MarTech Interview with Amol Waishampayan, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at fullthrottle.ai

Amol, you have a diverse background in tech, product strategy, and advertising. Give a brief of your professional background and how it has shaped your approach to leveraging first-party data in marketing.

I’ve spent my career at the intersection of technology, product strategy, and advertising, focusing on how businesses can extract real value from their data. With experience spanning adtech, martech, and SaaS, I’ve seen firsthand how companies struggle with fragmented data sources and reliance on third-party identifiers. My approach to leveraging first-party data is rooted in simplifying this complexity—building systems that not only unify and activate data but also make it actionable for marketers in real time. At fullthrottle.ai, we’ve developed a platform that creates a library of 1p addressable audiences, easily activatable in-app, and measurable down to business outcomes like transactions, giving brands a sustainable edge in a privacy-first world.

How can first-party data enhance the personalization of marketing efforts when it comes to driving immediate performance and long-term brand growth?

First-party data allows marketers to bridge the gap between immediate performance goals and long-term brand building. In the short term, it enables precise targeting—reducing waste and improving conversion rates by delivering relevant messages to real, engaged audiences. Over time, it builds a foundation for deeper customer relationships, allowing brands to tailor experiences, refine messaging, and optimize lifetime value. Instead of relying on probabilistic third-party models, brands can create deterministic customer journeys that drive both loyalty and revenue.

As marketing channels become more diverse, what are the greatest challenges in integrating first-party data for accurate performance measurement?

The biggest challenge is unifying and normalizing data across diverse marketing channels while maintaining privacy compliance. Many brands still operate in silos, where CRM, website analytics, and campaign data exist in disconnected systems. Another challenge is the lack of real-time data activation—marketers need insights that can power immediate decision-making, not just post-campaign reporting. Finally, attribution remains complex, especially as the digital ecosystem moves away from traditional tracking methods like cookies.

How do you see performance marketing evolving in the upcoming years, and what role do you think first-party data will play in shaping that evolution?

Performance marketing is shifting from a cookie-based, third-party-data-driven model to an ecosystem where brands must own their audience intelligence. AI-powered automation will play a crucial role in making first-party data more actionable at scale. We’ll see a greater focus on omnichannel personalization, where deterministic data fuels real-time, cross-channel marketing strategies. First-party data will also be key in privacy-compliant identity resolution, allowing brands to target and measure audiences without reliance on third-party cookies.

Why is first-party data considered essential for marketers today, and how does it enable more accurate audience identification?

First-party data provides direct, deterministic signals from real consumer interactions, as opposed to inferred or modeled data from third parties. This results in more accurate audience segmentation, better personalization, and improved media efficiency. With the deprecation of cookies and increased scrutiny on data privacy, brands that don’t have a first-party data strategy risk losing visibility into their audience and being left behind.

How does first-party data contribute to effective attribution models, and why is it crucial for enabling closed-loop marketing solutions?

First-party data allows marketers to track customer interactions across the entire funnel—connecting ad exposure, engagement, and conversion. With proper identity resolution, brands can build deterministic attribution models, replacing outdated last-click or multi-touch models reliant on third-party data. This closed-loop feedback system ensures that campaign insights are continuously refined, allowing marketers to optimize spend, refine messaging, and increase ROI.

What do you think are the key components of an easy-to-use onboarding solution for marketers?
A seamless onboarding solution should have:

• Automated Data Ingestion – Plug-and-play integrations with existing CRM, POS, and website analytics.
• Identity Resolution – A simple, built-in way to connect anonymous visitors to known audiences.
• Real-Time Activation – The ability to deploy audience segments across marketing channels instantly.
• Privacy-First Infrastructure – Compliance with evolving data regulations without additional burden on marketers.

Intuitive UI & Insights – A dashboard that enables non-technical users to extract value quickly.

How important is real-time data processing when it comes to utilizing first-party data for performance marketing?

Real-time data processing ensures that audience signals are immediately actionable—whether that’s suppressing irrelevant ads, triggering personalized offers, or dynamically adjusting creative. In performance marketing, the ability to act on intent signals within minutes (not days) can be the difference between winning and losing a conversion—and ultimately maximizes ROI.

How can marketers ensure they are using first-party data ethically while achieving measurable marketing outcomes?

Marketers must prioritize transparency, consent, and security when leveraging first-party data. This means:

• Providing clear value in exchange for data collection.
• Honoring opt-outs and respecting user privacy choices.
• Using data in a way that aligns with brand trust and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).

Ethical data usage not only ensures compliance but also builds trust with consumers, making them more likely to engage with a brand over time.

What advice would you like to give to marketers who are just beginning to leverage first-party data, and what key steps should they take to ensure they collect, manage, and activate this data effectively?

• • Review which marketing activations you can tie to business outcomes today
  • Grab a % of it, and re-allocate it to a first party activation solution
  • Leverage a solution like fullthrottle.ai to find net new incremental first-party data vs using your CRM
  • Activate at a 85% match rate and review the business outcomes down to a household level
  • Compare that outcome to prior outcomes

Bottom line: The brands that embrace data ownership (that means more first-party data), real-time activation, and privacy-first innovation will have the biggest competitive advantage in the evolving adtech landscape.

A quote or advice from the author: The holy grail for marketers is finding audiences, delivering messaging, and using outcome-based measurement. What was previously out of reach can now be attained—by embracing data ownership, real-time activation, and privacy-first innovation, all of which lead to a powerful competitive edge that will leave the competition behind.