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First-party data

First-party data is information a store collects directly from its own customers and visitors, such as orders, email addresses, phone numbers and activity on its site.

How it works

A store collects first-party data in its own systems: orders, customer accounts, newsletter sign-ups and the tag on its site. Google does not see the store’s order history, so the store passes parts of it to Google in three ways, each with its own job:

  • Audiences. Buyers’ emails and phone numbers become a customer list to target, exclude, use as a signal or turn into the seed of lookalike segments.
  • Measurement. The buyer’s hashed email or phone number travels with the order, so Google can match more conversions to ads.
  • Bidding. A list of existing buyers tells the new customer acquisition goal who is not new.

Having the data is not enough to use it in ads. For people in the European Economic Area, Customer Match does not process records without consent. Enhanced conversions get no customer data when Consent Mode reports ad_user_data as denied.

Since 1 April 2026, most new API integrations that upload customer lists must use Google’s Data Manager API. It is built to send first-party data to several Google ad products. How a store with a few thousand buyers uses its list: Customer Match for online stores.

Not to be confused with

  • Customer Match — one use of first-party data: an uploaded list of customers for targeting. First-party data is everything the store holds, including what never leaves it.
  • Enhanced conversions — another use: customer data attached to a conversion for measurement. It adds no one to an audience.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Enhanced conversions are on, so our buyers are already an audience in Google Ads.” Right: enhanced conversions only match orders to ads. To target or exclude buyers, the store uploads a Customer Match list.
  • Wrong: “It is our data, so the whole customer database can go into the list.” Right: Customer Match does not process records of EEA users without consent.

Sources

  • Get started with Customer Match — Google Ads API: customer data, consent of EEA users. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Manage customer lists — Google Ads API: new integrations move to the Data Manager API. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Data Manager API — one API for first-party data across Google ad products. Checked 2 October 2026.
  • Consent mode overview — ad_user_data denied: no hashed first-party data for enhanced conversions. Checked 2 October 2026.