Why are publishers establishing and building first party data with Transfon AMP UniSignIn?

Over the years publishers and marketers have relied on gaining user insight from third-party cookies and data.

Third party data has recently become harder to justify with privacy on the trend, regulations like the GDPR are cracking down on third-party cookies and forcing publishers to give back control to the user. This has meant that more and more users have opted out of giving up their data for better privacy. Companies have to respect this choice by law but this isn’t good news for publishers where they make their profits through advanced advertising on their platforms.

Because of this privacy focused shift from third party cookies and tracking becoming less effective, publishers have had to also shift in a new direction, they have had to advance their strategy with how they operate and make profits. Users' privacy expectations are always changing and laws are becoming more direct, forcing companies to follow along and respect user privacy. Publishers need to evolve and navigate today's privacy environment while keeping their content accessible to everyone, UniSignIn aims to help all publisher sizes navigate the next chapter of digital advertising.

Third party cookies are dying out, Google has stated that they will be phased out, users will no longer have to just accept that they will be tracked across the web. The alternative that all global companies are moving towards is first party user data. What is that all about? - First party user data is information that you have got from direct audience relationships, this will be your direct customers/users. This can include things like demographics, website interactions (at a first-party level), interests, time spent on websites and many more. The key thing to remember is that all this data must come from primary sources, a first party level, the publisher must own the source.

The great thing about first party data compared to third party cookies is that it is easy to collect consent from users because the publisher already has access to the data and the contact with users, they just have to activate it. With proper user consent a company can take advantage of its own first party data for monetisation.

Usually publishers already have the potential to collect first-party data, they just need to “activate” it and that is what UniSignIn enables you to do. Publishers who have relied on the third party cookie model for a long time will probably already have good potential for first party data, they just need a platform to collect first party data and gain insight through statistics and graphs etc. UniSignIn comes with support for managing user signups and logins, it has support for Single Sign On and OPT login. UniSignIn is an audience management platform which can help publishers activate their first party data and analyse it.

Publishers are moving away from a static platform and have realised the great potential of a dynamic platform which engages with users, requiring them to sign up to access content or communicate through comments or posts. This is how first party data can be collected and accessed.

For example, if you run a media network about technology and there is 5000 users who follow a topic called “Hardware”, you have a segment, this segment can then be split up into smaller segments, the topic “Hardware” can become “CPUs”, “Phones”, “Graphic Cards” and “Laptops” etc. There is no need to rely on third party tracking cookies. First party data is more valuable and easy to access.

To better understand how first party data compared to the traditional third party data collection, checkout this article on UniConsent (a user consent management platform):

Source: First party data vs second party data vs third party data

Publishers are now starting to take advantage of their traffic and users, adopting first-party solutions and reevaluating their consent management platform options. UniSignIn integrates with UniConsent which is a Consent Management Platform by Transfon, both UniSignIn and UniConsent work well together to give publishers a first party data management platform, along with a proper user consent platform as well.

Some of the unified features that UniSignIn and UniConsnet provide:

• Single sign-on, user authentication system
• Identity management
• User consent management
• Analytics and user insight
• Free and Paid content access
• Community focused and privacy oriented
• Multi-point data collection (web, mobile, email etc.)
• JavaScript signal firing management

First party data is the future, it is better for privacy and the data is easier to get and is more cost effective than third party cookie data collection. If publishers want to evolve and stay on top of their market they must choose first party data solutions.

By adopting solutions like UniSignIn and UniConsent, together they provide you with first party data access and make sure that you follow strict privacy laws like the GDPR. First party data is better quality and more focused. You have to move fast as FireFox and Safari have already opted to block the use of third party cookies, while Chrome plans to in 2022.

Publishers globally will be looking to invest in a scalable, privacy-first CIAM (Customer identity and access management) system, in order to stay alive they will need to shift over to collecting data at a first party level for advertisements and monetisation. This allows publishers to still show relevant ads and boost digital advertisement efficiency.

It can be a daunting task to setup a proper system to collect first party data and consent management but many publishers don’t have to take on all the work, platforms like UniSiginIn and UniConsent can be easily integrated quickly and allow publishers to “activate” their first party data without much changes. Transfon enables publishers and marketers to engage with users while respecting their privacy and keeping effectiveness on digital advertising and profits.

About UniSignIn

UniSignIn is a part of Transfon’s privacy-first User Experience Platform serves tens of millions of users per day to provide a seamless privacy experience for both users and publishers in the age of post GDPR. Contact us to know more: [email protected]