Zigzag paths mark a customer’s purchasing journey. From Google Searches to Facebook reviews, they stop at multiple points (platforms) before buying a product. Each of these platforms has its way of storing customers’ preferences, weak points, and spending dates. A Customer Data Platform (CDP) software performs the aggregation of this data from different channels.
Technically, CDP is software managed by marketers for collecting and subsequently organizing customer data from multiple touchpoints. Therefore, it is a one-stop destination for getting every customer interaction with your product for generating insights.
Marketers use CDP in combination with other software and systems for generating highly personalized marketing campaigns. However, the most significant advantage of using this software is that it creates an individual profile of the buyers based on the unified data collected from various sources. This single view profile of the buyer is undoubtedly the most usable benefit of a CDP.
Despite this, Google Analytics is more popular than CDPs. Companies of all sizes use such analytics platforms for getting reports and analysis. However, these platforms deliver analysis using online data only. On the contrary, CDPs leverage online and offline data for delivering actionable insights.
The fact that you’ve chosen to read this article states your commitment to perfection. This article will help you get a 360°overview of CDPs and their difference with analytics platforms. You’ll learn more about CDP, its benefits, limitations, and comparisons with DMP and CRM. This comprehensive content will push you in the right direction of aggregating and using customer data for generating actionable insights.
Let’s get to business!
Page Contents
The key distinguishing points of CDPs and analytics platforms are tabulated below.
Sr. No. | Factors | Analytics Platforms | CDPs |
1 | Definition | An analytics platform is a unified ecosystem that uses the current data record for generating general analytical information. | Data captured from online and offline sources in a Customer Data Platform (CDP) is stored in the form of individual customer profiles. |
2 | Technology | They can be cloud-based software provided as SaaS (Software as a Service) for companies or software-based applications. | CDPs allow you to operate data on the go as they come as SaaS (Software as a Service) subscriptions. |
3 | Features | It is a read-only software that helps users analyze data through visual cues like charts and graphs. | CDPs are read and write software where you can insert data automatically and manually, in real-time, to generate individual profiles of your customers. |
4 | Operational convenience | As analytics platforms like Google Analysis provide aggregate-level data, they are easy to manage and operate. | CDPs capture data from disparate platforms and sources like adtech, data warehouse, offline data, CRMs, etc., to generate individual customer profiles for businesses. That’s why they might need some time to get used to it. |
Statistics corroborate the growing demand for CDP Marketing. Investments in the CDP markets are increasing by the year. Data estimates that the market will be evaluated at around USD 10.3 billion by 2025. Like the investors, marketing professionals understand the USPs of this versatile software.
Let’s take a look at some of its use cases.
Many tools and software collect demographic and behavioral data from millions of customers. Unfortunately, the collected data is modified or processed several times before rendering it understandable for the marketer. This processing blurs the exactness of the data and makes it difficult to locate its origins.
A Customer Data Platform strengthens your campaign strategies by providing different data formats. You will find three kinds of data on this software:
With a CDP, marketers have control over the data formats. They can unify and modify this data to process it further.
With the newly acquired comprehensive view of your customer, you can practice segmented targeting to increase your sales.
As shown in the previous sections, you can use CDP for skyrocketing your online and offline sales numbers. Listed below is a summary of all the advantages of CDP and some unheard benefits.
For getting a comprehensive understanding of CDP, you must understand its limitations. The drawbacks of having CDP software are listed below.
A customer data platform performs the following tasks:
For performing these tasks, a CDP gathers information from various channels like:
It also collects first-party data from:
The collection of first-party data helps marketers improvise on their segmented targeting skills. Apart from these, the data from second and third-party sources like weather, income, holidays, occupation, and demographic data are also considered.
CDP | DMP |
CDPs store personally identifiable information like names, email IDs, and names. They work with known and anonymous individuals. | As DMPs share audiences, they cannot store personally identifiable information. |
CDP integrates with almost any type of system, and its use cases scope out to the entire marketing field. | They help in targeting advertisements better. But, their use case is specific to advertising. |
Here, the first-party data is managed with (little) third-party data. | Here, the third-party data is managed with (little) first-party data. |
CDP | CRM |
CDP helps get information about every step taken by a customer with your brand. | CRM provides information about the client and the history of their interaction with your sales team. |
CDPs help with non-customer-facing roles like leadership, product, and marketing. It helps in the decision-making process. | CRMs are primarily used for customer-facing roles like customer support representatives and salespeople. |
A CDP collects data automatically. | Data must be fed manually into a CRM. |
Customer Data Platform Companies provide you with the tools required for outperforming your competitors. With an enterprise-level CDP, you will be making many highly lucrative decisions for your company based on accurate data. In addition, it will empower you with the correct information for targeting the right customers at the right time.
Are you looking for ways to increase your website's conversion rate? According to research, the…
Mobile devices have revolutionized the way we interact with the world, and online businesses are…
If you run an e-commerce store, you know that driving traffic to your website is…
Are you trying to improve the conversion rate of your website? If yes, you need…
Increasing the number of visitors to your website doesn't necessarily improve your conversion rate. After…
Conversion Rate Optimization: What is it and why is it important? Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)…
This website uses cookies.