What is Third-Party Data? Examples of Third-Party Data in Analytics

Third-party data

Data collected by external providers for audience enrichment, ad targeting, and analytics, with privacy and accuracy considerations.

Definition and Scope

• Core definition

  Third-party data is information collected about users by entities other than the site they visit, typically aggregated from multiple sources to provide enriched insights.

How Third-Party Data Works

• Data collection mechanisms

  Third-party providers use methods like cookies, tracking pixels, and device fingerprinting to gather user behavior across multiple domains.

  • Cookies:

    Small text files stored in a user’s browser that track behavior and preferences across sites.

  • Tracking pixels:

    Invisible 1x1 images embedded in a webpage or email to record user interactions and collect metadata.

  • Device fingerprinting:

    Techniques that combine browser and device attributes to identify users without cookies.

• Data integration

  Collected data is aggregated, cleaned, and enriched with additional attributes before being integrated into analytics platforms.

  • Aggregation:

    Combining raw event data into structured segments or audience profiles.

  • Enrichment:

    Appending demographic or interest data from external sources to first-party datasets.

  • Delivery:

    Providing data via APIs or audience segments for platforms like Google Analytics 4.

Use Cases in Analytics

• Audience enrichment

  Supplement first-party data with external demographics, interests, and firmographics to build detailed audience profiles.

• Ad targeting

  Leverage third-party segments to target users across display, social, and programmatic channels based on behavior or interests.

• Attribution modeling

  Incorporate cross-channel third-party data to understand the customer journey and assign credit to marketing touchpoints.

Advantages and Challenges

• Advantages

  Gives a broader reach and depth by accessing diverse datasets from multiple domains, often at scale and lower cost than building first-party repositories.

  • Broader audience insights:

    Access to behavioral and demographic data beyond your own site traffic.

  • Cost efficiency:

    Outsourcing data collection to specialized providers can be more economical than in-house.

  • Speed to market:

    Immediate access to ready-made segments saves time over building audiences from scratch.

• Challenges

  Includes privacy concerns, potential data inaccuracies, and increasing regulatory restrictions that can limit usage.

  • Accuracy issues:

    Data may be outdated or mismatched due to aggregation delays or user identification errors.

  • Privacy regulations:

    GDPR, CCPA, and browser policies restrict third-party tracking and require explicit consent.

  • Dependency risk:

    Relying on external providers can lead to vulnerabilities if sources change or discontinue services.

Privacy and Compliance Considerations

• Regulatory frameworks

  GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws govern the collection, sharing, and usage of personal data from third parties.

• Consent & transparency

  Websites must disclose third-party tracking and obtain user consent through banners or privacy policies.

• Alternatives to third-party data

  Consider first-party data collection and cookieless analytics as privacy-friendly strategies.

Examples in Popular SaaS Products

• Google analytics 4

  GA4 uses a combination of first-party cookies and can integrate third-party audience segments from Google Ads for advanced targeting. Example gtag.js snippet:

  • Ga4 implementation:

    <!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->
    <script async src=\"https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=GA_MEASUREMENT_ID\"></script>
    <script>
      window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
      function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
      gtag('js', new Date());
      gtag('config', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID');
    </script>
    

• Plainsignal

  PlainSignal offers a cookieless, first-party approach, avoiding third-party cookies altogether. Tracking code example:

  • Plainsignal implementation:

    <link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"//eu.plainsignal.com/\" crossorigin />
    <script defer data-do=\"yourwebsitedomain.com\" data-id=\"0GQV1xmtzQQ\" data-api=\"//eu.plainsignal.com\" src=\"//cdn.plainsignal.com/PlainSignal-min.js\"></script>
    

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