--- canonical: https://further.ai/blog/how-to-choose-a-cdp meta-clarity-site-verification: 348d1891-f643-4080-bd66-b7c73102bc6c meta-description: When choosing a Customer Data Platform that’s best for your business, have a robust evaluation or a CDP vendor evaluation expert like Search Discovery to help. meta-google-site-verification: WrI8ERHjae8awr7ol2W23H3FbSHdehtwGuAwRBds6EI meta-og:description: When choosing a Customer Data Platform that’s best for your business, have a robust evaluation or a CDP vendor evaluation expert like Search Discovery to help. meta-og:image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/64fb873eb25058d1bc2035d0/653ab6c177b282f5d9b12db0_Futher%20Web%20Assets_FURTHER_Opengraph.png meta-og:title: Steps to Choosing a Customer Data Platform | Further meta-og:type: website meta-twitter:card: summary_large_image meta-twitter:description: When choosing a Customer Data Platform that’s best for your business, have a robust evaluation or a CDP vendor evaluation expert like Search Discovery to help. meta-twitter:title: Steps to Choosing a Customer Data Platform | Further meta-viewport: width=device-width, initial-scale=1 title: Steps to Choosing a Customer Data Platform | Further --- # How to Choose a Customer Data Platform **Publisher:** Further **Author:** Jayesh Patil, Data Solutions Architect **Published:** May 29, 2025 (Original: Feb 14, 2022) --- **[Our Thinking](/our-thinking/blog) > [Blog](/our-thinking/blog)** **Topics:** Data | Solutions | Cloud --- *The CDP market is exploding! If you’re looking to evaluate and choose a Customer Data Platform that’s best for your business, it’s great to have a robust evaluation approach or a CDP vendor evaluation expert like Search Discovery to help with your selection. To learn more, read on!* ## The CDP space is exploding! It bears repeating from the intro! Brands can choose from hundreds of CDP products, and choosing the best CDP for your company can be confusing. * Some CDPs are good at identity stitching with AI. * Some make customer journey orchestration easy. * Some are very data engineer friendly and easy to customize and build. * Many CDPs provide schema-less data ingestion, whereas few CDPs follow a data model approach. Search Discovery’s experience with multiple CDP vendors helps us make the best decisions for our customers, including customers with [special privacy and security concerns.](https://www.searchdiscovery.com/blog/customer-data-platform-and-privacy/) While we have several partnerships and implementation experience, we are tool agnostic when it comes to tool assessment. We believe in finding the right tool to do the job that suits your needs. Our evaluation and final suggestions are solely based on our assessment. This post can help you learn how to choose the best CDP or help you determine if a CDP vendor selection partner is right for you. ## What is a CDP? CDPs give brands a single source of truth about customers to create customer profiles from data coming from various data sources inside and outside the company. A single source of truth is important for one GIANT reason: creating excellent customer experiences. CDPs help brands: * Create segments that are automated, up-to-date, and thoughtfully designed. * Access customer data in real-time or near real-time to support highly relevant and personalized multi-channel journeys. * Improve data management from consent governance to deduplication. * Avoid violating customer privacy and spam laws. ## Why are CDP platforms in high demand right now? CDPs are [in high demand right now](https://www.searchdiscovery.com/blog/why-companies-invest-in-a-cdp/) because the pandemic has accelerated digital demand, increasing the need for: 1. **Excellent customer experiences** that are driven by data. 2. **More Martech solutions**, which have piled tech stacks high and lead to increasingly disparate data sources, thus the need for consolidation and a single source of truth. 3. **Near real-time, quality data** presented in a user-friendly interface that allows decision-makers to act on insights fast. 4. **Privacy changes**—the bulk force of consumer demands for privacy have led to both policy changes and the depreciation of third-party cookies, which limits brands’ abilities to track customers’ browsing behavior, requiring first-party relationship building. ## Who needs to get a CDP? Chances are that if you’re in one of the following roles, a CDP may be right for you: * **Multi-channel marketers** with integrated marketing goals. * **Large-scale advertisers**. * **Marketing executives** with automated customer lifecycle marketing initiatives. * **Marketing executives** with limited technical resources in their department. * **Marketing executives** with challenges accessing and leveraging customer data sources. * **Marketing executives** focused on providing personalized experience for customers. Read more about whether a CDP is right for your business in our [*free guide: Digital Transformation with a CDP.*](https://www.searchdiscovery.com/how-we-help/services/data-engineering/customer-data-platform/customer-data-platforms-ebook/) ## What are the different components of CDPs? Typically, CDP parts fall under these three categories: 1. **Customer Profiles:** ID resolution, single customer profile, and data governance. 2. **Customer Intelligence:** Creating segments, insights, machine learning (including lookalike modeling). 3. **Customer Activation:** Journey orchestration, experimentation, measurement. ## What are the top CDP platforms? The best CDP for your business will depend on your business requirements and use cases. 1. **Define your goals** and desired business impact. 2. **Define your use cases and requirements.** (See our [How to Select a CDP video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQMrNbkCWF8)). 3. **Prioritize** your use cases and requirements. 4. **Evaluate different platforms** across your requirements. 5. **Request demonstrations** from the platforms on your shortlist. 6. **Select a platform.** ## What do you look for in a CDP platform? When evaluating a CDP, focus within the following categories: * **Core features:** How the CDP ingests, gathers, standardizes, validates, and stores data from online/offline sources. * **Data management:** Processing speed, API support, and data load considerations. * **Identity management & B2B:** Support for system ID and ability to link profiles using various matching techniques. * **Operational Enablement:** Customer segments, journey enablement, custom ML models, visualization, or BI tools. * **Mobile and website integration:** Capability to integrate website data and distinguish between anonymous and new users. * **Analytics:** End-user segmentation and predictive analytics capabilities. * **Campaigns:** Campaign integration capabilities, dynamic content generation, and multi-channel activation scheduling. * **Data Governance:** Privacy, security, and compliance capabilities. * **Service:** Platform training and support capabilities. ## Who should be involved in the CDP decision-making process? * **Data Engineers:** To understand the data management flow and technical stack fit. * **Marketers:** To understand how to act on data for customer experience. * **Product Managers:** To understand engagement insights, product performance, and growth plans. ## Questions to guide your CDP selection process * What core features am I looking for to meet our business requirements? * Does the CDP provide SDKs and APIs that work in our systems? * Does the CDP do integrations that move third-party vendor code from the client-side to the server-side? * What developer tools or documentation does the CDP provide? * How will the CDP meet my business requirements (and compliance guidelines) for identity management? * Will I be using the CDP for B2C, B2B, B2P, or hybrid campaigns? * What analytics functions will help us get the most actionable insights? * What is the quality of service like for the platform provider? ## How working with a CDP partner helps you attain marketing ROI When Search Discovery helps a client evaluate CDPs, we focus on: * **Removing bias** from the decision. * **Getting maximum value** from the investment. * **Deeply researching** and scoring evaluations based on specific business needs. ## Our process 1. **Clarifying and aligning on business requirements:** Interactive discovery sessions with cross-functional teams to deep dive into challenges and use cases. We also organize use case workshops to identify high-value goals. 2. **Fast-tracking recommendations:** Once requirements are aligned, we move to evaluation. 3. **Prioritization:** Ranking requirements from "nice-to-have" to "critical" to build a decision-tree evaluation. 4. **Shortlisting:** Focusing on the top 3-4 vendors that meet critical requirements. 5. **Vendor scoring:** Using custom scoring tools against documentation, interviews, and demonstrations. 6. **Recommendation:** Providing a final choice based on scoring results. 7. **Implementation:** Expert help to create hyper-personalized customer journeys. [Download our free guide: Digital Transformation with a CDP.](https://www.searchdiscovery.com/how-we-help/services/data-engineering/customer-data-platform/customer-data-platforms-ebook/) ## TL; DR Choosing a CDP can be overwhelming. To select the right one, clarify your business requirements across three areas: organizational enablement, customer knowledge, and ROI. A partner like Search Discovery can help remove bias, create alignment across teams, and ensure a successful implementation. --- ### Read More Insights From Our Team * **[Avoid Random Acts of Optimization: Let Strategy Drive Your Data ROI](/blog/avoid-random-acts-of-optimization)** *Ryan Dupont* — Ensure your data drives growth, not just busy work. * **[The Trends Shaping Data and AI in 2026](/blog/the-trends-shaping-data-and-ai-in-2026)** *Jason Tabeling* — How enterprises are preparing for AI foundations. * **[Breaking Down Barriers: How Data Silos Stifle Product Development](/blog/breaking-down-barriers-how-data-silos-stifle-product-development)** *Chirag Deshpande* — Tools to unify data and accelerate innovation. **[Go Further Today](/contact)**