An individual’s identity has become more and more central to the consumer experience. In an age of individualism, customers want advertisements that are relevant to them—more than just a canned message that mentions their first name. They expect brands to know and understand them on a much deeper level.
In order to do this, marketers can no longer rely on the generic audience segments of the past. These methods are too broad and general for both the current media landscape and the modern consumer culture. Instead, you must be able to identify your clients and prospective clients so that you can pinpoint specific audience and craft personal messages. Add to the complexity, consumers engage brands through many devices and channels, marketers need to connect identities across different devices—that requires data.
One type of data, deterministic, relies on known information, such as email. The other type of data, probabilistic, relies on algorithmically analyzing thousands of different anonymous data points including device type, operating system, location data, and more to create statistical matches. Both forms have their advantages and disadvantages, and many experts believe that a mix of both is best. Today, we are looking at the benefits of deterministic data.
Benefit #1 – Verified and True: It sounds pretty basic, but the importance of verified true data cannot be overstated. If you are crafting audience profiles based on faulty data, then you are just wasting time and money, reaching people that aren’t relevant. Marketers can rely on deterministic data because it is coming from the customers themselves, inputted by the individual on various platforms. Knowing that the information you are receiving is reliable saves a lot of time, allowing each data point to be matched with its respective user.
Benefit #2 – Varied Sources: Deterministic data can come from many places, including content download forms, social media platforms, contact request forms and e-commerce purchases, usually in the form of user IDs and other basic registration data. The various sources allow you to reach customers across all different types of networks, creating a large and diverse pool of potential clients.
Benefit #3 – Thousands of Data Points: The beauty of deterministic data is that, while it relies on general and often repetitive indicators – including phone numbers and email addresses, among others – those same indicators open a door to thousands of individual data points. You can then look at each profile and group them to determine if you would like to pursue them. Of course, the identity of the individual remains confidential, but the behavioral profile is enough for you to identify potential clients.
Benefit #4 – Adaptability: Individual profiles are far from static. People’s interests change and vary, meaning deterministic data sets are always developing based on client input. If Customer A takes a stronger interest in Product X than they do in Product Y, the individual’s profile will be updated and adjusted accordingly. This keeps you up to date on changes in customer attitudes and gives you the ability to adapt, creating a more personalized experience for the client. It allows you to provide clients with the products and services they actually want and need, saving time for everyone.
Furthermore, deterministic data can also notify you when a non-client changes attitudes or behavior in a way that opens the door for them to become potential clients. Let’s say Client A has never taken interest in your product, so you have never really invested resources into them. However, if they start to show interest at a later date through behavioral patterns, you will be notified so your marketing plan can be adjusted, and you don’t miss an opportunity to secure a new client.
Benefit #5 – Linkage: One struggle that every data collector encounters is linking profiles. Take a case involving Account A and Account B. While their habits and patterns may lead one to think they are different people, they could actually be the same person. By looking at known deterministic data points that have been independently verified, disparate profiles can be correctly linked to the same person, avoiding skewed data sets and wasteful spending.
At the most basic level, deterministic matching provides a higher-level of confidence. But in order to get a true comprehensive view you need a hybrid approach that also includes probabilistic matching, and it’s still not enough on its own. Marketers need to combine quality data and technology in order to be able to properly identify their clients and prospects and build and maintain a positive fruitful personalized relationship.
Experian’s Audience Engine platform leverages our MarketingConnect Identity Resolution capabilities to deterministically links and matches data across the marketing ecosystem in a unified, automated platform for targeting, execution and measurement of addressable advertising campaigns.
To learn more about Experian’s deterministic data capabilities, including Audience Engine, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing-services/targeting/omnichannel-activation/addressable-advertising.html. To learn more about MarketingConnect, Experian’s identity resolution offering, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing-services/identity-resolution.html.