What is third-party data?

Data from outside your company: public conversation, search trends, reviews, market research.

Third-party data comes from outside your company: public conversation on social platforms and forums, search trends, reviews, ratings sites, trade press and market research.

On its own it tells you what people say and search for. That’s useful, and it’s easy to over-read, because the loudest corners of the internet aren’t always the people who buy. It earns its keep when it’s lined up with your first-party data, so you can see whether what people talk about moves sales, tickets, sign-ups or streams.

Why it matters

On its own it tells you what people say. Lined up with your first-party data, it tells you whether they buy.

An example

Example (made-up numbers): reviews mention one flavor 300 times in a month. Lined up with sales, that flavor’s share of sales hasn’t moved. People like talking about it more than buying it, which is worth knowing before you build a campaign around it.

Where it misleads

Treating the volume of conversation as demand. A topic can trend for a week and never show up in sales.

How Arcus handles it

We read and count public conversation where your audience spends time, then put it in the same place as your own numbers, so every listening finding is checked against what people actually did.

More in our guide: Social listening that counts, not guesses