As we inch our way closer to the end of the quarter and the kickoff of a new year, it’s a good time for all of us to reassess our account-based marketing strategies as a whole. More specifically, we’ve been thinking a lot about the way we and our customers use intent. In a recent webinar, Triblio’s Chief Customer Officer Andrew Mahr presented on “The Future of Intent: Is Your ABM Program Ready?” While leveraging intent has proven to move the needle and produce pipeline results, is the way we’re using the data sustainable?
Need a good recommendation? Look no further than intent.
Today, ABM technology has evolved, as with many industries, towards offering predictions and recommendations. We’ve all witnessed recommendations take off in the music industry, first with Pandora, and now with Spotify. Right now, many of us are probably looking at 2020 Wrapped to learn about the songs we liked best and the genres we should be listening to more. In the same way that Spotify’s algorithms recommend new music that you might not have found on your own, we’re at a point where intent data can help ABM marketers discover new accounts to target on a regular basis.
Central to marketing recommendations is intent data. At Triblio, we’re excited that more of our customers are operationalizing intent, and we’ve been working on building out more account discovery and recommendation capabilities of our platform. Our customers can leverage third-party keyword data and soon first-party keywords to manage dynamic audiences and drive their targeting. However, as we continue to expand on intent data offerings, we’ve had to ask ourselves, is more always better?
More-is-Better vs. Privacy-First
First, before we look at whether the more-is-better philosophy applies to intent data, here’s a quick view of the four major sources of intent in the market:
- Bidstreams – Data is collected by scraping IP activity from display ad inventory logs that come from DSPs. There is no user opt-in.
- DMPs – A profile is created by tracking pixels placed on partner websites, where there is partial opt-in by users, e.g. Oracle’s AddThis data stream.
- Data Co-ops – Similar to DMPs, a tracking pixel is used on partner websites to collect data, but there is a definitive user opt-in. Bombora is an example of a data co-op, and it is compliant under GDPR.
- Media Brands – Publishers, through content brands, events, briefings, reviews, surveys, etc., collect their own information. Users opt in to share data and so this data source is also GDPR compliant.
Andrew’s webinar dives into each of these data sources in more detail. Essentially, his point is, some sources are privacy-first and some aren’t. He points out that the DMP AddThis has gotten shut down, and there are growing risks in using bidstream and DMP technologies.
The last two sources, data co-ops and media brands, are where we see intent data moving in the future. While bidstream and DMP data are currently capable of collecting more data, taking a privacy-first route allows businesses to grow intent-driven campaigns in the long term. As Andrew puts it, “privacy is the gatekeeper for scale.” That’s why Triblio has formed a close partnership with data co-ops like Bombora. Our recent merger with the global media brand IDG is also strategic on the intent data front, allowing us to build on intent data around the world in multiple different languages.
So to answer the question, when it comes to intent, more is not always better. Intent data is only viable and sustainable if it’s compliant with privacy laws. In addition to our most recent webinar, we have a number of resources on intent data. Check out our most recent customer story with Flexera and our “Ask an ABM Expert” episode with Nirosha Methananda, Bombora’s VP of Marketing, and as the landscape continues to evolve, we’ll continue to keep you updated on intent data best practices and use cases.