The Role of Data in Today's Media Landscape

In today’s media landscape, being ‘audience-first’ takes on a new definition. Targeting will no longer be as simple as building an audience persona and pressing “go” on pre-made, cookie-supported data sets. Instead, you must dive deeper into understanding the ethos of who your core consumer is, and use that intel to guide a multipronged audience strategy.

Identity Solutions: The Future of Audience Targeting?

Cookieless identity solutions will help reach high-value segments without wasting media dollars on the wrong audiences. But, there will still be gaps. Third party targeting will not be the same. And the value, and likely the cost, of companies who hold rich first or second party data will escalate - including walled gardens, who will center in on themselves more and protect their high-value user data.?

So, how should you move your brand forward??

1. Take time to better understand your audience
2. Look at the data landscape to understand what’s at your disposal
3. Determine a starting point of where and how you can reach your most valuable customers??

How to Collect and Maximize Your Audience Data?

First, you need to have systems in place to generate quality leads or customer information. Then, it’s all about how you use that customer data to maximize results and become more strategic. Use these three steps to get started:?

• Collect first-party data to understand who is engaging with your brand: Use lead generation campaigns to gather first-party data and zero-party data. For instance, you could promote a useful downloadable asset with a lead form on social media. This value exchange will not only give you an opportunity to collect audience data, it will also drive consideration or even conversion.?
• Look at data partnerships to complement your existing data: Once you collect and understand your consumer data, you can upload it to enrichment tools, such as consumer survey platforms. This helps you learn more about your audience’s interests, communication preferences, and other pertinent day-to-day routines. To expand further, develop partnerships with retail media providers or publishers to access their consumer data and addressable audiences.?
• Activate the data where and when consumers are most engaged: Pair your audience research with your data insights to identify where your consumers are spending the most time with media. Test and learn to refine the placements and messaging that resonates best with each audience group.?

From there, you can continue to refine and adjust your research, targeting, and measurement strategies as the industry (and your business) evolves.??

For more of my cookieless audience targeting tips, view this podcast clip:

Compliance and Ethics in Targeting?

While handling this data, we need to be more cautious than ever. With increasing pressure from the FTC for advertisers to protect consumer privacy, it’s critical to ensure data collection and usage is compliant and ethical, in addition to being accurate. We’ll also need to shift how we think about and define personalization in advertising. To shed some light on this topic, Coegi’s Director of Operations, Julia Wold, recently shared an article on The Drum: The 3 Universal Truths of Personliazation in a Privacy-First World.?

1. Transparency

In the context of ad targeting and personalization, transparency has a few different implications for agencies and brands:?

• Using explicit language regarding data collection methodology
• Vetting partners to make sure they obtain data ethically
• Being honest with clients about operating practices

Transparency also means living up to a strong code of advertising ethics. As we move into an age with increasing data privacy regulations, this will become more important than ever.?

2. Relevance

Relevant targeting starts with using persona-based research to best engage with an audience through a deep understanding of the segment’s interests, demographics, and behaviors. Compare multiple research sources and test multiple targeting methods to understand which approach resonates with your key consumers. An emphasis on relevance will prevent consumers from receiving irrelevant ads - simultaneously improving their user experience and your return on ad spend.?

3. Compliance

Complaince extends beyond data collection. It’s also about who has access to said data. When onboarding clients' first-party data sets, be careful not to handle personally identifiable information. Instead, deploy encrypted data through a neutral infrastructure directly to an individual advertiser account to avoid the risk of having thise information fall into the wrong hands.?

I’ll leave you with some words from Coegi’s Director of Data and Technology, Jake Amann, “We are working on compliance now because it's the future. Companies of all sizes are thinking about data privacy at the forefront. Actually understanding and implementing best practices in terms of data collection and usage principles can be difficult and requires a lot of work. But, it's an extremely important need with the rise of a digital-first ecosystem.”

What are your thoughts on the future of targeting and data privacy? Leave your comments and questions below.?

Sean