Digital data is great for charities – but we need to help consumers understand how it works

Like most people, before breakfast I’ve probably already checked the news on my phone, had a quick peek at my inbox, and glanced at what everyone’s up to on social media. Throughout the course of the day, I work, chat, and shop online. If you think about it, there’s not much we don’t do digitally these days.

And this creates a lot of data. As we move from one website to another, most of us accept their cookie requests. As a result, if we accept cookies for marketing use, we are of course allowing information to be collected and sold on what we’re looking at and what we buy.

This can be great for charities. The accessibility of this data means it’s fairly easy to get your ads in front of the audiences you want to target, as well as cost-effective. And this makes it a useful way of raising awareness and finding new supporters.

It’s a different world however, to using cold mail data. So, if you’re heading down this route, it’s really important to consider the consumer and what they might understand about online ads.

Cookie data vs. cold mail data

If a letter arrives in the post from a charity they don’t currently support for example, most people understand how that organisation might have got their data. And through the MPS, there’s also a clear way to stop an organisation getting in contact if they don’t want to hear from them.

Online, when people see an ad far fewer understand that it’s targeted to them, or what happens behind the scenes when they click to accept all cookies ­– which let’s face it, is often the easiest option. So, while people can control what data they share with organisations online by being selective about what they accept, many click all without a second thought.

When it’s explained more clearly, it can come as a surprise. In fact, research shows that while 65% of people say they are comfortable with their data being used for marketing purposes, this drops to 35% once it’s explained to them how their data is used online. It’s a notable drop. And this lack of understanding means that at some point, it’s quite possible that a charity might be asked by a consumer why they are seeing their ads online.

Open & transparent

But while there’s a lot of transparency with cold mail data, which can easily be traced back to its collection point these days, in the digital world it’s much harder to work out where that original dataset came from.

To retain trust then, it’s important that we’re at least as transparent and open as possible about the process we use when targeting people online. That we work to help the consumer understand how their data is being collected and used, and that customer care teams are trained to be able to answer these questions should they arise. 

Online ads are a great avenue for building awareness and support. But for the best results, the onus is really on us to ensure we understand the data we’re using, and make it as easy as possible for consumers to understand it too.