Brands are increasingly feeding 1st party data into paid advertising, realising the benefits of exclusion, inclusion & look-a-like audiences. Campaigns see initial benefit from 1st party audiences however this is closely followed by a decay in relative performance unless the data feed is refreshed on a regular basis. This dynamic is a strong justification for brands to automate 1st party audience updates enabling them to sustain performance benefits ongoing.
With clients across multiple sectors AUDIENCES has conducted longitudinal studies on the impact of 1st party data recency. There are clear relationships between campaign KPIs and 1st party data recency. Both ultimate conversion (purchase or action) and cost per acquisition are immediately negatively impacted as audiences and subsequent DSP level optimisations are no longer informed by the most recent data. Impacts on campaign reach whilst less immediate are also significant. Data used to inform include, exclude and also look-a-like quickly becomes less effective at generating reach, further contributing negative impacts across all campaign metrics.
As well as the strategies mentioned above, it is important to recognise the role of 1st party data uploaded to DSP within bid optimisations, something which is well publicised in relation to Google's SmartBidding, Performance Max and Optimized Targeting methodologies.
Guarding against 1st party data decay has become a key objective for brands looking to leverage value from their 1st party data assets.
Whilst keeping 1st party audiences updated with the latest additions and removals is a priority from a campaign performance perspective it is also very much a strategic necessity for privacy conscious brands (read all brands in 2023) as they look to adhere to governance regarding marketing permissions and consent.
Contact AUDIENCES to discuss how to accelerate activation of your 1st party data.