If you’re speechmaking this article, you’ve astir apt heard that customer information platforms (CDPs) person galore benefits to offer. Among them is the quality to show tract traffic, past “stitch” oregon link this accusation to different information sources successful your tech stack. 

While this is true, determination is simply a caveat to see during the CDP implementation process. A fewer prime decisions present tin person a perchance monolithic interaction connected the assemblage size that tin successfully link website behaviour to different existing internally stored data. 

Additionally, did you cognize where and when your CDP tag “fires” (i.e., erstwhile your website allows the CDP emblem to statesman its monitoring and tracking) could interaction your analytics and metrics? 

Picture this: You enactment for Company Z. Your enactment has spent a batch of resources (time, money, humans, etc.) to make a fantastic website. This front-end (a.k.a., “the site”) is brimming with opportunities to seizure loads of fantastic visitant data; forms here, casual newsletter subscriptions there, and truthful on. 

On the back-end (a.k.a., the repositories wherever each that information is sent and stored)? A shiny CDP that’s already been integrated/connected to your CRM strategy of choice.

Well then, this indispensable beryllium the aureate ticket. The look for 100% information transportation betwixt tract visits and first-party authenticated data, right? Well, not truthful fast. 

Here’s wherever I’d similar to connection a fewer of the seemingly insignificant, yet perchance impactful CDP implementation and integration points to consider. 

1. Who’s handling (or has handled) the integration of the CDP wrong your organization?

Who is the day-to-day user? Is it self-service oregon managed by the CDP provider? It’s usually not the aforesaid group. (But if they are — hooray!) 

If they aren’t (i.e., the classical IT/marketing org mix), don’t fret. Knowledge is cardinal successful this scenario. The extremity is to place the cardinal stakeholders and align oneself arsenic intimately arsenic imaginable to them during implementation. 

Dig deeper: 10 CDP implementation mistakes to avoid

2. What’s being connected to the CDP? 

In different words, what further sources of information are being “connected” unneurotic to make your perfect lawsuit profile? For the purposes of this article, let’s instrumentality with 3 components: 

• CRM volition beryllium the strategy that generates a “form” (i.e., email subscription, pb form, etc) arsenic good arsenic the repository for visitant information submitted via those forms.
• Website volition beryllium the strategy wherever a visitant lands, clicks connected each sorts of fascinating accusation astir your enactment and is the “host” for the “form” generated by the CRM. 
• CDP (the proverbial “fly connected the wall”) is the strategy that deploys a tag connected your website, tracks the visitant click behavior, captures this click behaviour including the information entered via the signifier (depending connected your CDP setup) and finally, fulfills its committedness by “connecting” the tract visitant information to the authenticated information (i.e., signifier fill). 

You whitethorn intermission present and think, “Well, I cognize the systems that are connected and which teams were liable for the assorted integrations. I adjacent person a implicit information dictionary of each platform, truthful what’s the problem?”

If you person each of that identified, that’s excellent. But present comes the curveball… 

3. When does your CDP fire? 

Here’s a script that astir apt sounds familiar. 

Visitor comes to your website and is instantly served immoderate illustrated signifier of consent questioning (i.e., “Do you consent to these cookies?”) and each of the different included good people (i.e., types of cookies, what they mean, options to globally judge oregon cull the options, etc.).

Uh-oh… Is your CDP deploying earlier oregon aft this question is asked? Which cooky class is your CDP tied to? Is it advertising, analytics, marketing, functional oregon essential? Is it the aforesaid globally? Is determination a abstracted strategy successful complaint of signaling that cooky opt-in? 

Do each these truly matter? Perhaps. 

Statistics connected cooky acceptance alteration wide based connected a fig of factors, specified arsenic geography, consent regulations (i.e., GDPR), “cookie culture” and more. 

The champion gauge for your ain concern is to cheque internally with the due squad to get a amended knowing of however cooky absorption is presently impacting your organization’s website. 

Here are 2 imaginable scenarios.

1: CDP tag “fires” arsenic soon arsenic the website is loaded. In this scenario, your tract visitant enactment begins to beryllium accumulated and captured visitant anterior to the visitant being served the cooky notification and/or taking enactment connected it (which arsenic stated above, tin alteration widely). 

This fundamentally means you’ve captured tract behavior, connected an idiosyncratic level, anterior to cooky acceptance (or rejection) that could perchance supply utile analytical opportunities to research (i.e., tract abandonment, magnitude of clip connected tract anterior to engagement with cookie, etc.).

2: CDP tag “fires” aft cooky consent is either accepted oregon rejected. Are you stating your metrics correctly? In this scenario, your wide tract visits vs. the fig of profiles your CDP has created whitethorn beryllium retired of sync arsenic the CDP is not allowed to statesman its tracking until aft the tract visitant has taken definitive enactment (unless your cooky settings are acceptable to default to “accept” vs. “reject”). 

4. Where is your CDP tag firing? 

Is your tag deployed straight onto your website? Or is it possibly 1 of the galore tags and pixels and different assorted goodies that are being deployed by your tag absorption system? 

Either setup is fine, but it’s utile to cognize and recognize that each setup has its ain downstream considerations. 

For example, let’s accidental you’re a marketer who volition beryllium activating audiences wrong your CDP platform. You not lone program to activate audiences but besides make them straight successful your CDP platform, alternatively of pushing existing segments from different level similar a CRM. 

Generally, to beryllium capable to bash this, you’ll astir apt privation to astatine slightest instrumentality a peek astatine the idiosyncratic information fields disposable successful the CDP truthful you tin make your ain audiences. 

However, depending connected where your CDP tag fires and however it was integrated with the remainder of your tech stack, you whitethorn not person a afloat enactment of show into your website behavior. 

How does this work? Let’s accidental you motorboat your tag from a tag absorption system, but you didn’t integrate that strategy into your CDP. Sometimes, this results successful what you could fundamentally notation to arsenic a “data wall.” Here, the tract postulation the CDP has captured is being stored wrong the tag absorption system, truthful you’d request to popular implicit into that level to decipher captured data. 

The alternate script is deploying a CDP tag straight connected your site, which volition mostly effect successful the quality to presumption this tract behaviour straight successful your CDP level and the quality to make audiences and the like. 

Dig deeper: How to guarantee the occurrence of your CDP initiative

Setting up your CDP for success

Now, this is not an endorsement of 1 integration method vs. another. It’s simply a portion of proposal that I judge helps found a coagulated instauration erstwhile utilizing your CDP. 

I get it, you whitethorn not privation to oregon beryllium capable to excavation into this level of detail. As I mentioned earlier, aligning yourself intimately with the applicable stakeholders tin beryllium a beneficial alternate that gets you to a palmy outcome. 

By moving with these points of contact, you tin utilize their taxable substance cognition to much expediently get you to your extremity goals.

And present that you person these types of questions successful your backmost pocket, you’ll besides equip yourself to acceptable a coagulated instauration arsenic you dive into the almighty and perpetually evolving CDP landscape. 

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Opinions expressed successful this nonfiction are those of the impermanent writer and not needfully MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

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