Understanding the Power Behind Third Party Data

We live in a day where things such as content marketing and SEO are necessary tools for businesses to use. With the vast expansion of the internet, becoming masters of these tools will definitely put a business far ahead of those who don’t know how to adapt to this internet dominated world. From Utah to the East Coast, businesses are doing all they can to collect the most useful first party and third party data from online users.

These Internet marketing terms can make people confused: SEO, first party data, third party data, and etc. So, what is third party data? This is a great question. 

Let’s say someone in Utah owned a gun shop and wanted to increase their customer base. The gun storeowner could reach out to a retail data provider who collects large amounts of first party data regarding guns and popular buying trends. The owner of the gun shop can then use that information to make effective advertising campaigns that would bring in more customers. 

This technique, along with other SEO tactics, can really help businesses in Utah and businesses in every other state. 

Many people fail to give third party data the credit it deserves and they say that it is not as reliable as first party data. However, in a sense third party data is first party data. 

Think about it, business owners, such as the gun shop owner in Utah for example, are paying retail data providers for their data. But what kind of data to retail data providers collect? They collect first party data. 

Therefore the gun shop owner is paying for and receiving first party data through a middleman. The only thing that technically does not make it first party data is that the owner is going to a third party to access the data and not receiving it first hand.

The great thing about third party data is that it can easily be received in mass quantities and then used for a business’s benefit. Being able to access so much data from a retail data collector is what sets third party data apart from the rest. 

Third party data focuses on the big picture, while first party data is focused on the single customer. Third party data lets a business essentially open up a vault to tons of single customer data in a short amount of time.

It is stuff like SEO, first party and third party data that make the Internet marketing world go round. These are vital skills for businesses to have in our modern day.

Ian Francis writes for Fusion 360, an advertising agency in Utah. He writes for many other clients as well.

*Image Credit: Flickr.