First-Party Data for Publishers: Examples & Use Cases

Picture this: you’re at a busy newsstand filled with a myriad of options. Without personalized guidance, finding the content you love becomes time-consuming and almost impossible. Today’s audience wants to quickly pinpoint what they’re interested in, almost as a seamless self-serve customer experience.

As third-party cookies decline, there’s a universal imperative for companies to overhaul their data strategies. The focus now is on accurately identifying visitors, ethically gathering data, and deepening their understanding of each user. This approach centers on building trust-based relationships, where personal data is exchanged for valuable, tailored content, enhancing user engagement through strategic personalization.

In this blog, we’ll dive into how first-party data can be a game-changer for your publishing company. You’ll learn how companies like Classeditori, masterfully used first-party data to tailor its news feeds and article recommendations directly to reader interests.

What is first-party data?

First-party data encompasses information your business collects directly from various sources, such as CRM systems, DSPs, eCommerce platforms, POS, CMS, and loyalty programs.

First-party cookies, set by your domain, play a critical role in enhancing customer experience. They enable user identification across different pages, save shopping cart contents, and retain user preferences. Additionally, most browsers typically accept first-party data cookies automatically.

Examples of first-party data include:

• Demographic information
• Location
• Website activity
• Email engagement
• Sales and support interactions
• Purchase history
• Interests and behaviors

As businesses adapt to stricter data privacy regulations, the shift from third-party to first-party data models becomes crucial. First-party data, collected directly from your customers, proves to be a reliable, high-quality, and cost-effective resource that yields more accurate and impactful insights. This transformation not only complies with tighter legislation but also enhances the effectiveness of your data-driven strategies.

Using a Consent Management Platform to obtain user consent for first-party cookie tracking and a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to unify, collect, and store this data in a GDPR-compliant manner is crucial. This ensures compliance with regulations and builds trust by respecting customer privacy.

First-Party Data Solves The Personalization Puzzle

Personalization is all around customer-centricity: putting the customer first. If each interaction isn’t relevant, it simply will not engage customers. Think of personalization as a puzzle, where each piece is formed from customer interactions with your brand. Solving this puzzle requires a data-driven approach, and first-party data is key. By deeply understanding who your customers are, what they desire, and how they interact with your brand, you can tailor experiences that resonate deeply and drive engagement.

First-Party Data Strategy in Magazine Publishing

In the depreciation of third-party data cookies, the advertising and publishing sector faces the challenge of replacing up to $10 billion in ad revenue through methods like paywalls, required registrations, and advanced probabilistic audience modeling.

According to a November 2023 survey by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), about 60% of US brands and agencies plan to increasingly focus on ad placements using publishers’ first-party data in 2024. While retailers deliver insights on consumer purchases, publishers provide a unique perspective based on the content that consumers interact with. This allows publishers to monetize their first-party data by creating packaged audience segments, helping advertisers target consumers with greater accuracy.

First-party data reveals individual reader preferences, giving publishers the information they need to offer tailored content suggestions based on insights such as past reading behavior. Many publishers encourage their readers to create free accounts to express their interests and preferences, then used to create a more personalized experience.

Let’s explore how a personalized CX increases conversions with a hypothetical scenario.

Publisher Personalization: The car-crazy news reader

Noah loves to read about cars online and often visits your website to get his fix of great content. However, he’s not yet a premium subscriber. Recognizing his interests through data analysis, the news portal he frequents identifies an opportunity to deepen engagement and potentially convert him into a paying subscriber.

To capture his attention, you strategically place more exclusive motorsports content behind a paywall. Simultaneously, you begin targeting Noah with personalized banner ads offering a discount on premium subscriptions, tailored to ignite his interest in gaining unlimited access to all things automotive.

As Noah interacts with these tailored promotions and moves closer to subscribing, you continue to refine your understanding of his preferences. During the premium subscription registration process, you collect more detailed data about him, such as his location and broader interests in lifestyle and technology. This enriched profile allows the portal to further personalize his experience and content recommendations, creating a feedback loop that enhances user satisfaction and engagement.

This approach not only increases the likelihood of converting Noah but also sets a foundation for ongoing engagement that can adapt and evolve with his interests. The news portal uses this data-driven strategy not just to grow their subscriber base but to build lasting relationships with their readers, demonstrating the compelling business impact of personalized marketing.

Class Editori increases subscription numbers and sustained impressive growth

By partnering with Mapp, Class Editori was able to convert valuable insights into actions, as showcased at our recent Mapp Innovate event.

The publisher leveraged first-party data in real time by:

• Conducting advanced analysis of user behavior and the purchase funnel
• Implementing detailed tracking of subscriptions and conversions
• Tracking readers’ most visited pages, categories, and favorite authors
• Identifying articles generating high engagement and conversion rates
• Conducting customer journey analysis and marketing campaign evaluation
• Collecting and analyzing data to provide highly personalized experiences
• Evaluating video content performance

The result? By using first-party data, Mapp Cloud, and Softlab’s expertise, Class Editori has increased subscription numbers and sustained impressive growth.

Power Up with Mapp Marketing Cloud

Mapp Cloud is a powerful insight-led customer experience platform with a CDP at its core that helps your business focus on what really matters: data-driven personalization and optimizations that make a difference.

Our analytics module combines your zero-party and first-party data with AI to give you real-time data and predictions of what your customers will do next. With data centers based in Germany, Mapp provides your business with a secure and compliant way to understand your customers and improve your marketing activity.

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