Data is pulled from multiple sources, cleaned and combined to create a single customer profile.
A DMP enables marketers to serve targeted ads programmatically and at scale using anonymized customer data in the form of third-party browser cookies.
While this information can be manually synthesized, neither type of system delivers the identity resolution needed to build a consolidated single customer view.
These databases were originally used to power some other type of software, such as a marketing automation suite, a personalization engine, or a campaign management tool.
Simultaneously, some tag management and web analytics providers also transformed their platforms into similar solutions, creating CDPs with a different origin but the same use.
This industry experienced quick growth, due to marketers recognizing the shortcomings of alternatives like DMPs and data lakes, as well as the capabilities a CDP could offer them.