What a CDP does
- Collects behavioral and transaction data in real time
- Merges data about the same person from different sources (identity resolution)
- Builds segments, such as “bought twice, but not in the last 90 days”
- Sends audiences and data to email, advertising and analytics tools
- Manages consent and privacy preferences
CDP vs CRM
A CRM manages relationships and sales activity, mostly with data entered by teams. A CDP automatically gathers large volumes of first-party data, especially behavior, and makes it available to other systems. Many companies use both.
Examples
Well-known CDPs include Segment, Bloomreach, Salesforce Data Cloud and Adobe Real-Time CDP. Smaller businesses often get similar benefits from a well-connected CRM and email platform.
CDP example
A pet-supply shop has customer data in four places: online orders, the loyalty app, email sign-ups and support tickets. A customer data platform links them by email address and phone number. The shop can now see that one person bought puppy food in March, opened three emails about training and contacted support about a collar. It sends that person a puppy-training guide instead of a generic sale email.
Questions to ask before buying a CDP
- Which data sources do we need to connect, and does the tool have ready connectors?
- How does it match records about the same person, and how accurate is it?
- Where is the data stored, and does that satisfy GDPR and local privacy rules?
- Can it record consent and honour opt-outs across all tools?
- Do we have people and use cases for it? A small business may be well served by a CRM and email tool.
CDP mistakes
- Collecting data without a clear use for it.
- Ignoring consent and data minimisation rules.
- Feeding it poor data and expecting clean profiles.
- Buying a large platform before the basics, such as tracking and a clean list, are in place.
CDP FAQs
Is a CDP the same as a CRM?
No. A CRM mostly stores sales and service records entered by people. A CDP gathers behaviour data automatically from many systems.
Why does first-party data matter?
Third-party cookies are fading in some browsers and consent rules are strict, so data you collect yourself is more reliable. See marketing automation and personalized marketing.