Affiliates have several different tools and data collection options open to them to help them create a good program packed with information they can use to better it. One area that you should be paying close attention to is first party data.
What is this, and will it affect affiliates as we move towards cookie-less tracking online? Let’s take a closer look.
What is first party data?
First party data is the data that you can gather directly from your client base. It can cover a wide range of sources, both on and offline. Your website, CRM systems, affiliate social media platforms, and surveys can all be valuable sources of first party data.
You can collect this data for free, but it is important that you receive consent from the customer to use the data under GDPR laws.
What can be included in first party data?
First party data gives website owners data such as
- The demographics of visitors
- Purchase history
- Interests
- Time spent on the website
- And much more!
It can then be used to create personalised ads for your visitors to help drive conversions and sales. This is an important part of data collection and is a cost-effective way for you to create ad campaigns for your program.
How this will play a role in cookie-less tracking
Third-party cookies have been part of ad campaigns and customer tracking for a very long time, but this is now coming to an end. First party cookies are being put forward as a replacement option that will still allow interested parties to gather information about their customers.
A big advantage of using these cookies is that they are created by their publishers and will only live on that publisher’s web server. This is very different from third-party cookies that can have no connection to the web server or publisher at all. Though first-party cookies might not be able to offer the same level of cross-site functionality as third-party ones, they can still offer valuable insights that affiliates can use to better target their audiences.
How will this affect affiliates?
Using first party data and cookies limits a brand to the traffic that is coming to their site. If they wish to deliver interesting and informative advertising campaigns to their audiences, they need to be able to gather data about them, and this can now only happen through their social media platforms and websites.
Therefore, it is important that affiliates have a robust marketing strategy that they can use to gather data about their customers from many different sources. First party data can provide both these sources and the insight that you might be looking for, but you need to ensure that you are tracking it and putting it to good use.
With third-party cookies slowly being phased out of use, now is the perfect time to learn more about what first party sources could offer you. Reassess the use of this data in your program now.
