Amidst the dynamic landscape of digital advertising, the ability to activate the mos t effective data has become paramount for maximising campaign value and driving success. As consumer behaviours shift and privacy regulations tighten, advertisers face increasing pressure to deliver to established target audiences.
Today brands communicate on multiple and very different channels, for this reason it is always more crucial that the data activation strategy belongs to a higher holistic vision with a 360° cross channel approach. That’s why Zeotap Data, thanks to the great variety of data input types (hashed email, cookies, IP address, universal IDs and MAIDS), allows brands to activate in both programmatic and social media platforms, considering their behaviour online, offline and across a multitude of channels.
This article explores the importance of data activation in today’s ad tech environment, highlighting how leveraging third-party data intelligently can enhance targeting precision, drive personalisation, optimise campaigns, and ensure compliance.
Improved Targeting Accuracy by using 3P data
It is no more a surprise that effective targeting capabilieties lie at the core of successful advertising campaigns, and third-party data plays a crucial role in enhancing targeting accuracy. By using external data signals, advertisers can refine their audience targeting criteria based on factors such as:
- purchase intent
- interests
- lifestyle attributes
- brand affinity
- socio demo
- app usage data
- and many more
Many times we think that paying an extra CPM for data activation is worth only for performance led campaigns, driven by proper conversations and purchases, and not for brand awareness. This is not right; activating 3P data in upper funnel stage campaigns as well is more than important to create a bunch of potential new customers. We should take advantage of the whole customer journey by reaching the right audience at different stages of purchasing.
Cross-Channel activation
The synergy between programmatic and social media channels offer advertisers a unique opportunity to reach the target at different stages of the customer journey with the right message. By activating third-party data across both channels, brands can create a cross channel experience and deliver it to the most relevant audience, driving higher engagement and conversion rates.
In Ad tech we all know why getting much closer to an omni-channel experience is crucial. Some advantages are:
- Linear and strategic communication: This enables a seamless experience across various touch points such as websites (both desktop and m-site), social media, email, and mobile apps.
- Increase engagement: Whether it’s through social media interactions, or targeted programmatic ads, cross-channel strategies allow advertisers to reach customers wherever they are.
- Data Integration and Analysis: By analysing campaign outputs, advertisers can better understand their audience, tailor their messaging and optimise for future campaigns.
This holistic approach ensures that brand communication remains consistent and resonates with audiences across various touchpoints, fostering brand recognition and better results in a cookieless environment as well. Why? Social media walled gardens don’t allow third-party cookies, but they do allow Maids (mobile ad IDs).
Navigating the Northern Cookieless Sea
The Ad Tech landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the impending deprecation of third-party cookies. Google finally committed to depreciating 1% of 3rd party cookies in Chrome in the first quarter of 2024 and fully by September 2024, the industry is bracing for a cookieless future.
Quoting Matt Bennathan, CCO at Zeotap Data: “this shift presents a unique opportunity for innovation and adaptation. Rather than viewing this as a crisis, it is important to move the discussion away from cookies – simply the mechanism – and instead concentrate on use cases and outcomes.” For more details, read the full article about “Navigating the cookieless future”
Zeotap Data is coming from a +60 data provider and includes not only cookies but IP address, telco data, hashed emails and MAID. This last type of ID gives Zeotap Data the opportunity to activate third-party data across Meta and Tiktok.
By activating third-party data within these closed ecosystems, advertisers can leverage the most effective audiences using external premium and deterministic data and without using cookies and without handing valuable client audience strategy and execution over to the platform.
This is the reason why one of the main and most efficient Zeotap Data cookieless solutions is exactly social media activation.
Conclusion
As the Ad Tech environment continues to evolve, the strategic activation of third-party data remains essential to drive performance and achieve the expected results by driving long-term brand loyalty and success in an increasingly competitive landscape.
The strategic alignment of third-party data cross-channel activation remains essential for unlocking brand potential and achieving goals with impact and efficacy.
