It can feel devastating when a trusted partnership ends. And with Oracle shutting its ad business this coming September 30, marketers may be concerned about where to buy their audience data.
Most transitions aren’t as simple as making a few calls and pushing a couple of buttons. Marketers need to do research, ask questions and check prices, all while prioritizing quality. They must act fast to find a partner who can live up to or surpass what they had with Oracle, and right now that might feel like a bit of a scramble.
This is the perfect opportunity to evaluate what’s important to you as you choose your next data provider. The data still exists, and you can get it.
Ask the right questions with potential data partners
If a customer needs a new TV, they’re going to know everything about every TV out there. It’s their money, and they’re spending it and bringing this thing into their house. It’s the same way with a data marketplace. Now is the time for you to learn about your potential data partners, and choose the one that’s right for you.
If Oracle gave you nine things you liked, maybe you need seven of those from the next provider and a few new things from someone else. Take that as the criterion when you consider data marketplace A versus data marketplace B. Do they refresh their data consistently? What privacy policies do they honor? Will they share their vetting processes for their own data providers?
Ask about their opt-out and opt-in policies, and what type of identifiers work with their protocol. What’s their response time? Do they have tech people in-house or is this outsourced? If they’re using a pixel to get that data, can you see the pixel? Can you see their privacy policy page? All this matters, because it determines what’s going into your data. You might not get all of those answers, but the answers you do get will let you know if that data provider is for you.
At Stirista, we are very stringent when we talk to data partners. We might ask about their policies regarding General Data Protection Regulation or the California Consumer Privacy Act, as well as their thoughts about Daniel’s Law, which prohibits disclosure of the residential addresses of certain persons.
Again, in choosing your new data provider, you need to determine whether they can confirm that their data is not being used to target specific groups for negative things. We take these things seriously.
Don’t be afraid to ask a potential partner these questions:
Data refresh: How often is the data updated? Understanding the frequency of data refreshes is crucial for ensuring data accuracy and relevance.
Privacy policies: What specific privacy regulations does the company adhere to? This question can help determine the company’s commitment to protecting user data.
Data provider vetting: Can they outline the process used to evaluate and select data providers? Transparency about data sourcing is essential for trust and reliability.
Opt-out/opt-in policies: How can users control the collection and use of their data? Understanding user preferences is vital for ethical data practices.
Identifiers: What types of user identifiers are compatible with their system? This question clarifies the technical requirements for integrating with the platform.
Response time: How quickly can they typically provide data or insights after a query? Efficient response times are crucial for real-time decision-making.
In-house vs. outsourced: Is their data processing and analysis handled by in-house staff or outsourced? This question determines the level of control and expertise within the company.
Pixel visibility: Is the tracking pixel used for data collection visible to users, or is it transparent? Understanding pixel behavior is important for transparency and compliance.
Privacy policy accessibility: Can they provide a link to your privacy policy for review? Easy access to privacy information is essential for user trust.
Find a different route to get to the same place
With Oracle exiting the field, the data is not going away. You just need to access it differently. If you worked with Oracle, you might have already gotten data from Stirista. We had a close partnership with them, thanks to our 30,000 audience segments, including intent and loyalty signals in 17 industries. We bring data accuracy and deliverability, with more than 100 million email impressions and 200 million digital impressions monthly via our email service platform (ESP) and demand side platform (DSP).
You can get our data on a lot of other marketplaces also, such as LiveRamp, The Trade Desk, Lotame and TruAudience. And while other data providers might use an onboarder to get the data to you, we have our own tech team to handle this smoothly. With segment-to-ID mapping, we can say, “You were using this exact segment in Oracle’s platform, ID 123, a Toyota Camry. We have that same Toyota Camry segment in LiveRamp, and here’s the ID.” It’s the same exact data from us.
The lesson: Just as a consumer shouldn’t wait until a vendor has gone away to become more informed, so shouldn’t you wait until a data marketplace closes down to understand if the data you’re using is the best available. You can reevaluate that all the time, and you don’t have to be beholden to where you currently shop.
Stirista can help you succeed on many levels. We’re playing a part in guiding this narrative by the work that we’re doing, and we can help bridge this gap.
