Tag: Data

How to Use Data as a Service (DaaS) Tools in Your Marketing Analysis

Data as a service (DaaS) is becoming increasingly popular. New advancements in cloud computing technology have made remote, cloud-based data storage and management easier to use and more accessible.

Businesses using DaaS platforms can see improvements in data collection, usage, and management. Additionally, offloading data management to DaaS companies means more internal capacity for business development.

Interested in getting started with a DaaS platform? Below, we’ll outline the benefits, solutions, and tools you can use to improve your data management strategies.

What Is Data as a Service (DaaS)?

Data as a service uses a cloud computing strategy to make business data readily available to stakeholders and third parties.

DaaS functions similarly to software as a service (SaaS), which removes the need for managing and downloading software locally. Unlike SaaS, which has been popular for the last decade, DaaS has only recently seen widespread adoption, primarily due to advancements in cloud computing technology.

Now, with low-cost cloud storage and bandwidth and cloud-based platforms explicitly designed for DaaS available, more businesses are moving their data storage out of local servers and into the cloud.

With DaaS services, businesses are no longer tied to local servers and storage systems, allowing them to securely store and access data remotely, collaborate with global partners, and find important business insights to drive new growth.

To put it simply, by using DaaS, you can access critical business data from anywhere at any time.

On the Gartner Hype Cycle, data and analytics services have already reached the Plateau of Productivity, showing their staying power in the market.

data as a service gartner hype cycle graph

What Are the Benefits of Using Data as a Service Tools?

Businesses of all shapes and sizes can benefit from using data as a service tools.

Here are a few ways data as a service tools can improve your current data management processes:

  • Remote collaboration: DaaS allows partners in different locations to collaborate because employees can easily access the data from their devices regardless of location.
  • Seamless data access: Cloud storage also means team members don’t need to go into the office to download a file or check their analytics, saving individual employees valuable time and energy.
  • Simple setup: Businesses that adopt these platforms can begin storing and processing their data immediately, with very little setup time.
  • Crash protection: Cloud infrastructure is less likely to crash than traditional storage methods. This makes working on a DaaS server more secure and less prone to complications.
  • Improved financial reporting: Data as a service also improves financial reporting as businesses can convert IT costs from capital expenditures into operational expenditures.
  • Cost-effective: DaaS solutions are more cost-effective, allowing businesses to direct money where it’s most needed. Automated maintenance further alleviates internal management needs.
  • Insights and improvements: With features like data marketplaces, businesses can buy, sell, and trade data to drive new business growth. Each platform offers different insight and optimization methods to improve overall data management.

Who Benefits Most from DaaS Tools?

Data as a service is beneficial to any business model informed by data.

Whether you’re a marketing company focused on improving consumer insights or a product-based company with a global distribution process, there are many ways to leverage these exciting cloud-based services.

For example, if a company regularly tracks, mines, stores, and implements data insights, they can benefit from DaaS.

Or, if the business’s success is dependent on being aligned with customer needs and product offerings, data services can give important insights into improving this alignment.

Companies with remote teams can benefit from DaaS tools because they allow easy access to data from anywhere in the world.

DaaS also minimizes the need for in-house data management, which is a good strategy for companies looking to divert resources to other departments.

Additionally, companies that want access to data-backed analytics to improve internal processes or enhance customer relations can also benefit from this service.

Data collected by RocketSource has shown one of the greatest benefits of DaaS is improved customer experiences. This is due to the ability of these platforms to simplify data management both internally and externally.

For businesses, DaaS tools make it easy to understand and optimize decisions and campaigns. For customers, it can result in more tailored experiences overall.

benefits of data as a service chart

Using DaaS Tools in Your Marketing Analysis

Data as a service tools give businesses the ability to segment unique data sets generated from Big Data. This information can be collected from six specific categories:

  1. web mining: data compiled by mining the open internet
  2. search information: data compiled from browser activity and intent behavior
  3. social media: data compiled from shares, comments, check-ins, and other actions taken on social media
  4. crowdsourcing: data collected from the public through surveys, polls, forums, and so on
  5. transactional: data created from financial, logistical, and other such business practices, including withdrawals, deposits, insurance claims, flight reservations, and more
  6. mobile: data compiled from apps and services working in the background of mobile phones

The ability to collect, analyze, and store all of this user-specific data is a huge advantage to marketers, allowing for more cohesive and clear market research.

Here are a few ways you can use this data to improve your marketing tactics:

Benchmarking Reports

DaaS makes comparing your performance against competitors easy. With simple, global access to organizational data, marketers can create benchmarking reports to gather data on financials, turnover, and leadership efforts and back everything up with percentile breakdowns. Workday is one data as a service provider offering exceptional benchmarking tools.

Business Intelligence Sharing

Data as a Service tools make data standardization easy by bringing together data sources and analytics with unique data visualizations. Companies can then offer this data to internal users to help facilitate business intelligence processes.

Access to Data Marketplaces

DaaS tools can give businesses access to data marketplaces where users can buy and sell different data sets from multiple sources. This data can then be repurposed and monetized for future business growth.

Consumer Research

Many data as a service platforms offer consumer insights and research options. These insights can alleviate internal research for marketing teams and give more refined solutions to improving consumer relationships.

How to Pick the Right DaaS Tool for You

Getting set up with data as a service is relatively simple, as most setup and preparation work is done through the service rather than on-site.

Most DaaS providers offer technical support solutions that alleviate this management from the business side.

How to Pick a DaaS Tool

Consider your business needs. Depending on your size, growth goals, and team, you may need different features in a data as a service tool.

Points to consider when choosing a data as a service tool are:

  • price
  • scalability
  • reliability
  • flexibility
  • infrastructure integrations
  • team access requirements
  • existing workflows and needs

Once you have these points laid out, it’s time to choose a data as a service tool and get your business signed up.

7 Great Data as a Service Tools

1. Snowflake

Snowflake offers data engineering, data lakes, data applications, data warehouses, and data sharing. Some of their biggest value propositions include unlimited scale, seamless access across clouds, and near-zero maintenance. Snowflake is a good choice for large, international businesses needing scalability and high-security features.

snowflake data as a service tool

2. SAP HANA Cloud

SAP HANA Cloud is the cloud-based data foundation for SAP Business Technology Platform. It integrates data from across its enterprise system, creating live data solutions. This DaaS platform offers a low total cost of ownership and high processing performance through hybrid multimodal transactions. Real-time analytic processing allows for quick, data-backed decisions. SAP HANA is best for businesses already working in the AP Business Technology Platform.

sap hana data as a service program on computer screen

3. Oracle

Oracle is the world’s leading converged, multi-model database management system. It offers NoSQL and MySQL databases, simplifies recreational database access, and reduces internal management workloads. Oracle boasts high-level performance, scalability, and availability for its clients. This DaaS tool is optimal for businesses looking for a hands-off approach to data management.

oracle database data as a service

4. Kantar Marketplace

Kantar Marketplace is a data as a service platform designed to deliver market research insights to marketers and agencies. Their platform includes insights into ad testing and development, consumer and retail trends, product development, media planning and effectiveness, and provides custom survey options.

kantar data as a service platform

5. D&B M-DaaS

The dun & bradstreet M-DaaS: Master Data as a Service platform allows companies to integrate master data into native workflows seamlessly. Pre-mastered commercial content is delivered through a consistent and dependable platform, allowing brands to improve their master data management programs. This tool is a good choice for large or legacy companies with complex, large data sets to manage.

d&b data cloud data as a service

6. Refinitiv

Refinitiv is a data as a service platform providing risk intelligence data for financial institutions. They offer a centralized view of the legal entity of a company, supplier, or issuer so entity relationships and risks can be easily identified and managed. Regulatory compliance and requirements are the backbones of this service. Refinitiv is an excellent choice for businesses with high compliance requirements and diverse entity partnerships.

refinitiv logo data as a service

7. Dynata

Dynata is the world’s largest first-party data and insights platform, reaching over 62 million consumers and business professionals worldwide. Their service offers real-time feedback loops so marketers can understand what’s working and what’s not. Dynata is driven to maximize ROI at every stage of a campaign for continuous optimization.

How to Use DaaS Tools in Your Marketing Analysis

  1. In Your Competitor Benchmarking Reports:

    You can use DaaS tools to gather benchmarking data based on competitors.

  2. In Your Business Intelligence Sharing:

    You can use DaaS tools to get images of your brand’s performance across data points.

  3. In Data Marketplaces:

    DaaS tools buy and sell audience data from multiple marketplaces.

  4. In Consumer Research:

    DaaS tools can offer consumer insights.

Conclusion

Data as a service platforms allow for cohesive and accurate data management that can be accessed anywhere, anytime.

DaaS can also alleviate some internal management and IT needs, allowing businesses to move budgets towards more profitable markets and employees to focus on big picture issues.

Internal platform insights from DaaS platforms can be beneficial to marketers looking to improve consumer research and optimize existing data sets.

With improved data visualization, storage, access, and consumer data insights, data as a service offers growth and ease to partners and affiliates alike.

Once you have a DaaS system in place, you can start levering the data and investing in your marketing strategy. Let us know if we can help you reach your audience!

What excites you about data as a service?

How to Use First-Party Data for Ad Personalization

Have you ever felt like someone was watching you online? Those shoes you just searched for on Amazon suddenly show up in ads on Facebook. Maybe you start seeing ads on YouTube for a resort you were researching for an upcoming vacation. 

The truth is, you are being watched. In fact, marketers have used cookies to track the actions of internet users for years—but that may soon change. Google announced they are ending the use of third-party cookies. As a result, most businesses will have to rely on first-party data for things like ad targeting. 

What does that mean for your marketing strategy? It might not be as bad as you think. 

Here’s what you need to know about first-party data and how to use it to create targeted paid ads. (Spoiler alert: It might actually be better for your PPC strategy in the long run!) 

What Is First-Party Data? 

Before we dig into what this change means for your paid ads, let’s talk about the different types of data companies use in marketing. 

First-party data is information companies collect from their own sources about their customers. For example, the data from your website tracking tool, your email subscribers, or surveying your audience.

Second-party data is when two or more organizations come together to mutually share their data. Third-party data is collected by one source, often aggregated, and then sold to a third party who has no connection with the original source. 

To summarize:

  • first-party data: data you collect about your customers or site visitors
  • second-party data: data you and someone else pool together
  • third-party data: data collected by one party and sold or shared with an unrelated third-party 

What Is the Difference Between First-Party Data and Third-Party Data?

Third-party data, the type Google is phasing out, refers to data collected from (as you might have guessed) a third-party, meaning a site or entity without a direct relationship with the original source. 

Third-party data is collected, aggregated, and sold to other parties. The problem is the brands buying the data have little idea where it came from. 

There are other issues, too. For example, you can buy third-party data, but so can your competitors. That makes it hard to be competitive. 

This chart helps illustrate the difference between the different types of data. 

What Is the Difference Between First-Party Data and Third-Party Data

Why Is Third-Party Data Being Phased Out?

The main reason third-party data is being phased out is due to major security and privacy issues. 

David Temkin, Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy, and Trust at Google, shared, 

People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising. And advertisers don’t need to track individual consumers across the web to get the performance benefits of digital advertising. 

Advances in aggregation, anonymization, on-device processing and other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers.

Google isn’t the only one phasing out cookies. Firefox stopped using cookies in 2013, and Microsoft made “Do Not Track” their default setting the same year. 

In addition to privacy issues, cookies aren’t as accurate as some might think. For example, they can’t always track users across devices. 

If you shop on your phone for a pair of shoes but buy them on your laptop, you might still see ads for those shoes on your mobile device—which is terrible for ad spend, as brands waste money targeting users that have already converted. 

How Will Using First-Party Data Impact Ad Personalization?  

As Google phases out third-party cookies, many brands will begin using first-party data to better personalize ads. What does this mean for your paid marketing strategy? 

Don’t worry; you won’t have to rebuild your marketing strategy from scratch. However, there are a few changes you’ll want to pay attention to:

  • Brands will need to focus on collecting first-party data: If you haven’t been gathering data about your audience, now is the time. Consider hosting contests, using website tracking tools, or sending out surveys to collect more information about your audience. 
  • Competitive analysis will get harder: One of the downfalls of third-party data is that you and your competitors are using the exact same targeting data. With the move to away from third-party cookies, it might become harder to understand why your competitors are taking certain actions. 
  • Ads may get more personalized: First-party data is data from your actual site visitors and customers, making it easier to create a personalized experience. 

Day-to-day, the switch away from third-party data is unlikely to impact the marketing world in a massive way. Most brands will begin to rely on first-party data more; however, Google is also creating what they call a “privacy sandbox” to allow brands to target users without invading their privacy. 

Brands that want to succeed shouldn’t rely entirely on Google’s new data plan because there are a ton of advantages to using this type of data?

Advantages of Only Using First-Party Data for Ad Personalization 

Why should you consider moving to first-party data rather than relying solely on Google’s privacy sandbox? 

For starters, most brands are increasing their reliance on first-party data, which likely means they are seeing positive results. According to Google, 87 percent of APAC brands consider it critical to their marketing efforts.  

Google rate of first party data usage stat

Let’s look at a few other benefits to consider.

First-Party Data Is More Accurate 

First-party data is information you collect about your customers. This makes it more accurate because you know who it is about and where it came from. 

Third-party data is sold and sometimes resold, which means brands have no access to the source data and, sometimes, very little idea about where the data is actually from. 

Boost Marketing Performance 

Some people are really concerned about the end of third-party data, but I’m not. Why? Because first-party data isn’t just more accurate; it’s also much more efficient at driving consumers to take action. 

According to a study by Boston Consulting Group, marketers that use first-party data see a lift in marketing efficiency, generating nearly double the revenue from a single ad or placement.

Your Competitors Don’t Have the Same Data 

Standing out online sometimes feels impossible. With millions of companies, billions of internet users, and more content being churned out every day, brands that want to stand out face a ton of noise. 

With third-party data, you and your competitors can buy the exact same data, which makes it pretty hard to be competitive. However, your competitors don’t have access to the data you collect, making it easier to test new initiatives or uncover opportunities about your own traffic and customers. 

You Can Double Down on Personalization 

According to Forrester, 89 percent of digital companies invest in marketing personalization. It’s easy to see why when 80 percent of customers report they are more likely to purchase from brands that offer a personalized experience. 

Using third-party data for personalization was never a perfect match. You might not know when a customer converts from another device or if the data you’re using is skewed. With first-party data, you can dive into personalization, secure in the knowledge that your data is accurate.  

It Is More Standardized 

Imagine asking five people to create a puzzle piece. You give them all the same parameters for height, length, and shape. Even with the same directions, each of those pieces isn’t quite going to fit together. 

The same thing happens with third-party data. Each platform might gather it just a little bit differently, which can make it almost impossible to pull all that data together. With first-party data, however, you gather the data. This means you can ensure it is standardized and works well with all your tools and systems. 

First-Party Data Is Cheaper 

Third-party data is purchased from another vendor, which means you are shelling out cash for data that is less efficient, less accurate, and harder to use. First-party data, on the other hand, is information from your own audience. 

Which means you don’t have to buy it. You will have to pay a bit to collect and store the data, but it’s likely much cheaper than purchasing the data from another source. 

How to Use First-Party Data for Ad Personalization 

We’ve covered what first-party data is, why Google is ditching third-party data, and a few of the advantages of using it. How do you actually put first-party data to use? Here’s what you need to know to use this data for ad personalization. 

Determine How to Leverage First-Party Data 

Before you start collecting data, take the time to figure out how you will use the data to further your marketing goals. How you plan to use the data will impact what type of data you want to collect and how you gather it. 

You might use it to: 

  • build brand awareness 
  • reduce churn 
  • send timely ads 
  • drive more qualified leads 

For example, if the data will be used to send more personalized email marketing campaigns, you could gather the data through an email survey. 

Make a Plan to Gather First-Party Data 

Unlike third-party data, you can’t just buy first-party data; you’ll have to gather it yourself. Luckily, there’s no shortage of ways to gather it.

For example, you can collect first-party data from:

  • website visitor tracking tools like Crazy Egg 
  • your mobile apps
  • offline surveys
  • social media channels
  • user registration for your website 
  • contests

Before making a plan to gather data, think about how you plan the data to personalize your marketing. For example, retargeting ads, personalized product recommendations, or account-based marketing. 

Ask Permission to Gather the Data 

One of the major issues with third-party data is some web users don’t even realize they’re being tracked. As first-party data becomes more popular (and as privacy laws limit the data we collect about our audiences), it’s important to be transparent about the data you gather. 

Ensure your audience clearly understands what data you collect, what you do with it, and how it’s stored. Being transparent about the data you collect and how you use it isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s required by law in some places, like the EU’s GDPR.  

Test, Tweak, and Retest 

With third-party data, you get what you get. There is no way to change the type of data you collect or adjust how you gather it.

With first-party data, you can test to figure out the best way to collect data by adjusting how you gather it or test and tweak how you use the data by A/B testing ads to see what your audience responds to. 

Conclusion

Third-party cookies are coming to an end. What does that mean for marketers? It means it’s time to start leveraging first-party data for personalization. The good news is, it is more accurate and cheaper, and it can even improve marketing efficiency. 

The first step to using first-party data is to find a way to collect it through polls, customer surveys, or website tracking tools. Then make a plan for how to use it. If you need help getting it set up, we can help. 

Are you planning to use first-party data for ad personalization? What are your marketing goals?