1.6 The Pros and Cons of Third-Party Tools
Are there third-party tools that can be used to mine and make sense of the trove of digital data out there? Yes, many.
The Good
The most obvious benefit of using a third-party analytics tool for evaluating marketing data is the independent nature of the third-party tool itself. Since these research tools are not owned by the platforms themselves, they can be more objective and balanced in how they represent the data.
This objectivity is valuable as we seek to maximize the effectiveness of our marketing budgets while staying firmly on the side of ethical and legal marketing practices. And as we have seen, as these tools continue to evolve and platforms continue to find ways to connect their users with marketers, not all features and data sets should be used.
The Bad
Simply put, as the platforms control the data, they will not always publish the same detail to independent, third-party analytics groups as they would for their internal product. And expecting the platforms to do so is probably naive. Each of the major digital content/social media platforms (Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Tencent, Netflix, Amazon, Baidu, Disney, Verizon, Snap, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.) collects, uses, and monetizes your data (your online paper trail of searches, likes, clicks, purchases, etc.) and are doing all they can to maximize the value of your data. Sharing isn’t one of the rules that they play by.
Image by Erik Mclean via Unsplash.
In fact, Apple, Google, and Epic Games (the parent company of Fortnite) are still slugging it out in lawsuits concerning their “walled gardens” of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store regarding the revenue generated by these companies through apps sold therein. For a quick reminder that billions of dollars are at stake for companies in (not) sharing the user information and relationships that they have created, give this segment from NPR a quick read or listen.