Building a First-Party Data Strategy Before It's Too Late
With third-party cookies disappearing, first-party data is the new competitive moat. A framework for collecting, structuring, and activating your own data.
The deprecation of third-party cookies isn't news anymore — but most businesses still haven't built a real first-party data strategy. They know it matters. They just haven't prioritized it because retargeting still works (for now).
What first-party data actually means
First-party data is any information you collect directly from your audience with their consent. Email addresses, purchase history, on-site behavior, survey responses, support interactions. It's not just a privacy-compliant alternative to cookies — it's inherently higher quality because it comes from people who've already engaged with your brand.
A practical framework
We recommend a three-phase approach: Collect (audit every touchpoint where you can gather data with consent), Structure (pipe it into a centralized store with consistent schemas), and Activate (use it to power personalization, lookalike audiences, and predictive models). Most businesses stall at phase one because they don't have the infrastructure for phase two.
The businesses that build this muscle now will have a compounding advantage. Every interaction adds to your dataset. Every dataset improvement makes your marketing smarter. Start before you're forced to.
Written by
Krishna Moorthy
Founder & CEO at TBI
Krishna founded TBI in 2019 with a mission to integrate intelligence into every business. He leads strategy across AI, performance marketing, and digital transformation from offices in Kochi, Dubai, and California.
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