Why Businesses Need to Collect First-Party Data
In an era when browsers (such as Chrome) are phasing out third-party cookies, companies are forced to rethink their approach to customer data. First-party data is information that a business collects directly through its own channels: website, application, email newsletters, and surveys. This information includes visitor behavior on the site (viewed pages, items in the cart, time on site), past purchase data, completed forms with contacts and preferences. Why is all this necessary for business?
First, first-party data allows for a deeper understanding of your audience: their interests, needs, and decision-making stages. With accurate information, a company can create more personalized content and offers. As a result, marketing campaigns become more effective, conversions and average order value increase, and customer loyalty improves. Second, first-party data provides independence from third-party sources. In conditions where third-party trackers are blocked for privacy reasons, relying on your own data means that you continue to receive valuable analytics and can target ads without violating confidentiality. This is especially important for compliance with strict GDPR requirements and similar data protection laws — information remains under your business's control and is used with user consent.
Finally, proprietary customer data is a strategic asset. It's exclusive: competitors don't have access to it. Having accumulated a knowledge base about your customers, the company can make informed decisions in marketing and product development. In a world without third-party cookies, first-party data effectively becomes the new "fuel" for precise marketing. Let's consider how it can be collected and applied in practice using modern tools.
Apache Unomi: Real-Time Segmentation and Personalization
To transform raw user behavior data into valuable insights and segments, you need a specialized tool. Apache Unomi is an open Customer Data Platform (CDP) designed to collect and unify visitor data from different sources into a single profile. Simply put, Unomi helps your site remember each visitor and their actions to then use this information for segmentation and personalization.
How does this work in practice? A special tracking code is installed on the site (similar to analytics), which sends events to Unomi. Every click, page view, adding an item to the cart, or filling out a form is recorded by the system. Unomi creates a profile for each visitor — initially anonymous, and when an email or name is received, it is linked to a real person. All user actions accumulate in the profile: which pages they visited, what they downloaded, which product categories they viewed, etc. Thanks to this, you can see the complete customer journey on the site.
The main advantage of Apache Unomi is real-time segmentation. You set up rules and segment criteria in advance (for example, "potential furniture buyer" — visited the furniture section more than 3 times but didn't buy anything). As soon as a specific visitor meets the segment conditions, Unomi immediately categorizes them into the right group. This happens instantly, without manual analysis. The system also has access to reaction scenarios: for example, if a user enters the "abandoned cart" segment, the site can immediately show them a personalized offer (discount or reminder). Thus, Unomi is useful not only for passive data collection but also for active personalization of the experience during the visit. The business gets the ability to "recognize" the visitor with each visit and respond to their behavior in the most relevant way.
Importantly, Apache Unomi is built with privacy in mind. Since all data is stored with you, it's easier to comply with GDPR rules: the system allows you to manage user consent, store and anonymize information as required. As a result, Unomi gives the company complete control over first-party data: who your customer is, what they're interested in, what stage of decision-making they're at — and all this is immediately visible and ready to use.
Matomo: Website Behavior Analytics Based on First-Party Data
When collecting data, it's equally important to analyze it correctly. This is where Matomo comes in — a powerful web analytics system that allows you to fully own your data. Matomo is installed on your own server or hosting, and all data about user behavior on the site belongs only to you, not to third-party corporations. This is first-party analytics, serving as an alternative to Google Analytics, especially relevant in light of restrictions on third-party cookies and privacy requirements.
How does Matomo help understand website behavior? First, it tracks the entire standard set of metrics: visits, page views, bounce rates, conversions, traffic sources. You see where visitors come from, which pages attract them, where they leave the site. Second, Matomo provides tools for deeper analysis: heatmaps, user action recording, conversion funnels, audience segmentation by campaigns or by new/returning visitors. Thanks to this, the business owner gets a clear picture of how people interact with their site: what interests them, what obstacles they encounter on the way to purchase, which audience segments are most valuable.
The key advantage of Matomo is operation without third-party limitations. Since tracking is done on behalf of your domain, data collection is not blocked by browsers and ad blockers as much as external trackers. In addition, Matomo is easy to configure to meet GDPR requirements: you can anonymize IP addresses, respect Do Not Track, and obtain explicit consent through banners. For business, this means that analytics continues even in conditions where old methods are losing effectiveness. All data remains confidential and accurate.
Using Matomo, a marketer can identify patterns (for example, that users from a certain channel spend more time studying a product or make repeat purchases more often) and use this to form hypotheses for segmentation. By combining Matomo data with Unomi, you get both macro and micro views of your audience. Matomo answers the question "what is happening on the site as a whole?", while Unomi focuses on "who exactly is this visitor and what are they interested in?". Together, these tools provide a comprehensive strategy for working with first-party data.
Segmentation and Activation: Turning Website Data into Precise Advertising
So, we have collected data and formed user segments — the next step is to use them for precise marketing. Segmentation without further action is merely an analytical exercise. The value of first-party data is revealed when you begin the activation of these segments in advertising campaigns. Simply put, you need to connect your website audience with advertising display tools so that each customer group receives a relevant message.
How to implement this in practice? Through integration with advertising platform pixels — Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Bing Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc. These pixels are code fragments embedded in your website pages. When visiting or performing certain actions (e.g., visited a product page, clicked "Add to Cart", registered), the corresponding pixel sends an event to the advertising system.
Imagine that in Unomi you created a segment "Interested in Electronics" — users who have viewed the electronics section more than three times in recent weeks. When such a visitor comes to the site again, Unomi marks them as "interested". At this moment, the Facebook pixel with a custom event or parameter indicating membership in the segment can quietly trigger on the page. Facebook receives a signal: this user is part of the 'Electronics_Interest' audience. Similarly, you can send an event to Google Ads (for example, add the user to the "ElectronicsSegment" remarketing list).
What happens next? An audience for remarketing or lookalike is formed on the advertising platform's side. In our example, in the Facebook Ads account, you'll see a group of users marked with interest in electronics on your site. Now you can launch a separate campaign for them: show ads for popular gadgets, offer a promo code for electronics, or demonstrate reviews from satisfied tech buyers. Thanks to first-party data, these ads will hit the target precisely — after all, you're targeting not by general interests collected by third parties, but by specific behavior of people on your site.
It's important to note that such segment activation is possible on different platforms and is not limited to social networks. For example, LinkedIn Ads will allow you to target those who visited certain pages (relevant for B2B services), and Bing Ads – to reach an audience that searched for your products and entered the site. In all cases, you share with the platform only signals received from your own users, without transferring personal data to third parties. For you, the main thing is that your valuable first-party information starts working, returning visitors and turning them into customers.
Practical Examples and Benefits of the First-Party Approach
To better understand the benefits of this approach, let's consider several scenarios of how first-party data helps businesses from different sectors:
E-commerce
A customer views several shoe models, adds a pair to the cart, but doesn't complete the order. Thanks to Unomi, you know that this is a repeat visit and the user already has an item in the cart. You segment such visitors as "cart abandoners". Immediately after the customer leaves the site, through the Google Ads pixel, they are added to the remarketing list. Then the user sees an ad: a banner with that same pair of shoes and an offer of a 10% discount valid for the next few days. The result — a significant portion of abandoned carts turn into sales because the ad was maximally relevant and timely.
Service Industry
Let's say you represent an online real estate selection service. A potential client sets detailed search parameters on your site (city, budget, property type) but doesn't yet leave a request. This data goes into Matomo and Unomi — you know that the person is interested in, for example, buying an apartment in a specific district. You categorize them into the segment "interested in real estate (potential buyer)". Now several actions are possible: first, on the site itself during the next visit, you can show this user a block with a selection of apartments in exactly the district and price range they were looking for (content personalization). Second, through Facebook or LinkedIn, you launch an ad with a link to the case "How we helped a family find their dream apartment in [their city]" — content directly related to their interest. As a result, the client feels an individual approach, and you increase the chance that they will return and leave a request.
B2B Company
You sell business software. Your site has valuable content — white papers, webinars. A user from a small company downloaded your research (leaving their email) and visited the "Solutions for Small Business" section several times. These actions are recorded in Unomi: the visitor's profile is enriched with information about their area of interest. The system assigned them a high engagement score on the scoring system. Your sales department receives a notification (through Unomi integration with CRM) that this contact is a hot lead. The marketing department simultaneously adds them to a segment for advertising campaigns. Through LinkedIn Ads, you start showing them ads about a free trial period of your software or an invitation to a personal demonstration. This example demonstrates the benefit of data control: you won't miss a promising client, as the first-party data system highlighted them among hundreds of anonymous visitors in time.
In all these scenarios, there are common benefits of the first-party approach. Businesses get higher targeting accuracy — advertising or content is based on the real actions of a specific person, not on average audience characteristics. This leads to an increase in conversion rate and ROI of advertising campaigns: the budget is spent on those who are highly likely to perform the target action.
The user experience improves: the client is shown what is actually relevant to them, without unnecessary advertising noise. In addition, the company maintains control over the data: all information is stored in its own database, transparently and securely. At any time, you can check where a particular segment came from, adjust the strategy, or comply with a user's request to delete data. This is flexibility that is not available when using third-party data.
Finally, first-party data increases marketing sustainability. The rules of the game in the digital world are changing — platforms change cookie policies, new restrictions appear, but your own knowledge base about customers stays with you. You are less dependent on sudden changes in Google or Facebook algorithms, as you are building marketing on a foundation that you control yourself.
Implementation and Support: How CIMA Will Help Implement a First-Party Strategy
Implementing a strategy based on Matomo and Apache Unomi requires a thoughtful approach. It is necessary to set up analytics, integrate the segmentation system, think through the logic of rules, and ensure that everything works correctly and legally. For small and medium-sized businesses, such tasks can be challenging — not every company has web analytics, development, and privacy configuration specialists on staff. This is where our agency CIMA comes to the rescue.
We work with businesses across the EU and have extensive experience setting up first-party ecosystems "turnkey". Simply put, we will set up Matomo for you: install the tracking system on the site, create understandable dashboards with necessary metrics, ensure correct data collection in accordance with GDPR requirements. In parallel, we will deploy and configure Apache Unomi: integrate the platform with your site and, if necessary, with other channels (CRM, email newsletters, etc.), and together with you determine key segments and events. Thanks to 14 years of work in internet marketing, we know well what scenarios work in different niches — be it e-commerce, services, or B2B. We will help form segmentation rules that truly reflect your customers' behavior and business goals.
Our support is not limited to technical installation. We will train your employees to use the new system: read Matomo reports, interpret Unomi segments, understand how to launch remarketing campaigns based on collected data. Also, in the initial period, we will accompany your advertising campaigns to make sure that segments are correctly transmitted to platforms and give the desired result. Thus, risks are minimized, and you quickly feel the return on investment in your own data.
Conclusion
Personalized marketing without third-party cookies is no longer fantasy, but the new norm. The combination of Matomo and Apache Unomi transforms your site into a source of rich first-party data and managed segments. This allows you to build communication with clients "pointwise": show the right message to the right person at the right time. You no longer need to rely on outdated tracking methods — you own the data about your audience yourself. For small and medium-sized businesses, this is a chance to compete at the level of personalization with large players without violating user privacy. By starting to collect your own data correctly today, tomorrow you will gain a tangible advantage in advertising accuracy and customer loyalty. And the CIMA team is always ready to help you go this way — from the first settings to full-fledged campaigns based on the first-party information of your business.