Collect First-Party Data

First-party data is information that is gathered directly through an organization’s website, social media, POS, or digital advertisements. For example, a lead generation form requires customers to provide personal details such as their full name, email, phone number, or address. This information can then be stored into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and used later for marketing campaigns. To get started with gathering first-party data, consider offering customer incentives such as special discounts or loyalty rewards in exchange for filling out a lead form. This also means adding in an opt-out option so the data is submitted willingly by users. First-party data can also be found through monitoring how customers engage with different posts on social media. Comments, likes, reactions, and shares are all useful in learning about what certain customers like and dislike. 

Utilize Contextual Targeting

Contextual advertising means that advertisements will appear next to related content. For example, keyword targeting allows advertisers to have their ads displayed next to keywords that they choose. Google employs this advertising technique through AdSense. When advertising with Google Display Ads, Google selects webpages in its Display Network that match different parameters such as keywords, language preferences, and location. Although contextual advertising is not able to capture as much nuance as behavioral targeting, a 2019 poll from DigiDay shows that 45 percent of publisher executives felt that there was “no notable benefit” to behavioral ad targeting, and 23 percent said that behavioral targeting resulted in declining ad revenues. Overall, contextual advertising ensures that customers still receive personalized ads without the use of third-party data.