July 2024 update: As of July 22, 2024, Google announced it will no longer deprecate third-party cookies. Instead, Google promised to introduce a new feature that lets people make an informed choice that applies across all web browsing. In light of this, we recommend continuing to prioritize the capture of first-party data. Focusing on direct interactions with your customers allows for more reliable and compliant data collection, ensuring your marketing strategies remain effective regardless of industry changes.
Google recently announced that it will no longer deprecate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Even though the change won’t take place as planned, small businesses should still adapt their marketing data strategies to focus on direct interactions with customers.
As a small business, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by changes in marketing technology. If you want to keep a consistent stream of leads coming in – and know what ad campaigns are performing best so you can maximize your marketing spend – then keep reading. This article explores how small businesses can find consistency in their marketing efforts using first-party data and CallRail.
Going all-in on zero and first-party data
Third-party cookies, the little bits of data that browsers share about users and their online behavior, help marketers connect to new advertising audiences. But they are a privacy nightmare and have been under scrutiny from regulators worldwide. Browsers like Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox have already ended support for third-party cookie tracking.
Marketers can get more accurate information about customers through first-party data (the information you collect about user behavior while they are on your site or app) and zero-party data (the information customers share with you voluntarily through forms, surveys, etc.). Experts like Andrew Miller, Co-Founder of Workshop Digital, are advising marketers to “get out ahead” to avoid being caught unprepared.
“The key with Google’s plans for third-party cookies is to stay prepared, get out ahead of it, and use this opportunity to get out ahead of your competition and to start testing and learning.” — Andrew Miller, Co-Founder, Workshop Digital
Switching to a marketing strategy built around first and zero-party data will mean changing how you collect, analyze, and derive insights from data. So, if you’ve been reliant on third-party data or underutilizing the first and zero-party data you have, the work you put in to transform your marketing data infrastructure will create a solid foundation for the future.
CallRail has always helped companies collect, analyze, and generate insights from zero and first-party data, which means you can build marketing strategies around CallRail for short-term wins and long-term goals with confidence.
How CallRail helps you build your marketing strategy around first-party data
Focusing on first-party data allows for more reliable and compliant data collection, ensuring your marketing strategies remain effective regardless of industry changes.
It’s time for marketers to audit their tracking tools and audience data to prepare for a world where first-party data are table stakes, not just ‘nice to haves.’”
The nice thing is that most companies are already engaging with their customers in ways that generate lots of first and zero-party data. But many aren’t capitalizing on the phone calls and form submissions they get today.
Here’s how CallRail helps you adjust to a strategy that emphasizes capturing data that you will own.
1. First-party data collection
Whether you’re putting up billboards in your town or running ads in Google Search, you are ultimately looking for people to raise their hands and show interest in your products or services. The two most common ways that happens are through phone calls and form submissions. Without proper multi-touch attribution tracking, you’re missing out on a wealth of data in each interaction. But CallRail can help you close those gaps.
With Call Tracking helping you identify which ads, campaigns, or search terms that got callers to pick up the phone, you’ll simplify and improve lead attribution for calls. With this data, you can track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and optimize spending for the campaigns or keywords that are working best.
On the other hand, Form Tracking provides those same lead attribution insights when a form is submitted on your website, giving you a comprehensive understanding of the ads and keywords that led to a form submission.
“First-party cookies will work by default in all browsers. If you're using CallRail for tracking, it’s considered first-party, and it will continue to work even if third-party cookies are ever deprecated in Chrome.” — Ryan Johnson, Chief Product Officer, CallRail
Most customers see your ads and interact with your brand multiple times in different channels before they reach out. Traditional ways of collecting this data kept these channels siloed away from each other. But with Call Tracking and Form Tracking, you’ve got deep insights into each lead and the performance of your marketing campaigns and ads. With this data, you can build campaigns and ads based on insights from real customers.
2. First-party data analysis
In the olden days, analyzing calls meant sitting down and listening to hours of recorded conversations. Even though the intelligence captured in those calls was valuable, the effort required to make data-driven decisions based on it was too much for most businesses, regardless of size.
But thanks to the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, analyzing first-party data captured in phone calls is now easy and quick.
Conversation Intelligence® by CallRail is an AI-powered tool that constantly records, transcribes, and analyzes each inbound and outbound call. With near-human level accuracy transcriptions ready after each call, Conversation Intelligence spots keywords, automatically tags calls, and qualifies leads with powerful automation rules.
That analysis unlocks a new level of data that can help you spot trends in the moment or identify long-term shifts for what’s driving prospects and customers to call. And, this data can be used to fuel deeper insights to improve marketing and sales efforts.
3. First-party data insights
One impact of the threat to end of third-party cookies was fewer top-of-funnel leads. To counter that, small businesses can use the data they have to improve conversion rates and customer retention. Even if leads aren’t impacted, companies that can derive the best insights from first-party data will ultimately have a leg up on their competition.
“Lean into first-party data as much as you can, whether it's an email list or a customer list. That’s going to be the most valuable asset in your marketing toolset.”
— Andrew Miller, Co-Founder, Workshop Digital
Turning first-party data from conversations into action-worthy insights is easy with CallRail. Premium Conversation Intelligence™, which adds automated call summaries and real-time sentiment analysis for calls, makes it easy to spot trends and issues as they’re happening. For example, Premium Conversation Intelligence can flag concerning calls so managers can provide support in real time, instead of after the call.
It also gives leaders the big picture insights they need to improve marketing campaigns and offers based on common questions and keywords surfaced on calls as well as call sentiment, which can be used to monitor sales and support call quality, and to identify coaching opportunities.
CallRail is constantly adding ways to help you maximize the use of your first-party data insights. With CallRail Labs, where customers can experience cutting-edge features early, we’re using AI to remove marketing blind spots by removing attribution assumptions, automatically identify sales and bookings in phone calls, and highlight your hottest leads based on context clues.
Prioritize first-party data with CallRail
Google’s announcement is a gift for small businesses that can use the extra time to build a smart marketing strategy around their first and zero-party data.
Get started today with a 14-day trial of CallRail and see how you can maximize the value of every call and form fill.
