Free CDP RFP template: streamline your vendor evaluation

One of the most complex parts of a customer data platform (CDP) evaluation is figuring out what to include in your RFP (request for proposal) and creating a list of criteria specific to your business challenges and technological requirements.

We’ve spent years sifting through countless CDP RFPs and created a free template you can access and modify.

We also wanted to provide some guidance on how you should think through your CDP RFP to ensure the vendor you choose aligns with the business use case you’re trying to solve. With that in mind, here’s a short framework to help you think through your CDP evaluation.

How to think about the value a CDP provides your business

The reason to buy any software is to add value and leverage to your business. When you are building an RFP, the outcome should be that you are able to effectively identify the software that best aligns with the value you are trying to add to your business.

There are several vectors of value a customer data platform can unlock for your business:

1. New marketing use cases
2. Faster time to market with campaigns and projects
3. Reduced operational overhead cost
4. Reduced technical debt

Each of these categories of value unlocks something important for your business’s bottom line. However, your business will have different priorities than other businesses, so it’s important to structure your RFP to focus on your company’s specific needs.

For example, if you’ve identified that you can unlock more revenue for your business through more custom personalization of messaging, you should make sure you focus on the key items that will enable that personalization. Does the CDP allow you to collect and organize the data needed for your use case appropriately? Does the CDP allow you to activate that data to the destinations on which you will execute your personalization? Does the CDP support the schema for the type of data you plan to use to personalize?

Throughout this post, we’ve outlined the different aspects of customer data platforms to evaluate, but each of these should be shaped by the value you are trying to deliver for your business.

CDP architecture

Your data is unique to your business, and you should never have to mold it to fit the whims and wishes of a CDP vendor. You should choose a CDP that adapts to meet your data where it is today, in the format it’s stored in today. Any solution you implement should also be secure, scalable, and flexible enough to meet your technical requirements and governance needs. Here are a couple of questions to help you think through architecture:

• Does the CDP integrate with your existing data infrastructure?
• Does the CDP need to store your data?
• Does the CDP provide granular governance features for single-sign-on (SSO), the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM), and role-based access (RBAC)?
• Does the CDP integrate with your existing data tools and provide observability for user actions and sync performance?

CDP event collection

Event collection is the backbone of your customer data strategy. It’s critical to ensure that gathering events is seamless and tailored to your existing systems and tools. Your solution should provide the flexibility to collect data easily from your website or mobile app, store that data in your data incrastructure, and offer the reliability and observability needed to ensure data integrity. A modern approach to event collection prioritizes integration, customization, and scalability—letting you avoid unnecessary tool replacements or vendor lock-in. Here are a couple of questions to help you think through event collection:

• Can you store events directly in your data warehouse?
• Can you forward events in real-time to operational tools for messaging, advertising, and analytics?
• What off-the-shelf SDKs does your vendor offer to track events across web and mobile?
• Can you set up alerts if events fail?

CDP identity resolution

Identity resolution is the process that merges disparate events into unified customer profiles, enabling personalized experiences and effective analytics. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all process—your business’s unique requirements should dictate how identity resolution is handled. Flexibility and transparency about where and how profiles are stitched together are essential. Whether you rely on deterministic rules, probabilistic models, or a hybrid approach, your CDP should align with your specific needs and integrate seamlessly with your existing data infrastructure. Here are some questions to help you evaluate identity resolution capabilities:

• Where does your identity resolution algorithm live? Do you own it?
• What type of identity resolution matching algorithms does the CDP support? Do you need probabilistic or deterministic matching or a combination of both?
• What identifiers can you match on?
• Does the CDP vendor offer a no-code UI?
• Can the CDP take advantage of your own proprietary matching algorithm?
• Can you unify profiles of other entities besides users, such as households or business accounts?
• Does identity resolution occur in your CDP or your existing data infrastructure?

Audience segmentation and orchestration

Audience segmentation and orchestration are essential for delivering targeted, personalized experiences at scale. A modern CDP should empower your marketing and business teams with self-serve tools to create and activate audiences without relying heavily on engineering resources. The solution should go beyond just segmenting on standard user and event-based data models, allowing flexibility in representing and acting on all your data. From building complex audiences to orchestrating multi-step journeys, your CDP should adapt to your business's unique structure and needs. Here are some questions to help you evaluate audience segmentation and orchestration capabilities:

• Is the CDP self-serve? Does it offer a no-code audience builder your marketers can use?
• What data can you build audiences from? Can you reference data from your own data platform?
• Can you represent entities that fall outside of “user” and “events” (such as finance accounts, households, loans, pets, etc.)?
• Can you calculate custom traits and attributes?
• Can you build multi-step journeys?

CDP data activation

Data activation is where a CDP's value truly comes to life, transforming raw data into meaningful customer experiences. The ability to reliably and efficiently activate data across multiple destinations is a key benefit of any CDP. A modern approach to data activation prioritizes flexibility, observability, and real-time capabilities, ensuring that the correct data reaches the right systems at the right time. By focusing on reliability and transparency, you can minimize friction in your workflows and maximize the impact of your customer engagement strategies. Here are some critical questions to consider when evaluating data activation:

• How many destinations does the CDP vendor support?
• How reliable are the syncs, and how easy are they to debug?
• Can you customize the schedule of your data activation jobs?
• Can you write sync logs back to your own data platform?

CDP data onboarding

Data onboarding bridges your first-party data with paid media platforms while enriching it with third-party identifiers, ensuring you can effectively reach your audience across paid media channels. A robust CDP should integrate seamlessly with major advertising platforms and enhance your first-party data with additional identifiers to maximize match rates. Transparency and control over how your data is stored and utilized are equally important, as well as the scalability of the platform's partnerships with data providers to adapt to your future needs. Here are some key questions to help you evaluate data onboarding capabilities:

• Which advertising platforms does the CDP integrate with?
• Does your solution allow you to automatically enrich our first-party data with your own third-party identifiers when activating data into paid media platforms (to boost match rates)?
• Does the CDP support conversion event uploads and integrate with the conversion APIs?
• Does this service require you to store your customer data?
• Who are the data providers for third-party identifiers, and how will this grow over time?

CDP analytics and insights

Analytics and insights are the foundation for understanding your customers and optimizing your strategies. A modern CDP should go beyond basic reporting, offering robust tools to analyze and visualize your data meaningfully. From exploring audience characteristics to measuring cross-channel campaign performance, the goal is to empower teams with actionable insights that drive smarter decisions. Flexibility in creating custom metrics and visualizations is equally critical to aligning analytics with your unique business needs. Here are some questions to guide your evaluation of analytics and insights capabilities:

• What analytics features does the CDP offer?
• Can you analyze and visualize audiences by user attributes?
• Can you visualize audience performance, size, and attributes between audiences?
• Can you compare the performance of multiple audience splits in the same graph?
• Can you measure and analyze campaign performance, regardless of channel, using custom metrics that you define?

How to think about AI in your CDP

AI is reshaping how businesses leverage customer data, transforming it from raw information into actionable strategies. When evaluating a CDP, it's essential to assess its AI feature depth and ability to support automation, personalization, and optimization at scale. Look for solutions beyond static tools, offering dynamic AI-driven capabilities to enhance decision-making, streamline experimentation, and automate delivery across channels. Understanding the vendor’s AI roadmap ensures their offerings will continue to develop alongside your needs. Here are some questions to guide your evaluation of AI capabilities:

• What AI features does your CDP offer?
• What is the CDP’s roadmap for AI feature development?
• Does the CDP offer features for AI Decisioning to automate campaign experimentation, selection, and delivery across channels?

Closing thoughts

Selecting the right Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a nuanced process that should align with your existing technology stack and address your specific business objectives. There's no one-size-fits-all solution; the optimal choice depends on your unique requirements and the challenges you aim to overcome.

To assist you in navigating this decision, we offer several resources:

• CDP Comparison Hub: Explore in-depth analyses and head-to-head comparisons of leading CDPs, covering features, architecture, security, and more.
• Top 10 Enterprise CDPs: Gain insights into the features, pros, and cons of the top enterprise CDPs to inform your selection process.
• Traditional vs. Composable CDP Guide: Understand the differences between traditional and Composable CDPs to determine which approach best suits your organization's needs.

We encourage you to leverage these resources to make an informed decision that best fits your organization's goals and infrastructure.