The Post-Cookie Future: How to Balance Privacy Compliance with 1:1 Messaging Relevance

Today’s marketers understand the importance of personalized marketing and ensuring that their messaging resonates with customers and prospects on a true 1:1 level. But at the same time, the pivot toward a cookieless landscape and privacy as the default state continues to transform the tools available to brands and agencies when it comes to identifying and communicating with consumers on an individual level. Previously relied-upon identifiers—third-party cookies being just one example—continue to vanish from the playing field, new privacy regulations abound, and walled gardens are building their walls ever higher when it comes to user data.

So how, then, can today’s marketers balance the need for privacy with the desire for 1:1 messaging relevance? The answer lies within a recalibration of data-driven marketing strategies, particularly when it comes to the balance of deterministic first-party data and third-party probabilistic data.

Let’s take a look at how marketers can future-proof their marketing by putting privacy first, while still connecting in a relevant way.

Rebalancing the Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Scales

So, what’s the difference between deterministic and probabilistic data, and how does that play into a marketing organization’s data strategy? Well, simply put:

• Deterministic data is information that can be reliably matched to an individual. Examples include phone numbers, usernames, customer IDs and email addresses, among others.
• Probabilistic data is based on likelihood rather than concrete knowledge of an individual. This data is often built around behavior, such as page views or click-throughs, and is used by algorithms to determine the probable age, gender or other demographic or psychographic facet of a given user.

Deterministic data, which provides the foundation for truly personalized messaging, can be difficult to scale. Meanwhile, the nature of probabilistic data means it can be less precise at the individual level, but it can scale easily with the right data partner.

Probabilistic Data’s Role in a Privacy-First World

In recent years, marketers have placed a great deal of emphasis on deterministic data as the key to personalized marketing. However, the move away from cookies and the push for greater consumer privacy means this type of data is going to be far harder to come by in the future without a direct relationship to the consumer. The good news, however, is that the necessary shift toward probabilistic data tactics means that marketers will be able to unlock new benefits when it comes to sustainable customer acquisition.

To be clear: Deterministic data will remain a vital piece of the marketing puzzle, particularly when it comes to retargeting and personalization for existing customers. However, as probabilistic techniques take center stage and brands increase their focus on data onboarding and data enrichment, marketers are going to be able to take what they know about their customers and leverage it to target prospects at scale in a meaningful way. And, because probabilistic data methodologies do not need personally identifiable information to onboard first-party data onto a digital identifier, they are typically not affected by shifts in privacy regulation and are, thus, more stable within the global marketing landscape.

How Eyeota Can Help

Eyeota helps marketers extend the utility of their deterministic first-party data assets by enriching it with privacy-compliant, quality audience data. We do this in three steps:

1. We make audience data available directly to your customer data platform to enrich your first-party (deterministic) data, helping you to understand what makes your existing customers unique.
2. Leveraging proven probabilistic techniques, we help you find new audiences with those same unique traits, thereby expanding the reach and scale of your targetable customer base.
3. We help you activate those audiences in an omnichannel, multiplatform way.

Eyeota can help you balance the need for privacy compliance with the desire for 1:1 messaging. If you’re ready to future-proof your data practices, we’re here to help. Contact our audience specialists at datadesk@eyeota.com for more information.