Today’s audience uses multiple channels, which increases data volumes and makes it harder for marketers to manage. At the same time, modern customers expect personalized experiences at every interaction with a brand. This requires businesses to create the right conditions and fully understand their customers — their actions, needs, and preferences — to ensure a quality user experience.

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) help solve this challenge. They collect, organize, and use all customer data in one system, simplifying personalization processes and improving the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The CDP market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.9% from 2024 to 2028.

This article aims to help marketers and other teams working with customer data learn about the types of systems and their functionalities to choose the right tool for their business.

In this article, we examine the CDP classification based on two research organizations:

• Gartner — an American research and consulting company specializing in IT markets.
• CDP Institute — an organization that explains what a CDP is to potential beneficiaries and everyone interested.

What Criteria Should a CDP Meet?

A Customer Data Platform is software that collects customer information from various data sources, processes it, and creates a 360° customer profile. These data can be used immediately for segmentation and activation within the platform.

According to Gartner's definition, a CDP product should match the following criteria:

• Data collection — from a business's own sources (website, app, messengers, CRM, offline stores), in real time, with no storage limitations.
• Data unification — cleansing and standardizing data into a single format and linking it to the correct contact record. This includes identifying the same user across different devices.
• User segmentation — creating and managing groups based on numerous conditions.
• Data activation — using the data in tools such as multi-channel campaigns, advertising, or personalized offers (this is an additional feature and not mandatory for a CDP definition).

Some CDPs only collect, unify, and segment data based on simple rules. Others add analytics, event-based segmentation, process automation, and the ability to send messages. Some have even integrated AI and machine learning features. All of them help businesses achieve goals like:

• Data centralization.
• Data unification and creating a single view of the customer.
• Increasing marketing effectiveness.

By providing a 360° view of the customer, businesses can launch more effective marketing campaigns.

CDP Types

The CDP market is diverse, with many systems positioning themselves as CDPs but not always meeting all CDP criteria. Below are the types of CDPs and their features.

Gartner’s Vendor Types

Gartner classifies Customer Data Platforms based on cloud service integrations, segmentation parameters and metrics, and the ability to use marketing tools for data activation:

• Engines and Toolkits

Functionality: These products provide software that can be additionally configured and expanded by the company's developers. They have open-source code, allowing the creation of new microservices and integrations based on the CDP. The systems focus more on data management than on data segmentation and activation. In such CDPs, marketers need the help of developers and additional systems to fully utilize the platform's capabilities.

Use case: A business needs complete customer data for analysis in its own recommendation system, messaging platforms, or CRM. Engines and Toolkits collect valuable data into unified profiles, but the business handles profile management.

Vendors: Aqfer, Jahia jCustomer.

• Marketing Data Integration Tools

Functionality: Unlike Engines and Toolkits, these platforms collect real-time data, process events, and send this data to various systems (not limited to activation channels).The systems have high flexibility in working with data and an intuitive interface. They do not include complex analytics, predictive modeling, or automation of email and advertising launches.

Through these Customer Data Platforms, marketers without deep technical knowledge can collect, control, and manage data flows. The system records and redistributes events to different systems for further analysis and activation.

Use case: Companies looking to simplify data management without deep analytics. They prefer a tool that is ready to use quickly, such as for creating segments and sending them to ad platforms for targeted campaigns.

Vendors: mParticle, Twilio Segment, Treasure Data.

• Smart Hub

Functionality: This is a comprehensive solution that allows marketers to perform all data actions within one platform, avoiding fragmented information stored in different formats and systems. 

These CDPs usually offer predictive analytics, event-based segmentation, real-time analytics, and personalized recommendations. They have a convenient and understandable interface, providing marketers with freedom of action and independence from the development department.

This type of Customer Data Platform meets all four criteria and completely solves one of the main problems that motivated the creation of CDPs — the use of different systems for working with data to improve the customer experience.

Use case: The need to collect and combine customer data from both offline and online sources in one platform for enhanced customer interactions. Coordinating direct communication channels and analyzing campaign results to track the real impact on sales.

Vendors: Yespo, BlueConic, Lytics.

• Marketing Cloud CDPs

Functionality: These platforms unify data from various sources to create a single view of the customer and offer tools to coordinate marketing activities across multiple channels, including direct communication (email, push, messengers, etc.).

These CDPs usually function within a larger family of products from one brand. For example, well-known cloud providers like Adobe and Microsoft offer CDPs to clients already using their products. Integration within a single company’s ecosystem is faster and easier than with products from other providers.

Use case: A company already using cloud solutions wants to expand data usage within the same ecosystem. After investing resources in a particular system, it’s more cost-effective to purchase an integration-ready CDP from the same brand.

Vendors: Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.

CDP Institute’s Vendor Categories

The CDP Institute groups vendors based on the functionality their systems offer:

• Data CDPs

Functionality: The main task of these platforms is to unify data from various sources into a single database that can be used by other systems.

Use case: A company collects data from its website, CRM, and offline points, unifies it into a single customer profile, then uses these profiles for segmentation and transferring them to ad and other platforms.

Vendors: Dataware, Entytle.

• Analytics CDPs

Functionality: These platforms offer data CDP functionalities, plus analytics, segmentation, machine learning, predictive modeling, and customer journey mapping tools. Data is passed to other systems for campaigns.

Use case: Using data for advanced analytics and segmentation based on customer behavior to determine the best interaction methods, such as identifying customers likely to become inactive and need retention.

Vendors: Custimy, XCM Horizon.

• Campaign CDPs

Functionality: In addition to the capabilities of the previous types, these CDPs provide tools for managing marketing campaigns.

Use case: The need to not only analyze data but also use it to launch personalized email campaigns, such as sending customized offers based on customer data.

Vendors: Pimcore, Xeno.

• Delivery CDPs

Functionality: Provide all the functions of the previous types of CDPs and ensure the collection, analytics, and processing of customer data, campaign organization, and mailings. Platforms include various communication channels to ensure timely delivery of personalized messages and the ability to manage omnichannel campaigns. 

Unlike Campaign CDPs, these platforms integrate more deeply with communication channels. They ensure the delivery of personalized messages at the right time and through the right channels, taking into account customer data updated in real-time.

Products in this category often started as email marketing automation tools and then added features to support advanced analytics, personalization, and omnichannel campaigns.

Use case: Using customer data to organize consistent and timely communication with each customer, optimizing message delivery based on real-time data.

For example, sending an In-App notification when a customer is actively viewing certain product pages in a mobile application. Or a reminder about a personal discount in App Inbox if the client did not use it within a certain number of days after receiving an email with this offer.

Vendors: Yespo, Epsilon, Insider, Klaviyo, Listrak, SALESmanago.

According to the CDP Institute (Industry Update, January 2024), campaign and delivery platforms dominate the industry, accounting for 66% of companies, 75% of employment, and 75% of funding.

Conclusion

With growing amounts of data and forms of interactions between customers and brands, effective data management becomes more critical for businesses. CDPs are the tool that helps deal with this challenge by:

• Collecting and unifying data.
• Creating a single customer profile.
• Segmenting based on multiple rules.
• Activating data or transferring it to external systems for activation.

These components allow businesses to personalize their communication with each customer, retain their attention, and drive purchases.

There are many CDP providers focused on different functions, and there are comprehensive solutions offering all four components. These classifications help determine which platform best meets a business's needs. For more detailed guidance on choosing the right CDP, read our article “How to Choose the Right CDP.”

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