A New Cookie for a New Era: First Party Data vs. Third Party Cookies

This is part three in our four-part blog series on the demise of third-party cookies. Check out part 1 for more information on third-party cookies and what is causing the shift away from them, and part 2 for more information on the purpose of third-party cookies and what options there are for companies that relied on them previously.

First Party Data as Alternative to Third Party Cookies

Now that the world is shifting away from third-party cookies, advertisers and marketers are frantically changing tack when it comes to analyzing data to best deliver personalized experiences to customers. Other than third-party cookies, first and second party cookies provide similar information about visitors and website visit behavior. First-party cookies entails data collected from the users directly, with their knowledge and consent, while second-party cookies are those collected on by one company and then given over to another company, through a data partnership. In the marketing industry’s case, first-party cookies look to be the path forward, towards evaluating and improving customer experience in the online realm.

What First Party Data Can Be Used For

First party data, collected directly from consumers, combined with technology and analytics, can create a snapshot of the landscape for marketers to understand opportunities for products and services. By collecting data on online behavior from consumers, advertisers can better understand not only where visitors are going on the Internet but also how they are getting there and why they’re going there. With only third-party cookies previously, this would have only been recorded as traffic and volume of visitors rather than giving a whole picture of one visitor. By collecting the browsing data for consumers, you get the whole picture of what brought visitors to your website and what they are looking for when they visit.

Ethics Behind First vs. Third Party Data Collection

Since first-party data is collected directly from Internet users with their consent, the data is more accurate and accessible for businesses, but it’s also more secure, from the user’s perspective. Recent research, especially through the collaboration of Internet Society and Consumers International, shows that 75% of people distrust the way their online data is shared. Being trusted with the online tracking data of customers and keeping it safe and secure ensures that customers to your business continue trusting your business with their data and their money. If potential customers feel that their data is at-risk or being shared too freely, it can ruin their view of your brand, which would take much work to restore.

How Do We Use First Party Data

In our engagements with clients, we recruit a representative group of potential and current customers for a given business or product. By assigning them tasks and surveys to complete around their use and knowledge of a given product, we can help our clients understand who their products are reaching, and who they could potentially be reaching with their marketing efforts. By understanding these respondents through the data we collect, and applying our proprietary behavioral and cognitive analytics methodology, ASEMAP, we can paint a picture of what the respondents are looking for and why they are drawn to various attributes of a product. By getting data directly from the source, we have been able to gather actionable data for our clients to make decisions for their products.