The Rise of First-Party Data in Modern Marketing

Why privacy changes are reshaping data strategy

The growth of AI, alongside increasing platform restrictions and growing concerns from consumers around privacy are major drivers of tightening privacy-related regulations around the world. From the AI Act and Digital Omnibus Package in the EU to Global Privacy Control in the US, we can expect increased scrutiny of automated decision-making and profiling, along with more aggressive enforcement of privacy regulations.

As privacy laws tighten, and platforms limit tracking, third-party data can no longer support accurate or compliant targeting. Moving forwards, consent-driven first-party data needs to be at the core of your data strategy.

What counts as first-party data?

First-party data is data that you have collected directly from people who have interacted with your brand, including web or app analytics data, purchase history data, login data, and data gathered from loyalty programmes, customer service interactions, store visits or events.

Why first-party data is now your competitive advantage

• First-party data is accurate and trustworthy as it has been collected directly from your customers interactions, preferences and behaviours.
• First-party data is privacy compliant as consent has been given, and customers are aware of how the data will be used.
• First-party data enables brands to build a stronger relationship with their customers through 1:1 personalised content, and more effective targeting and segmentation.
• First-party data future-proofs your data and marketing strategy against ongoing privacy changes, as it remains stable and compliant.

The core components of a first-party data strategy

• High-quality data collection: prioritise clean, permission-based data collected from your own channels.
• Single Customer View: match email addresses, logins, device IDs, CRM data, offline data etc into one profile per customer.
• Privacy and Compliance: have strong consent management in place and ensure clear communications on what data is being collected and how it will be used.
• Effective Activation: use your compliant, consented data to power consistent, personalised and effective marketing experiences for your customers.
• Measurement and Attribution: In a world where third-party tracking is no longer reliable, shift your focus to server-side tracking, conversion modelling and privacy-safe measurements such as clean-rooms.
• Building trust through customer benefits: Encourage your customers to share their data by offering them something meaningful in return (for example, personalised offers, member-only pricing, or early access to sales and content).

Zero-party data: deepening the customer relationship

Whilst first-party data should be at the core of your data strategy, it is also worth mentioning zero-party data, as this works alongside your first-party data.

Zero-party data is data that customers intentionally and proactively give you, for example data collected from forms, quizzes, surveys or preference centres. This data can be used to improve segmentation and messaging, as well as taking your personalisation to the next level – improving the customer experience, and as a result customer loyalty.

With both first- and zero-party data in place, the next step is ensuring it is used responsibly.

Consent-driven targeting and why it matters

Consent-driven targeting is where brands target customers using only the data they have explicitly agreed to share, and only for the purposes they consented to. It is one of the pillars of a first-party data strategy because it ensures brands remain compliant, enabling them to target their customers without risk.

Consent-driven targeting builds trust between brands and their customers, increasing their willingness to share more data. This feeds identity solutions, clean rooms and modelling tools with high-quality consented data.

Examples of consent-driven targeting

• Personalised customer journeys: A customer who opts into marketing communications receives tailored product recommendations based on their shared interests.
• Loyalty programme-based targeting: customers who have consented to personalised offers receive targeted promotions reflecting their purchase history and preferences.
• Website personalisation using zero-party preferences: A visitor to your website voluntarily completes an onsite quiz, the website then shows tailored products based on their responses.

Life after third-party cookies

Third-party cookies allowed advertisers and tracking companies to track users across websites they didn’t own; and sell this data on. The tightening of privacy laws has led to third-party cookies being phased out, as there is a requirement for users to consent to tracking, and for brands to build direct relationships with their customers.

As a result, first-party cookies have become an essential part of data strategies, as, combined with the use of Identity Solutions and Data Clean Rooms, they provide a privacy-safe replacement to third-party cookies.

Identity Solutions: unlocking the value of first-party data

Identity Solutions help brands recognise and match customers from different channels (such as web, app, emails, or ads) into a single profile, creating a comprehensive view of each customer.

They do this in a privacy-safe way, using data that users have willingly shared (such as email addresses, phone numbers or login IDs), and where this information is PII data, hashing or encrypting it. Matching often takes place inside a secure clean room.

Data Clean Rooms and privacy-safe collaboration

Data clean rooms provide a secure environment in which brands can match their first-party data against partner datasets, without the need for sharing raw personal information. This enables privacy-regulation compliant:

• Audience enrichment
• Audience building and targeting
• Campaign measurement and attribution without cookies

Real-world examples of first-party activation

Together, identity solutions and clean rooms enable privacy-safe use cases, such as:

• Cross-Brand Partnership Campaigns: Identify overlap with partner audiences and run joint campaigns targeting those identified customers.
• Lookalike Campaigns: Match your data against partner datasets to identify lookalike audiences without using cookies.
• High-Value Audience Enrichment Campaigns: Use your enriched audience data for improved targeting.

Using data to build stronger customer relationships

The shift towards privacy-first marketing isn’t a future challenge – it’s already here. As regulations tighten, third-party tracking disappears, and platforms limit data access, third-party data simply doesn’t provide the reliability or compliance that brands need today.

A strong first-party data strategy provides brands with a stable and compliant base for their marketing, both now and with future privacy changes in mind. By focusing on high-quality data collection, clear consent, identity solutions and privacy-safe tools such as clean rooms, brands can continue to reach their customers effectively and compliantly.

The brands that will win are those that build direct, trusted relationships with their customers, are transparent about how customer data will be used and what the customer will gain from it, and who use consent-driven data to create better experiences.