Question 1

What is first-party data?

Accepted Answer

First-party data is information a business collects directly from its own customers and visitors, with consent, through its own channels such as its website, app, CRM, and email. Because the business collects it firsthand, it owns the data and can use it without relying on third parties.

Question 2

Why is first-party data important?

Accepted Answer

First-party data is accurate, privacy-compliant, and durable. As third-party cookies disappear and privacy rules tighten, it is becoming the most reliable foundation for marketing, sales, attribution, and AI. It is also the only customer data you truly own.

Question 3

Is first-party data better than third-party data?

Accepted Answer

For most uses, yes. First-party data is more accurate, more compliant, and more durable because it comes directly from your audience. Third-party data is purchased from outside sources, decays quickly, and carries more privacy and quality risk.

Question 4

How do companies collect first-party data?

Accepted Answer

Through their own channels: website tracking, forms, account sign-ups, purchases, email engagement, surveys, support interactions, and app usage. The key is collecting it with clear consent and connecting it into a unified view of each customer.

Question 5

Is first-party data privacy compliant?

Accepted Answer

First-party data is the most privacy-friendly category because it is collected directly, with consent, and under your own control. It still must be handled responsibly, with proper consent management, but it is far easier to keep compliant than borrowed third-party data.

Question 6

How does first-party data help with AI?

Accepted Answer

AI models and agents are only as good as the data behind them. First-party data gives AI clean, owned, trustworthy information about your real customers, making automation, personalization, and intelligence both more effective and safer to deploy.

Question 7

What is first-party data activation?

Accepted Answer

Activation is the process of putting your first-party data to work, syncing it into marketing, sales, advertising, and AI systems so it drives audience building, personalization, scoring, and automation rather than sitting unused in disconnected tools.

Question 8

What tools are needed for a first-party data strategy?

Accepted Answer

At minimum you need ways to collect data with consent, store and unify it, resolve identities, and activate it across your channels. RAEK provides this as a connected ecosystem rather than a stack of disconnected tools.

Question 9

How can small businesses use first-party data?

Accepted Answer

Small businesses can identify more of their website visitors, build owned email and SMS audiences, personalize follow-up, score leads, and reduce ad spend by targeting people they already know. RAEK is built specifically for this.

Question 10

How does first-party data improve advertising?

Accepted Answer

It lets you build owned, consent-based audiences and lookalikes, retarget known visitors without third-party cookies, and measure performance more reliably, which lowers acquisition cost and improves return on ad spend.

Question 11

What is the difference between first-party cookies and first-party data?

Accepted Answer

A first-party cookie is one small technical method of collecting data on your own site. First-party data is the broader asset, all the information you gather directly from customers across every channel, not just cookies.

Question 12

How does RAEK help with first-party data?

Accepted Answer

RAEK is the data ecosystem for the AI economy. It helps businesses collect, store, process, enrich, and activate first-party data, turning scattered customer information into AI-ready infrastructure across marketing, sales, and AI workflows.

Metric	Figure	Source
Businesses using exclusively first-party data for personalizationShare that personalize using only first-party data; most still blend in other sources.	37%	Twilio Segment, The State of Personalization 2024Accessed June 11, 2026
Companies that have implemented a customer data platform (CDP)Share of companies that have deployed a CDP, with roughly another third evaluating one.	41%	Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Customer Data Platforms (2024)Accessed June 11, 2026
Revenue lift attributed to first-party data activationRevenue uplift brands report from advanced first-party data use, alongside roughly 1.5x cost savings.	2.9x	BCG, Delivering on the Promise of First-Party Data (2021)Accessed June 11, 2026
Businesses increasing their personalization investmentPersonalization is the main activation path for owned data, and investment in it keeps climbing.	69%	Twilio Segment, The State of Personalization 2024Accessed June 11, 2026

Metric	Figure	Source
Major browsers blocking third-party cookies by defaultSafari (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) and Firefox (Total Cookie Protection) block by default; Chrome retains them under user controls.	Safari + Firefox	Apple WebKit Tracking PreventionAccessed June 11, 2026
Global browser share without default third-party cookiesCombined worldwide share of Safari and Firefox, both of which block third-party cookies by default (May 2026 snapshot); the figure shifts monthly.	~20%	StatCounter Global Stats, Browser Market Share Worldwide (May 2026)Accessed June 11, 2026
Apple App Tracking Transparency opt-in rateGlobal opt-in four years after launch, up from roughly a quarter at rollout; varies widely by region and app vertical.	~50%	AppsFlyer, ATT four-year analysis (April 2025)Accessed June 11, 2026
Status of Chrome third-party cookie deprecationOn April 22, 2025 Google said it will keep third-party cookies in Chrome under existing controls and drop the planned deprecation prompt; signal loss continues elsewhere.	Retained	Google, Privacy Sandbox next steps (April 2025)Accessed June 11, 2026

Metric	Figure	Source
Increase in customer acquisition cost over recent yearsRise in CAC over eight years; brands now lose about $29 for each new customer acquired.	+222%	SimplicityDX, The Customer Acquisition Crisis (2022)Accessed June 11, 2026
Cost of acquiring a new customer vs retaining oneAcquiring a new customer is widely cited as five to twenty-five times costlier than keeping an existing one.	5-25x	Harvard Business Review, The Value of Keeping the Right Customers (2014)Accessed June 11, 2026
Meta revenue impact disclosed from iOS App Tracking TransparencyMeta told investors Apple's opt-in tracking prompt would cut its 2022 revenue by about $10 billion, a concrete read on what signal loss costs ad platforms.	$10B	Meta Platforms, Q4 2021 earnings call (CFO David Wehner)Accessed June 11, 2026

Metric	Figure	Source
Marketers using or piloting AI in their workflowsShare of marketers using at least one form of AI, from predictive to generative to agentic.	75%	Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (2026)Accessed June 11, 2026
AI-using marketing teams reporting a data barrier to personalizationNearly all teams using AI hit at least one data-related obstacle, underscoring that AI output depends on data quality.	98%	Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (2026)Accessed June 11, 2026
Marketers fully satisfied with how their data is unifiedOnly about a quarter are completely satisfied with data unification, a core gap in becoming AI-ready.	26%	Salesforce, State of Marketing, 10th Edition (2026)Accessed June 11, 2026

First-Party Data Statistics