What is implicit data?
Implicit data, as the name suggests, is information inferred—rather than actively provided—from available data streams.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: Where does implicit data come from?
Implicit data comes from a wide range of different sources, including a user’s:
- Online browsing activity
- Search activity
- Online shopping activity
- Social media activity
Let us go over each one in more detail:
First, online browsing activity, as you may have already guessed, consists of the different websites a user frequents. Are they always visiting makeup and skincare websites? Do they spend most of their time online browsing fitness websites? The types of websites they usually visit should give you a good idea of what they are into.
Second, the things they search for online should also tell you what kinds of topics, products, and services they are most interested in.
Aside from the websites a user visits and their search activity, however, you can also learn a lot about them based on the things they buy online. Unlike simply browsing a website or searching for particular topics, products, or services, which could simply be a school or job requirement, actually buying something is a crystal clear indication of interest.
In addition to the first three, a user’s social media activity is also a goldmine of implicit data. One look at their posts (and the types of posts they engage the most with), liked pages, bio, check-ins, and most tagged users should give you a whole lot of information about things such as:
- What they do for a living
- What their political views are
- What their religion is
- Who their closest friends are
- Who their relatives are
- What their hobbies are
- What their favorite foods are
- Where they like to hang out
So, if, for example, a user named Sam posted the status: ‘Finally had the time to hang out at ABC Cafe with the gang again!’ and tagged John, Mindy, and Alex, we would be able to infer that:
- Sam is good friends with John, Mindy, and Alex
- The friends like hanging out at ABC Cafe
- The friends like coffee and/or tea
- It has been a while since the friends last saw each other
- Sam and her friends are very busy these days
Question #2: What can I do with implicit data?
The main thing you can do with implicit data is creating better and/or more tailored products, services, and experiences for your users and customers.
Take YouTube, for example. It takes everything it knows about a user and their preferences—which is a lot, considering the company is owned by Google—and comes up with relevant video and ad recommendations based on them. The result is not only a hassle-free, more enjoyable experience for the user, but also an audience that is more likely to convert for advertisers.
Another platform that does this extremely well is Netflix. Based on the types of movies and shows a user watches, the platform can easily curate a full catalogue of related titles for them.
Social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, are also very good at finding out what a particular user is into and curating relevant posts and content for them. This is exactly why your explore page on Instagram, for example, is full of posts that you are actually interested in and not just random content.
Email marketers also rely on implicit data a lot to figure out what types of emails and marketing messages members of their email list want to receive. This implicit data comes primarily from analytics data, such as:
- Open rates
- Click-to-open rates
- Click-through rates
Question #3: Is implicit data better than explicit data?
No, implicit data is not better than explicit data—but the reverse is also true. Explicit data is also not better than implicit data. You need both if you want to provide your users and/or customers with better, more tailored products, services, and experiences.
Keep in mind that without explicit data from things such as analytics tools, you would not have anything to draw implicit data from. On the other hand, if you did infer implicit data from all the explicit data available to you, you would not have any valuable insights to work with.