Bring your data strategy forward with control, transparency

Editor’s note: The following commentary is sponsored by AdPredictive, which has headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, and New York. The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Chelsea O’Donnell is senior vice president for business and client development for AdPredictive.

Between increasingly strict privacy regulations and maneuvering by big tech, brands of all sizes are grappling with today’s changing reality of data strategies. Even the largest brands in the world aren’t sure where to go or what to look for in a partner to fuel data-driven marketing plans.

Chelsea O’Donnell, AdPredictive

What they do know: They need an efficient way to deploy first-party data in media; cost-effective lookalike audience segments; and/or multi-touch attribution for the business outcomes that matter — things like cost per sale or cost per subscriber. 

All of these things are possible when marketers partner with those who provide access to customer intelligence paired with two key things: transparency and control. Having first-party customer data from which to glean product learnings is a great start, but intelligence that can be derived from that data is what will help you scale. Customer intelligence empowers brands to understand their customers on a deeper level and more effectively drive consideration, purchase and loyalty.  

Subsequently, the keys to a successful data strategy are choosing the best tech partner and having full control of that consumer data that will drive business growth.

Access insights through transparency

Whether you are planning to build or augment your first-party data, or learning how to start with third-party data — yes, still possible! — transparency is critical to both. Transparency begins with the ability to understand your customers and how to best engage with them. To achieve reliable understanding, however, marketers have to move away from partners with a “black box” mentality. Transparent partners collaborate with you to identify valuable data and empower you to know where the data is coming from and/or the methodology used to provide insights. From there, customer understanding begins to unlock intelligence that can be used reliably to inform your marketing strategies. True data transparency lends itself to actionable, scalable insights, and activation options.

Achieve brand growth with data control

Setting a foundation of ID-based audience understanding immediately makes a positive impact on creative messaging, content development and media budgets. The next logical step is scalable brand growth. Partners that encourage audience portability allow you to control how and where your audience data is leveraged. IDs of your target audience — or look-alikes of your audience — can and should be ported to whichever media types and placements are most efficient and effective. As we all know, you can’t do that if the data is proprietary and lives in a “black box.”

The bottom line is data that you don’t understand, don’t control and can’t afford to use is not customer intelligence. There is a smarter way if you want to grow with data, intelligence and action. You deserve better.

Chelsea O’Donnell is senior vice president for business and client development for AdPredictive — a strategic quarterback who connects the dots between what exists today and what is possible for tomorrow. She is a specialist in assessing needs, building trust and delivering results within new business and client relationships in the advanced advertising, strategic marketing, and emerging technologies sectors.

Watch a video below of the Startland’s April Innovation Exchange — “How to boost business growth with all this data” — sponsored by AdPredictive and featuring.