How the right audience data can future-proof your marketing strategy

The digital advertising landscape in 2024 has been nothing short of tumultuous, and the year ahead shows no signs of settling. Major shifts in the industry have left advertisers and marketers grappling with significant changes. These include prominent companies exiting the data-driven marketing space, vacillating policies on third-party cookies, and uncertainty related to antitrust investigations of tech giants like Google. Coupled with the continued wave of new global data privacy regulations, brands face an increasingly complex marketplace.

However, amidst this upheaval, programmatic media buying continues to grow globally. Last year, the global programmatic advertising market reached $678.37 billion, and it is expected to continue to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8% through 2030​. Yet, to capitalise on this growing investment, high-quality, reliable, and privacy-safe audience data has become vital for brands. In the absence of such data, even the most well-funded campaigns risk falling short of their potential.

In this article, we will explore how the right audience data can help your brand thrive in a volatile marketplace. We will examine key industry developments, provide actionable insights on how to navigate these challenges, and highlight the importance of trusted audience data marketplaces in helping marketers future-proof their strategies.

Thriving in a turbulent marketplace: The power of audience data

To survive in today’s turbulent global digital economy, brands must be equipped with robust audience data strategies. But simply having access to data isn’t enough. Here are a few key strategies for leveraging audience data to future-proof your brand:

Embrace ID-agnostic solutions: As third-party cookies decline in relevance, even with continued support on Chrome, brands must adopt an ID-agnostic approach. This means investing in solutions that do not rely solely on cookies but instead use a variety of identifiers, such as first-party data, contextual signals, and alternative IDs like mobile advertising IDs (MAIDs). These identifiers enable brands to create more holistic profiles of their target audiences, ensuring reach across both cookied and cookieless environments.

Importantly, global mobile ad spend is expected to reach $402 billion in 2024, fuelled by social apps and the creator economy. With more time being spent on mobile and social channels than ever before, the need to leverage quality data to drive breakthrough programmatic campaigns in these channels has never been greater. Companies like Eyeota are leading the charge by offering ID-agnostic data solutions that enable marketers to extend their reach beyond Chrome to Safari, Firefox, and cookieless channels like mobile, CTV, retail and social media networks.

Prioritise privacy-first data: In today’s environment, maintaining privacy compliance is not optional — it is a necessity. Brands must work with trusted audience data providers that prioritise user privacy while still delivering effective insights for marketers. Look for data partners who offer privacy-compliant audience datasets that align with local and global regulations, ensuring that your campaigns are both effective and compliant.

Providers like Eyeota have continually evolved their approach in consonance with major regulatory shifts like GDPR and CCPA, as well as ever-evolving privacy regulations in Australia. They are thus equipped to offer privacy-centric data solutions that empower brands to meet regulatory requirements without sacrificing the precision needed for targeted advertising.

Leverage data enrichment for better personalisation: Successful omnichannel campaigns rely on creating personalised experiences across multiple touchpoints. Audience data enrichment is critical for achieving this. By enhancing your first-party data with insights from third-party data providers, you can build more accurate and comprehensive audience profiles, enabling you to deliver personalised marketing messages at scale.

For example, a leading food and beverage company recently decided to create a new luxury product to be offered exclusively to existing customers. The product would be targeted to an affluent audience in the Asia-Pacific region, and would be made available for a limited, one-month time period.

The company worked with a prominent advertising agency to reach its ideal audience with an ad campaign on Meta’s platforms (Facebook and Instagram). The maker had a very specific group of prospective buyers in mind — high net worth individuals with active interests in fine dining and multiple luxury brands. To reach this unique and niche target audience, the brand turned to Eyeota.

The Eyeota audiences had the highest number of clicks and impressions compared to Meta core audiences.

• Eyeota exceeded the number of impressions of the higher-performing Meta core audience group by nearly 90,000.
   
• The number of clicks by the Eyeota audiences — 6,086 in total — exceeded the higher-performing Meta audience group by a decisive 138%. This KPI came in 176% higher than the benchmark that had been set for the one-month campaign.

The click-through rate (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC) data provided even better ROI for the campaign.

• The CTR for users in the Eyeota group was .84% compared to .32% and .46% for the Meta core audiences — exceeding the initial benchmark CTR by 237%.
   
• The CPC for the Eyeota audience was dramatically lower than those for the two Meta audiences, which beat the lower Meta CPC by 52% and the initial CPC benchmark for the campaign by 64%.

The value of the Eyeota audience marketplace

To navigate the rapidly changing digital marketing landscape, marketers need access to trusted and diverse sources of audience data. The Eyeota Audience Marketplace offers high-quality, privacy-compliant audience data that empowers brands to connect with their ideal customers across a wide array of channels and devices. Eyeota Audience Marketplace features over 60,000 B2B and B2C audience targeting segments covering socio-demographics, contextual signals, lifestyle, brand affinities, interests, intent signals, past-purchase behaviour, ownership, employment insights, seasonal events and more. Providing access to audiences from over 75 premium data partners, including Dun & Bradstreet, Eyeota enables advertisers to tap into high-quality audience data across 30+ verticals in 180 countries to deliver personalised and effective campaigns at a global scale.