CDP vs DMP

Data Management Platforms (DMPs) have long been a vital tool in a digital marketers arsenal. They’ve used them for everything from ad targeting to personalization, channel integration, audience segmentation and measurement. As we continue to march towards a privacy-first future and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) gain widespread adoption, DMPs are largely dying - and CDPs can fill the void.

Customer Data Platforms and Data Management Platforms have long been confused - but the two are different. Let’s answer the question: CDP vs DMP?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a service to capture, correlate, and activate customer data across multiple channels, devices, and technologies. They provide a single view of the customer and allow for powerful data enablement across multiple teams, tools, skill sets, and features. CDPs create centralized data to be used by all facets of an organization in real time.

A Data Management Platform (DMP) aggregates website behavioral data and categorizes it into taxonomies which are used to build segments. Segments can consist of first, second, and third-party data, which can be used for analysis and distribution into other adtech systems, primarily DSPs, to enable the buying and selling of programmatic advertising. The purpose of DMPs is to help brands drive more visitors to their websites through top of funnel targeting with the goal of generating more leads into the sales funnel.