The future of data management platforms in the era of CDPs

Requested to checklist the most well liked classes in martech, you would possibly point out buyer information platforms; you would possibly point out id resolutions platforms; maybe information clear rooms.

Have DMPs been round so lengthy we simply take them without any consideration (like “huge information”)? Will an rising reliance on first-party information managed by CDPs, plus all of the privateness points surrounding third-party information, conspire to make DMPs extinct?

Knowledge administration options vendor Lotame is betting in opposition to that. However it’s additionally going out of its approach to place itself as a associate for CDPs.

Previous and future

Alex Theriault, basic supervisor of Lotame’s newest answer suite Spherical, started with a glance within the rear-view mirror. “Lotame has worn just a few totally different hats through the years. We initially got here out as an ad community promoting information and audiences. That was again in 2008. We had been one of many first DMPs coming to market in 2011.” By way of an aquisition, they expanded into the cross-device and full id decision house, and so they additionally provide one of many largest international information marketplaces, the Lotame Knowledge Change.

However with the fast-paced adoption of CDPs, accelerated by clients shifting extra decisively into digital throughout the pandemic, Lotame confronted a query about its future id. That led, stated Theriault, to loads of analysis.

An id disaster

The analysis centered on the evolving CDP house the use circumstances CDPs are best-suited to serve. “Can we turn into a CDP like so many different firms? Or is our know-how nonetheless extremely in demand and future-proofed so we are able to navigate third-party cookie restrictions and privateness regulation modifications?” These had been the sorts of inquiries to be confronted, stated Theriault.

The reply was that the demand for the form of performance that has traditionally lived inside a DMP would persist: “Corresponding to entry to third-party information, built-in analytics, modeling capabilities, and actually mature pipes into the adtech ecosystem,” Theriault defined.

The position of CDPs is crucial in the case of managing and activating information volunteered by identified clients or identified website customers. That leaves a niche, stated Theriault, in the case of focusing on individuals who make it to the location, maybe put one thing of their cart, however by no means execute a one-time purchase or join a subscription.

What a DMP can do

Simply because third-party cookies are sooner or later going away, that doesn’t imply an finish to third-party information.

“Third-party information and third-party cookies are sometimes conflated with each other,” Theriault defined. “Any firm that has an id graph — and Lotame is a type of; there’s undoubtedly a handful of sturdy gamers within the house — is ready to gather information in environments the place third-party cookies usually are not accessible, whether or not it’s connected to a first-party cookie, or different digital identifiers resembling CTV IDs or buyer IDs. It was traditionally a probabilistic graph, however we’ve now expanded it to being a hybrid; so we are able to ingest information tied to electronic mail,” in different phrases, first-party information. “So we’ll help each a declared match in addition to a probabilistic match.”

Theriault means that monitoring third-party information utilizing Lotame’s Panorama ID could be simpler than counting on third-party cookies. “We’ve run case research in environments like Safari which can be already third-party cookie-restricted which have improved on outcomes manufacturers have seen working campaigns on third-party cookies.”

What a DMP and CDP can do collectively

The excellent query is how DMPs and CDPs can work in concord to help model advertising methods. A method is thru easy integration. Some CDPs — for instance Phase, Tealium and mParticle have on-page tags (or pixels) on model web sites. “With Lotame additionally having a tag on web page,” stated Theriault, “there’s very easy connectivity. We let the CDP do the vast majority of exhausting work to assemble the fragmented, siloed first-party information from totally different sources and put together it, section it, [and] sanitize it throughout the CDP.”

The Lotame tag for a similar model can do a “fast look-up” that distinguishes identified clients (with buyer IDs) from unknown guests the place data is proscribed or absent.

“Within the occasion the model doesn’t have a buyer ID, then we fill that void; so we’d be making a profile inside our platform and begin the model being higher in a position to perceive these cart abandoners and pushing that data again to the model.”

That is all occurring by the not too long ago launched Spherical answer, billed as a first-party data accelerator.

The workflow between Spherical and associate CDPs is (at the very least) bi-directional. CDPs gather first-party information throughout channels, from offline, electronic mail and cell, to internet visits and CTV. It cleans and segments the info and pushes it to Spherical for evaluation, enrichment and modeling primarily based on Lotame’s DMP assets. Spherical can push the end result audiences to adtech options or to social media pipes. Conversely, Spherical can ship marketing campaign information like clicks and impressions to the CDP.

One other layer within the stack?

One would possibly count on to see pushback in opposition to this proffer from clients which have invested money and time in a CDP and maybe additionally use a DMP. Theriault acknowledges this. “We actually wished to attraction to manufacturers and businesses, so we’ve really launched a variable mannequin that helps issues like seasonality and — for an company — the flexibility to check and be taught and iterate with totally different manufacturers and never be locked into minimal month-to-month charges. “We are able to simply plug in and fill the gaps as a result of we’re not making an attempt to promote them an end-to-end platform.”

The advantages of all this connectivity, Lotame would say, lies in bringing information on identified and unknown clients, deterministic and probabilistic information, collectively. Whether or not that is the longer term course for the DMP house or whether or not manufacturers will more and more flip their backs on third-party information and market to their identified audiences, stays to be seen.