Difference Between First-Party Data and Third-Party Data and Its Importance

No doubt, data-driven marketing is the future of digital marketing.

The way you collect, manage and activate your data plays a primary role in determining how effective you’re making use of it.

The data you collect directly from your customer refers to as first-party data, and the data you get from outsiders refers to as third-party data.

But having a clear understanding of data types will help you to make the right decisions.

According to an Econsultancy report titled ”The Promise of First-Party Data” in which around three-quarters of marketers were surveyed, the common response was first-party data provides a greater understanding of their customers.

81% of respondents among them who are gaining a good ROI from data use first-party data regularly.

Both data are essential for brands in one or other way in running effective campaigns and generating leads.

Let’s know the difference between first and third-party data for clear understanding.

First-Party Data
vs
Third-Party Data
It’s the information that brands collect directly from their customer across various touchpoints of their customer journey

It’s the information collected and compiled by a group of large data aggregators and sold to agencies or individual brands.

It covers the information of your prospects, active and retaining customers
This data doesn’t have any direct link to your real customers.

First Party Data
First-party data sets show the audience already engaging with your brand in one or the other way.

First-party data work best for Facebook targeted ads.

With first-party data, you can target a more relevant audience.

Third Party Data
Third-party data is usually not accurate or fresh as first-party data.

Third-party data are less likely to work for Facebook targeted ads.

With Third-party data, you can target an audience on a broader perspective, which may include irrelevant audiences also.

For example
If you want to target the people who are looking for shirts, with a broader set of audience, you may include the audience who are not at all interested in buying shirts

Pros
Belongs to your brand.
Unique.
Less regulated.
Readily available.
Wide-reaching
Cons
You may experience some limitations concerning depth and scale.

Quality can vary wildly.
Not unique.
Can be a bit costly.
Greater risk of breaching data regulations.
Importance
You have been learning about first-party data that it is more potent than second or third-party data as it is more relevant to your business.

But all brands can’t generate the complete details of the customer to target them effectively. Even though they generate a massive amount of first-party data, they lack in scaling and in-depth

A perfect blend of first, second and third-party data with the right customer intelligence platform is the right way to win a game.

You have so many tools in the market that can help brands to boost their existing data by enriching it, segmenting for specific targeting and activating across various marketing channels.

Audienceplay is one of such DIY platforms that can help you in meeting your data-driven marketing goals

Want to try? It’s free