Zero-Party Data
Data & TargetingDefinition
Zero-party data is information a customer deliberately and proactively shares with you, such as preferences, intentions, interests and survey answers. Unlike first-party data, which you observe from behaviour, zero-party data is volunteered, which makes it both more accurate and easier to use lawfully for personalisation and targeting.
Zero-party data is the cleanest signal you can hold because the customer hands it to you on purpose. When someone tells you their clothing size, their budget range, the problem they are trying to solve or the type of content they want to receive, you do not have to infer anything. That is the key difference from first-party data: first-party data is what you observe (pages viewed, products bought, time on site), while zero-party data is what the person explicitly declares. Observation can be wrong or ambiguous, a declared preference rarely is.
For advertisers this matters more as third-party cookies fade and behavioural inference gets harder. Zero-party data gives you intent straight from the source, which you can feed into segmentation, email flows, on-site personalisation and audience lists for the ad platforms. A quiz that asks a new visitor what they are shopping for, a preference centre in your newsletter, or a short post-purchase survey all generate data you can act on immediately. Because the customer chose to share it, the lawful basis is usually clearer and the trust cost is lower than with covert tracking.
You collect zero-party data through explicit, valuable exchanges: product finder quizzes, preference centres, onboarding questions, polls, wishlists and surveys. The customer gives information in return for something useful, such as better recommendations, relevant offers or a personalised experience. You then store it against the customer profile in your CRM or CDP and activate it, for example by uploading consented segments to Customer Match, tailoring landing pages, or triggering the right email sequence. The exchange must feel fair, so the value you give back has to be real and immediate.
Zero-party data matters because it is durable, accurate and increasingly the most defensible way to personalise. As privacy rules tighten and cookies disappear, the data customers willingly give you becomes a genuine asset that competitors cannot replicate or buy. It powers sharper targeting, higher-converting personalisation and stronger retention, all without the legal and ethical baggage of tracking people without their knowledge. The advertisers who invest in collecting it well will out-target those still trying to guess intent from fading behavioural signals.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Zero-party data is volunteered by the customer on purpose, like a stated preference or budget. First-party data is observed by you from behaviour, like pages viewed or items bought. Zero-party data is more accurate because it removes guessing, while first-party data captures what people actually do rather than what they say.
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Through fair value exchanges: product quizzes, preference centres, onboarding questions, wishlists and surveys. The customer shares information in return for better recommendations or relevant offers. The key is to ask only what you will genuinely use and to give back real value, otherwise completion rates collapse.
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No. It still concerns personal data and needs a lawful basis, transparency about use and respect for the customer's rights. The advantage is that consent and purpose are usually clear because the person actively chose to share it, which makes compliant activation far simpler than with covert tracking.
Turn shared preferences into sharper targeting
We help you collect zero-party data the right way and activate it across your ad platforms, so your targeting and personalisation rely on what customers actually told you, not on cookies that are disappearing.