First Party Data vs. Third Party Data

‍🧭 Zero, First, Second, & Third Party Data Explained

🎵 I’ve got data on my mind, so much data on my mind

Whether you’re a lyrical artist like me (😉) or not, you’ve always got data on your mind.

Who are our customers, really? Who are we targeting? Where do they come from? Who else has information on our target customer?

These are all questions that can be answered through zero, first, second, & third party data.

But, first! Let’s take a second to zero in on what all of these forms of data are (see what I did there?)

If you’re looking for more info on these definitions, check out Hubspot’s blog post, here.

Zero-Party Data

Data that your customer is directly providing you. Think, email/sms capture, preference pages, & post-purchase survey data.

A couple of our favorite platforms for capturing this kind of data are: KnoCommerce or EnquireLabs for post-purchase surveys and Octane AI for onboarding quizzes.

And of course, we all know that tools such as Postscript, Klaviyo, Attentive, etc. offer the functionality of gathering zero-party data using their web pop-ups.

*You’ll soon be able to measure some of this data directly in your Triple Whale dashboard

First-Party Data

Data collected based on a user or your customer’s behavior. Think product views, checkouts initiated, orders placed, referring source, etc. This data will be available directly in Triple Whale using the Triple Pixel. Sign up for the waitlist here to get first access.

Second-Party Data

Data collected directly from the one who originally collected it. Ever received a deal from a group of hotels in the city that your upcoming flight is headed to? This is done through second-party data collection as the hotel and airline are sharing data between each other.

Third-Party Data

This is data collected elsewhere. This is the data you’re using to build your prospecting campaigns in Facebook off of. Think about demographic data and buying interest, but this data doesn’t necessarily follow the customer all the way to transaction (i.e Facebook is not going to give you all of the data they have on your customer, even if they purchased from your Facebook ad).

⚰️ Death of the advertising cookie

It’s worth noting that there has been a lot of talk around the “death of the cookie”, which can seem alarming. But, by no means is the sky falling.

It’s important to clarify that “cookie” used in this context is referring only to third-party cookies, not first-party cookies, which is how we’re planning to solve your attribution woes.

🐳 Triple Whale + Zero-Party Data

If you’re currently using the Triple Whale dashboard you already understand the power of having key data points about your store’s performance at your fingertips.

Soon, you’ll be able to view deeper insights on your customers using post-purchase survey data through a couple of partnerships that we’re stoked to announce (soon, we promise).

Taking that a step further, imagine being able to pair your post-purchase survey data with the data from your ad platforms to gain a comprehensive view of your attribution efforts.

For example, Facebook may say that it only drove 20% of your revenue last month, but post-purchase survey data could reveal that 80% of your customers remember seeing a Facebook ad prior to making their latest purchase 🤯 .

🔮 Triple Pixel and First/Third Party Data

If you didn’t already hear the news, we’re launching a server-side pixel to help you track all of your first party data.

What does that mean?

Soon, you’ll be able to understand all of the steps your customers took leading up to their most recent purchase that’s safe, secure, and speedy.

Say goodbye to having to decide on whether to trust last-click, first-click, or platform-based attribution models and say hello to an attribution model that will provide you a more accurate picture of which ads are performing best.

Aka, turn underperforming ads off quicker and scale your top performers, confidently.

As always, thanks for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed the ride.