What is at the heart of better customer experience? Better data.
The best brands deeply understand a good customer experience and their customers as individuals; their online behaviour, channel preferences, and product tastes, including what they want when they want it, and how they like to engage with a brand during and after a purchase. In addition to ROI, companies now also need to succeed at a ‘high-return on experience’ or ROX.
Data Ownership…What’s changed?
Underpinning the most seamless and delightful customer experience is proficient data capture and utilisation. It’s, therefore, no surprise that the upcoming demise of the ubiquitous ‘third party cookie’ has companies, both big and small, rethinking their AdTech ownership and first-party data strategies in 2022.
Building A Seamless Martech Ecosystem
Data capture and collection is only part of the picture; careful thought and consideration need to be given to the adtech and martech ecosystems within which the data sits. Brands can leverage the growing integrations now available between adtech platforms and other large cloud applications, including their CRMs, to create and curate specific, highly sophisticated customer pipelines.
Consider the Google Marketing Platform – an ad-technology platform that enables agencies and advertisers to create, manage and grow their digital marketing campaigns more effectively. It integrates with several world-class solutions to help brands run holistic campaigns, across multiple channels, with haste and ease.
A word of caution: while it’s easy to focus on the software components of adtech ownership, don’t forget to pay attention to the human resources required to support them and successfully manage them.
Unlock Greater Flexibility
In these uncertain and unprecedented times, it is imperative brands build flexible strategies to build a better customer experience. Rich first-party data can help brands make better decisions, both in the short and long term. It gives brands control back over their commercial pathways. Data from outside sources can help to improve short-term marketing performance but can’t paint a picture to the same degree as first-party data – of the loyal, ongoing customer relationships and their multi-touch-point paths to purchase.
Enjoy Multiple Cost-Saving Benefits
First-party data promises higher returns on media spend as targeting is more refined and consumer messaging is better tailored, resulting in higher conversion rates. In fact, a study performed by Boston Consulting Group and Google showed that using first-party data for key marketing functions resulted in a 2.9x revenue uplift, 1.5x increase in cost savings, and between 12-35% ROI.
Information gathered is unfettered by partnerships or other variables in the way that third-party data often can be. What’s more, it’s free for a brand to collect, and utilise, offering significant cost-saving benefits to organisations. It would be remiss not to mention that this switch takes consideration and time. In the interim, companies can look to other data sources to fill insight gaps, whilst working towards higher-performing, first-party data-driven outcomes.
So what are the next steps for brands to improve customer experience?
Many companies will likely need to conduct an in-housing data audit to identify what data is currently being generated, how it’s being measured and utilised. From there, brands can then create an informed long-term data strategy, and devise practical next steps and guidance to all levels of staff in their organisation.
If you need help with either developing a better customer experience or any other facets of ad tech ownership, get in touch with our team of experts today.