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Leveraging Third-Party Data on Social Media Platforms

  • - Sandor Jones
  • 3 min read

For data-driven marketers, a well-rounded campaign strategy involves being able to reach your target audience wherever they may browse. Based on a recent study, consumers spend an average of two hours a day on social media — that’s time allotted where you may be able to reach consumers when they’re most engaged. But engaging with consumers on social media can feel like a shot in the dark when you don’t have a well-rounded picture of your target audience, and first-party data alone doesn’t offer the insights you need to reach your consumers on social channels. Third-party data helps you extend the reach and accuracy of targeting on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. 

How the Data Works for You

Augmenting first-party data with third-party data can help improve campaign performance for advertisers across multiple verticals.

  • Retailers can reach customers who fit the target financial and demographic customer profile
  • Financial services brands can leverage de-identified demographic and purchase data to personalize credit card offers
  • Marketers in the entertainment industry can leverage location data to reach frequent movie or live event goers
  • The travel and hospitality industry can leverage transaction and wealth data to use spending habits to identify prospects in various relevant categories, like food and dining, air travel, and more

Previously, those advertising on Facebook could take advantage of third-party data from its platform. However, Facebook updates last year removed its Partner Categories feature for advertisers, leaving marketers and advertisers to source third-party data from outside the walled gardens. Additionally, marketers sourcing third-party data to enhance social campaigns must make sure the data sourced is high-quality. Make sure you have a clear picture of your third-party data, ensuring that it is ethically sourced before activating it to enhance existing data.

LiveRamp’s Data Marketplace offers third-party data for Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, with the ability to segment for demographic, contextual, behavioral, or purchase-based. Additionally, data sellers in the LiveRamp Data Marketplace are reviewed annually to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and industry best practices. These practices safeguard advertisers and provide peace of mind that data sourced from LiveRamp is ethical, and consumers are provided notice, opt-out, and choice management. 

Applying Third-Party Data

Advertisers activating third-party data from the Data Marketplace are already seeing the benefits of activating on social media platforms. When emergency home repair company HomeServe wanted to drive registration for a home makeover contest on Facebook, they activated the “Length of Home Ownership” audience from the LiveRamp Data Marketplace. By leveraging Facebook’s broad reach and further refining the audience with the syndicated third-party audience, they drove over 9,000 contest submissions in less than a month.

Advertisers can access syndicated audiences in the LiveRamp Data Marketplace based on campaign and segmenting needs, or can customize audiences from more than 180 providers. For more information on the benefits of activating third-party data in your social media campaigns, watch this short webinar on activating third-party data for Facebook. For more information on how you can get started with third-party data for social media and how it will benefit your campaigns, reach out to [email protected]

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