An In-Depth Look At Second-Party Data: Its Uses In Search And Beyond
In the third installment of his multi-part series exploring the data landscape, columnist Alistair Dent discusses second-party data and its applications.
Over on Marketing Land, I’ve been writing a series about the different kinds of data available to marketers and how each can be utilized.
This month, I’m taking a look at second-party data.
Second-party data is a complex beast. It’s ill-defined, and there are actually more privacy implications than with any other data source.
Paid search is a prime example of this type of data. All your keyword data is second-party data; the user gave that keyword to Google, not to you. They never entered it on your property or with any consideration that you’d ever see it. Your direct commercial relationship with Google is arranging for it to be available to you.
Viewed through that lens, the uses of second-party data become more obvious: data given to a partner of mine, shared exclusively with me through a direct relationship. I can get that data (keywords) out of Google to use elsewhere, and I can put other data back into Google (through RLSA) to enhance my own targeting.
Check out the rest over on Marketing Land to learn more about how it works, and see some examples of how you can use second party data to influence your digital marketing.
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