re likely missing out on the chance to collect trusted data and uncover valuable insights you can already access.
Why first-party data wins
First-party data is generated when a potential (or returning) customer goes out of their way to engage with your brand. They likely know you exist, they’ve expressed some level of interest in your product or service, and they’ve gone out of their way to learn or do more.
Picture the uncanny experience of a brand knowing too much about you. The flip side is no good: No one likes a retargeted ad that is totally wrong for them—an ad for diapers when they aren’t a parent or for HR software when they aren’t in the field. First-party data helps you steer clear of those marketing missteps with individuals because it applies what they’ve told you through their behavior to create better experiences.
On an audience level, first-party data can show you where your most engaged customers are located, which products are most popular, and what copy resonates with customers who are most likely to buy.
First-party data hits the sweet spot. While zero-party data collection can be a heavy lift, third- and second-party data can break, rather than build trust. Data regulations like GDPR and CCPA reflect ongoing privacy concerns, and third-party cookies boast less reliability than they have in the past—if they’ll even be around for much longer. These are just a few reasons to pump the brakes on disconnected data collection methods.
First-party data collection isn’t just about data. It’s a more ethical, sustainable way to understand your audience, and it forms the foundation of better marketing and deeper customer relationships. Shift your strategy to focus on first-party, and you’ll gain deeper insights and build long-term trust in your brand.
First-party data collection by tool
Here’s the good news: If you’re a business with digital marketing channels and you have customers, you already have first-party data. To take stock of your first-party data, analyze it, and use it, start with your marketing stack.
- Your customer relationship management software (CRM). Tools like Salesforce or HubSpot that organize relationships with your audience offer a goldmine of their interactions, like the website pages they’ve visited and their demographics.
- Your website and app. The homebase for all your customer interactions, website analytics gives you intel on the typical customer journey and valuable first-party data on the content that’s working and pages where people spend time. If you have a mobile app, its analytics will give you insights into their mobile behavior and preferences.
- Your email or SMS marketing platform. These tools show you how audiences open, click, and convert from these valuable, owned channels in your marketing strategy.
- Your digital touchpoints. Which branded short links are most click-worthy, and which QR Codes are people scanning in stores, on OOH ads, or via print materials? Your touchpoints can give you instant first-party feedback every time someone engages.
These tools might overlap or integrate, which is great news for creating a centralized source of truth on your customers. No matter the channel, message, or offer, your goal is to get them to take action. And when you choose touchpoints like Bitly’s short links and QR Codes, you get privacy-safe, first-party data from every click or scan. In-depth analytics let you learn about your audience as a whole, and you can pair these tools with tracking from Google Analytics to see conversion tracking, time on pages, and more.
How 4 brands are using first-party data
First-party data is merely metrics when you don’t know how to use it—it turns into strategy when you learn from it and adjust your marketing in response. These companies use a variety of marketing tools to turn first-party data insights into sales, donations, and audience engagement.
Note: Some of the brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Changing lives with data-informed social strategy
Changing Lives works across England to support thousands of individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction, domestic abuse, and other challenges. They provide holistic support and services to help these people lead happy, fulfilling lives. The Changing Lives team uses the Bitly Connections Platform to create and track links shared across social media channels.
Bitly Analytics shows them which channels get the most clicks in real time, where traffic is coming from, and how their audience found them. This valuable first-party data, compiled with every click, provides comprehensive data to understand their audience’s go-to channels for engagement, as well as identifying the regions and platforms where they should focus their time and resources.
Taking big swings with the right audiences
A single source of truth in your CRM or data warehouse is the gold standard for collecting, compiling, and activating first-party data. These data solutions let you build a unified customer profile containing all of the interactions an individual has with your brand—from there, you can build detailed custom audiences that are likely to convert, renew, return, or engage.
The PGA TOUR collected first-party data from across accounts, ticket purchases, and merchandise to create a full view of its customers. Using advanced segmentation tools like its data warehouse and a composable customer data platform, the TOUR created advanced audiences informed by the first-party data and executed lower-cost and higher-performing campaigns across channels.
Brewing engaged customer interactions with QR Code data
When a product is on store shelves, its packaging has to speak for itself. But with trackable, user-friendly touchpoints like QR Codes that allow shoppers to learn more, marketers also gain real-time first-party data they can use right away. Scan data can reveal which products are most enticing, where shoppers are located, and online versus in-store shopping preferences.
Wight Tea includes Bitly QR Codes on its packages to let shoppers quickly learn about the business and its mission before buying. For customers who arrive at home with a box in hand, the insert shares a QR Code linked to a Bitly Page where they can “choose their own adventure” and choose the link that matches what they need. In both cases, first-party data from Bitly Analytics offers valuable intel about Wight Tea’s audience and helps the team shape their product offering and marketing strategy accordingly.
Becoming a household name via Connected TV
Every interaction with your brand can help you make more informed decisions about your audience as a whole and build detailed pictures of cohorts and segments you want to reach. As AI becomes more prevalent and accessible, first-party data helps brands make educated predictions based on someone’s attributes and behavior.
Power tool brand Bosch Professional turned its authenticated first-party data into targeted lookalike segments that represented the brand’s most valuable customers. From these segments, the brand advertised via Connected TV (CTV) to households within the segment, timed the ads strategically, and reallocated advertising budget accordingly.
4 first steps for your first-party data
Ready to make ever better use of the data customers share with you every day? Run through these action items to refine your first-party strategy:
- Take stock of your sources. Run down the list of your owned channels that could be collecting first-party data. This includes your website, app(s), online stores, marketing channels (including email, SMS, and social), and digital touchpoints (trackable tools like links and QR Codes collect first-party data, too).
- Create a single source of truth. On an individual level, your first-party data will be most effective if you use a platform where you can compile all data points about a customer into a single profile. This might be a CRM or marketing automation platform that shows the history of your customers’ engagement with your brand: pages they visited, steps they took, or ways they converted. Leverage integrations between tools to bring insights from different channels into a single source.
- Evaluate your audience as a whole. Some of your first-party data sources will tell you about the big picture of your customer base rather than identifying individuals. This first-party data—including web traffic and conversions or engagement with your short links and QR Codes—is invaluable to your business. It can reveal where your audience is located, what they’re interested in, and the channels where they find you.
- Turn first-party data into action steps. Run analysis of data from both individual- and audience-level sources (whether manually or using advanced AI capabilities) to determine next steps from your first-party data. You might uncover geographic areas to target ad campaigns (digital or physical) or campaign types that drive the most traffic or conversions, leading you to run more like them. Individual insights can reveal the attributes of your best customers or audiences where additional outreach could help them convert.
Take the trusted approach to customer data
Trusted, ethical data collection doesn’t come from third-party cookies. It comes from the everyday interactions real people take part in with your brand. When someone opens an email, clicks a short link, scans a QR Code, or makes a purchase, you should pay close attention. These data points can shape your marketing strategy by telling you what your customers value—and empowering you to execute data-driven campaigns that build trust instead of breaking it.
Gather privacy-friendly first-party data with every campaign using trackable touchpoints from Bitly. From product packaging and event signage to SMS campaigns and social ads, capture every interaction in Bitly Analytics and review your audience attributes in real time. Take your first step to level up your first-party data strategy by signing up for your Bitly account today, and explore enterprise options for trusted touchpoints at scale.
