A new study has found that 31% of marketers do not collect data, due to either a lack of resources or education.

The new report from data solutions company Lotame ‘Data Activation and Success Report’ found that despite 96% of marketers and publishers acknowledging that collected data was either at least ‘somewhat valuable’ or ‘very valuable’, only 69% say their organisations actively engage in data collection.

More than 300 decision makers across digital media and marketing were polled between October and November.

For the 31% of marketers and publishers that do not collect data, exactly one third blame a lack of internal resources, 31% “don’t know where to even begin” and 21% “don’t have the tools or technology needed.”

“Research finds that audience data is still under-leveraged by publishers and marketers,” says Jason Downie, chief strategy officer at Lotame. “For all these organisations, data strategy development, management and execution require sizeable investments in talent and technology – and many simply don’t have the in-house capabilities or infrastructure.”

Of those who do collect audience data, the most common use case (60%) for marketers and publishers was to increase content or messaging relevance; 59% say they employ the data collection to improve campaign performance, 53% to “sell more advertising inventory”, 42% to win new business/RFPs and 32% to sell their data.

“One-third of brands and publishers are creating new monetisation opportunities by becoming second-party data providers,” continues Downie. “This speaks to a demand for data quality. Second-party data is another company’s first-party data sold directly from the source. This means you understand where the data is coming from and how reliable it is from the beginning. In the transparency era, this is incredibly powerful.”

When asked how they benchmark data strategy success, 56% of publishers say an “increase in returning visitors, uniques and page views” was key, followed by the optimisation of advertising inventory (49%) and an increase in advertising spend (46%).

“Publishers are focused on driving traffic and growing audience,” says Downie. “This has a cascade effect on their ad success and the value they can claim for partners. So, it’s no surprise that data is being evaluated by traffic volume and page views.”

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Image credit:Stephen Dawson