Let’s talk about first-party data. Now, this is something that y'all have probably been listening to a lot about with so much about the marketing world circulating around cookies. So, you can react with first-party data, but just like with every CRM, the better the data in the better the data out, right? 

Take direct mail, for example. You send out a piece of creative with a customized list. The same thing applies to what you can do inside of a digital marketing element. With Facebook, you can upload a list and then be able to see and react to consumers 1:1. For example, if you have email addresses for people and from people inside of your CRM, once you upload those contacts into the database inside of Facebook, you can create the first-party data to single them out and to have a message. If you know for the past five years these are the people that use your aftermarket service, you can use that list for constant retention and constant repetition. 

Part 2 of using 1st party data comes after utilizing and analyzing the data from that first campaign. We use Facebook’s algorithm to create lookalike audiences. Basically, it finds people who behave similarly to your actual consumers, kind of like what Andrew, Director of Growth, was showing you with the Google Analytics interest in affinities in the video above. It's tying those things together inside of Facebook to create a lookalike audience, which would then come as a third-party mechanism from the first party information that you have uploaded to Facebook.

When we’re talking about customer matches, and again, I cannot emphasize this enough, you have to have good data in to have good data out. So, what that means is whether you're using Handle, whether you're using CDK Global, whether you’re using Nurture - it doesn’t matter the actual CRM. What matters is the correct data coming into the system. 

So, let’s say you have those segmented audiences inside your CRM. You know who’s your small ag customers, who's your large ag, the ones that then cross-sale, and then you’d know the aftermarket, right? So, when you're uploading those and utilizing the first-party data, and again, these sources can be POPS or VHTurf, those different things can have a customer match.

On the right-hand side you're looking at what an advertiser can do with it inside of Google and how that can spread across; but basically what you're wanting to do there is use that first-party data to increase retention but at the same time also start to utilize 3rd party data to create new customers. But retention is a big gap ag companies often miss. 

The percentage of people that are googling “Tractor dealership or John Deere dealership near me,” are really looking for the closest solution, and that can also be different brands. What we have to do going forward, because of all that 500% increase (see video), is really focus on retaining our current customers and then using digital resources we have access to from those campaigns to find others out there with the same purchasing behaviors. 

So we've discussed how to turn 1st party data into 3rd party. You’re hearing all over the map “third-party data’s disappearing". That's just not the case. It may look different but it won't disappear. For example, in Doppio, which is our proprietary system, we have 200,000 data layers, but at one time it had 600,000 data layers inside of it. That is huge! But the purpose of it going from 600,000 to 200,000 is the reduction of cookies and the combining of audiences. The smarter the technology gets vs the rising voice of those who want privacy will be an interesting time in history for us to observe, but as long as there is a demand for your product there will be a way to find those who desire it and we refuse to not be on the forefront of that movement. 

About SI EQ, a Team SI Company

Ag and Equipment Marketing Pioneers

SI EQ is the leading digital and traditional advertising agency focused on innovation within the agriculture and residential equipment space. With a deep understanding of relevant messaging, market-share and sales-based strategies, and in-house co-op pre-approvals and claims, we complete the sales journey from beginning to, well, the next beginning, because as we all know, innovation never sleeps.