Data? Which data? For what?

It's widely agreed upon in the digital market that primary data is crucial for the optimal performance of marketing campaigns, especially now with the end of third-party cookies. However, this isn't as straightforward as it seems. Many companies find themselves in a state of desperation because they heavily relied on and overused third-party cookies over the past years, while allocating little investment in structuring internal data — in other words, in integrating vital information that reflects the customer journey.

"As marketers, we must avoid merely settling for campaign metrics"

A recent survey conducted with 1000 marketing professionals from large companies worldwide identified that, on average, respondents use data from 21 different marketing or advertising platforms for cross-channel purposes. In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges for campaign effectiveness is related to the quality of data and how these data points connect so that they can be interpreted effectively. The success of a marketing campaign depends on many factors but is often linked to the accuracy of our targeting—namely: who? when? why? For what? And this relies on data.

"We need to ensure we're working with the right set of facts across the business"

To achieve the business outcomes, we must ensure a shared understanding of facts across the business. This involves integrating marketing data into strategic data repositories to develop a comprehensive '360 view' of the customer.

An effective approach is mapping out the end-to-end customer journeys, which can often be a bit complex, but so important.

This enables us to precisely position the marketing programs within these journeys, considering not only sales and customer touch points but also identifying the necessary data for each marketing activity and the resulting data generated. Ensuring a fully cyclical data lifecycle is crucial for enhancing data quality, ultimately granting marketers access to valuable data insights.

It is crucial for marketers to lead a discussion within their organizations about the quality and origin of the data that will fuel a marketing program or campaign.

The discussion about data maturation is more important than debating the lack or excess of automation. As data is managed with greater responsibility and efficiency during campaigns, it naturally matures, leading to scalability and enhanced effectiveness. This maturation facilitates the extraction of valuable insights and trends through artificial intelligence. In organizations with substantial amounts of data, marketers often struggle to pinpoint their exact needs. They tend to request everything, which may not always be the most efficient for performance.

My suggestion is to prioritize needs. What information is truly relevant to ensure the success of the next campaign? Based on this assessment, data administrators can provide more accurate data lineage.

Don't create your plan solely to deliver better campaigns. Develop your marketing plan with a clear understanding of your audience and objectives for delivering your content and message. Successful campaigns will naturally follow, enhancing performance. By understanding your audience and objectives, you can determine when and what content to deliver and this process with improve step by step, campaign by campaign.

If companies had this framework earlier, they wouldn't be scrambling now. Unfortunately, the reliance on 3rd party cookies was too much.

In 2006, Clive Humby said "Data is the new oil." This means that data is valuable, but it needs to be processed well to be useful. Don't inundate people with offers they don't need. Doing what's best for you is good for everyone.