Navigating the Shift to First-Party Data in B2B Marketing

First-party data is data collected directly from a customer or client with consent. It’s already a useful tool for B2B marketing experts, allowing for the personalization of marketing assets and a deeper understanding of your target audience. As Google finally moves towards phasing out third-party cookies in 2024, it’s going to become more critical than ever.

Many marketers are already prepared for this. However, others worry that this could make marketing attribution challenging and expensive. Let’s take a look.

Why Will Marketers Miss Third-Party Cookies?

Third-party cookies are useful attribution tools. They hang around on a shopper’s device (phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) after they’ve visited your website. The cookie can tell you if they make a purchase, which also tells you which channel they used to find your services. If they click away, a cookie can prompt retargeting ads to remind that decision maker of your brand and offers.

Without third-party cookies, retargeting isn’t as automatic and attribution could be more challenging.

Marketers should remember, though, that the third-party cookie isn’t quite the all-powerful attribution tool many believe it to be. If a buyer researches SaaS on their phone but then buys their new software subscription using a laptop, they’ll still receive retargeting ads on their mobile device. Plus, your attribution for that sale isn’t accurate as it wasn’t the desktop-based site that generated the lead.

Gathering and Leveraging First-Party Data

You can still retarget customers and leads — you simply have to ensure that you gather their contact data with consent and respect data privacy rules. Having a website that encourages buyers to log in before they make a purchase helps. This prompts them to add an email address, which you can add to your CRM (customer relationship management system) to start a profile. As they add more details, you can update their profile and build a better relationship.

Utilize pop-ups or email reminders (if they’ve consented for you to use their contact details). CRMs note if they’ve made a purchase or not and can automatically send the correct email, text, or social media message. There’s now the opportunity to highly personalize these messages, using previous purchase data, interactions, and personal information to make every interaction bespoke.

AI-powered tools can sift your customer or client data for patterns in purchase behavior, empowering you to offer add-on services or products that buyers are more likely to be interested in.

Final Word

With most marketers agreeing that first-party data is more beneficial than third-party data, it’s time to embrace the change. We can help you understand how to make the most of your client data to inform effective marketing that makes your audience feel valued and secure. Book your free 15-minute discovery call with Arch Collective to find out more.

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