What Is Third-Party Data and How Is It Used in Advertising?
· 2h ago · Originally reported by PPC Land
Third-party data refers to information gathered by companies that do not have a direct relationship with the individuals whose data is collected. This data is organized into audience segments and sold to advertisers for targeting purposes.
Why it matters
Understanding third-party data is important because it underpins much of digital advertising's targeting capabilities, but also raises privacy concerns and is affected by changing regulations.
Explain it like I’m new here
It's like someone collecting facts about you from your friends and selling them to others who want to send you ads.
Terms in this story
Third-party data
Third-party data is information about people collected by companies with no direct relationship to them, then aggregated and sold or licensed to advertisers, often as ready-made audience segments.
Audience segment
An audience segment is a group of people or devices defined by shared characteristics, such as demographics, interests, purchase behaviour or intent, used to target or measure advertising.
Advertiser
An advertiser is the company, organisation or person that pays to place ads in order to sell products, build a brand, recruit, or spread a message.
Targeting
Targeting is choosing which people, contexts, places, devices or times should see an ad, so that the budget is spent on the audiences most likely to respond.
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