Introduction
Advances in technology and connectivity have profoundly changed the way customers and brands interact. However, it has also brought new forms of fraud, identity theft and misuse of personal data. Consumers are becoming more concerned about how their data is being treated online. Government legislation is being introduced around the world and more recently privacy-focused features have been adopted by web browser and device owners.
This landscape makes it more difficult for brands to track and share user data between marketing platforms, and also achieve the same results with the same budget. This is where a new technology: CDPs, emerged.
You may be interested in reading >> What is a CDP?
What types of datasets does a CDP manage?
Understanding different datasets
A CDP onboards different datasets from various sources and then unifies the data under a single Customer ID to make it available for Digital Marketing purposes.
To see examples of some of the data a CDP can onboard, segment and activate in media, read>> Does my organisation need a CDP – Customer Data Platform?
The two methods used to match customer data
Expanding match rates while maintaining accuracy
A CDP will ingest data from multiple sources. Identity Graphs (which may map to a CDP) match each source under a single unified ID that can be recognised across channels and devices. There should be no two IDs for the same customer or user. Within identity graphs, there are two methodologies to match data sources: Deterministic and Probabilistic.
Deterministic data matching uses real people-based
data, where the customer has provided an email address, telephone number, or other PII data. This is often collected when a user has logged in to a website or app. Cookies and
Device IDs are another form of identifier. Identity Graphs can drop real-time cookies on the browser or capture mobile device IDs as the customer identifies themselves on their website/ app. This method of authenticating the online ID against the offline identifier helps link both online
and offline behaviours.
Probabilistic data matching uses data modelling to identify consumers. By leveraging attributes like IP address, device type, location and operating system, Identity Graphs can create a statistical model to connect different identifiers
to the same profile or aggregate profiles together within a segment. Often, they will also use a deterministic data set to validate their probabilistic graph to improve their accuracy. Probabilistic identity graphs often offer much
greater reach/recall, but it isn’t as precise as deterministic methods.
You may be interested in reading >> The Role of a CDP in Digital Marketing
How CDPs apply customer data?
From onboarding customer data to media activation
Once the data has been onboarded and the customer IDs have been matched, the data is available for segmentation. Customers can be defined by a near-unlimited set of dimensions and then uploaded into multiple media platforms for personalised targeting with advertising. Since the Customer IDs are the same on each platform, brands can see who and where they are marketing for a complete omnichannel marketing customer experience.
As the marketing campaign begins to deliver, the performance data is fed back into the CDP for a complete 360° view of attribution for each customer segment.
The CDP allows brands to refine their audiences and predictive models while the campaign is still in flight. The value to brands is an ever-optimising set of customer segments for messages, products and media that can be refined on-the-fly.
CDPs also stores data for as long as you like. The historical record allows marketers to understand how the company is evolving, and look back at what worked and why it worked over several years.
How CDPs optimise the customer lifecycle?
What is customer lifecycle management?
Customer Lifecycle Management is a marketing methodology used to identify when prospective customers are becoming aware of a product, attempts to influence their purchasing decisions, and encourages them to become a loyal customer of the brand.
It utilises multiple sources of data, marketing processes, and value-added services to build a complete understanding of the iterative phases from customer acquisition, to retention, to cross- and upselling, and lapsed customer win-back. Marketers can then calculate the value of each customer to the business across the Customer Lifecycle.
In order to implement a full Customer Lifecycle to meet marketing objectives, marketers need a unified platform that provides for a single customer view across all marketing activities and interactions to measure the impact and brand association at every stage of the lifecycle.
Improving Customer Experience and Loyalty
As a CDP connects data across each stage of the Customer Lifecycle, it is the perfect tool for marketers to understand when, why and how customers engage with their brand and its products to improve performance across all marketing channels. As customers are constantly moving between segments and customer journeys, marketers need to have a platform to fully manage this process.
Conclusion
CDPs- Customer Data Platforms- have emerged as a technology that offers a solution to new challenges of the marketing landscape. There are multiple benefits a brand can achieve when acquiring this technology, but it is not a simple decision.
A CDP keeps customer data in one place, giving brands a 360° view of their customers to implement personalised marketing strategies across multiple channels. This technology onboards different datasets from various sources and then unifies the data under a single Customer ID to make it available for Digital Marketing purposes.
CvE is helping brands understand the impacts of the new legislation around data and privacy, a cookieless world, and to build a path to create solid foundations for the future by rolling out new solutions to meet these changes with confidence. CvE is evaluating other options from identity graphs, to clean rooms, to ID-free solutions, as well as those solutions proposed by central technology owners, such as Google and Apple.
Want to learn more about Customer Data Platforms?
Download our CDP Playbook now and get started on your journey.
