Businesses everywhere are being confronted with economic uncertainty, as well as challenges emerging from market volatility. Brands are facing rising acquisition costs, supply chain issues, and pricing pressures; as they strive to increase consumer loyalty, they must be aware of fierce competition, such as Direct To Consumer brands that are thriving in their respective fields.

As the inflation rate continues to rise, new pressures are placed on companies and there is a temptation to cut budgets, with marketing often being top of that list. However, by prioritising marketing spend and leveraging first-party data to target the right customers, brands can diversify their customer acquisition and ultimately boost revenue. It’s therefore essential for brands to be able to market and advertise more efficiently, as well as collect and analyse rich data. This enables brands to gain a significant return on their marketing investment and during times of economic uncertainty, this is especially important.

Leveraging First-Party Data

Previously, brands would only rely on using traditional marketing tactics such as display, social and paid search. However, this form of advertising is extremely competitive due to the demand for certain keywords and in a crowded market, brands would have to pay a premium for this method of marketing to be considered worthwhile.

By leveraging machine learning technologies on ecommerce confirmation pages, brands can gain actionable insights from the data gathered and introduce quality measures. This can include frequency capping to restrict the number of adverts shown to a customer, as well as suppression to stop certain customers from seeing ads if they’ve already been exposed to several during their ecommerce journey. As customers aren’t being bombarded with the same adverts, their shopping experience improves significantly whilst they receive adverts in a more targeted manner. What’s more, targeting customers during the final stages of their shopping journey when they are in the buying mindset ensures customers are more likely to engage with relevant adverts.

Today’s customers want a relevant shopping experience – similar to one they would receive in-store when speaking to a great salesperson. Indeed, according to Rokt’s research with Forrester, more than half (56%) of customers are more likely to spend more with brands that tailor experiences for them. Altogether, this highlights the growing importance for brands to diversify their acquisition channels by utilising data.

Building a Data Strategy

In the current competitive landscape, it’s no longer enough to rely on surface-level data such as gender or age and instead, businesses should leverage machine learning technologies to gain interaction data as well as first-party data to be used as actionable insights. With the power of data, advertisers can offer relevant adverts to their customers which maximises outcomes. Furthermore, using a CPC model ensures brands only pay for performance, meaning that businesses can truly optimise their marketing budgets and see a greater ROI.

Previously, advertisers would have shown potential customers an abundance of products with little relevance to their individual needs. This resulted in customers feeling overwhelmed, often leading them to avoid engaging with the advert at all. However, through first-party data, brands can offer specific adverts which are tailored to customers based on their individual preferences and predicted needs to increase sales.

This method of leveraging data to deliver relevant adverts allows businesses to engage with customers on an individual level. What’s more, this provides customers with a differentiating experience and improves their purchasing journey as a whole. In turn, this increases brand loyalty as customers are more likely to return for future purchases from the same brand. With many other online businesses continuing to bombard their customers with the same offers, utilising data to deliver relevant adverts is truly an effective way for brands to harness the full potential of their marketing budgets.

The Value of Data

As many businesses are confronted with economic challenges such as rising costs, brands must avoid the temptation to reduce their marketing budgets and instead, diversify their acquisition channels to optimise their marketing spend. Previously, brands would only rely on traditional marketing methods, however, by leveraging first-party data to provide relevant adverts and quality measures, brands can gain new customers. Altogether, this allows advertisers to maximise their campaigns and achieve a greater ROI on their marketing spend.

• Courtney Hopkins, VP of strategic partnerships at Rokt, a specialist in ecommerce technology & software solutions, driving more value per transaction with personalised experiences.