Zero-party data collection in India: surveys, quizzes, and preference centres
Indian brands are collecting zero-party data through surveys and quizzes to replace cookie-based targeting. Here is how to do it properly.
The cookie is crumbling. Third-party tracking that Indian marketers relied on for years is getting blocked, restricted, or simply unreliable. Zero-party data is the answer. It is data that customers willingly, proactively share with you. No guessing. No inference. Just direct answers.
I have been watching Indian brands wake up to this shift over the past year. The ones moving fast are building better customer relationships and getting more accurate targeting than they ever got from cookies.
What zero-party data actually means
Zero-party data is information a customer intentionally gives you. They fill out a quiz about their skin type. They answer a survey about which city they are planning to visit. They tell you their budget range in a preference centre. This is different from first-party data, which you collect by observing behaviour on your site.
Think about how Nykaa could ask new visitors "What is your skin type?" and "What are your top concerns?" before showing product recommendations. That is zero-party data collection in action. The customer gets better recommendations. Nykaa gets targeting data that is perfectly accurate because the customer told them directly.
Surveys and quizzes that actually get completed
Short surveys work. Long ones do not. The sweet spot in India is three to five questions, ideally shown at the right moment. A food delivery app asking "How often do you order dessert?" just after someone orders their third dessert in a week will get much better completion rates than a generic pop-up on the homepage.
Quizzes convert well because they give something back immediately. A quiz titled "Which mutual fund type suits your investment style?" gives the user a personalised answer, and the financial services company gets clear data on their risk appetite. Tools like Typeform, Outgrow, and even Google Forms embedded in landing pages work fine. For WhatsApp-based surveys, platforms like Interakt and Wati let you send short conversational surveys through WhatsApp Business, which works well given how widely WhatsApp is used in India.
Incentivise participation where it makes sense. A ₹50 coupon for completing a preference survey is a small cost compared to the targeting accuracy you gain. Many Indian e-commerce brands run these tied to loyalty points.
Building a preference centre
A preference centre is a page where customers can tell you exactly what they want to hear about. Email frequency, product categories, languages, communication channel, whether they prefer calls or texts. It sounds simple. Most Indian brands do not have one.
If you send emails through Mailchimp, Klaviyo, or MoEngage, you can build a basic preference centre in a few hours. The benefit is twofold. Unsubscribe rates drop because people opt into exactly what interests them. And the data you collect is gold for segmentation.
One thing I have seen work particularly well in India: asking for language preference. A brand selling sarees that can send content in Hindi to customers who prefer Hindi and in Tamil to customers who prefer Tamil sees engagement rates jump significantly.
Where to show your data collection touchpoints
Timing matters more than most marketers realise. The best moments to ask for zero-party data are right after a purchase (the customer is engaged and satisfied), during account creation (you can frame it as personalisation), and after a user has spent a meaningful amount of time browsing a specific category.
Pop-ups that appear after 30 seconds on the homepage rarely work. A contextual quiz that appears when someone is browsing the "laptops under ₹50,000" category works much better. The question is relevant to what they are already thinking about.
Make sure whatever you collect is stored in your CRM or customer data platform. If you are collecting this data and it is sitting in a Google Sheet that nobody uses for targeting, you have wasted everyone's time.
Frequently asked questions
Is zero-party data the same as a survey?
Not exactly. A survey is one method for collecting zero-party data. Preference centres, quizzes, product finders, and onboarding questionnaires are other methods. The common thread is that the customer is actively choosing to share the information.
Do Indian customers actually fill out preference surveys?
Yes, if there is a clear benefit and the survey is short. Completion rates drop sharply after five questions. Offering a small incentive like a discount or loyalty points helps, especially for e-commerce brands.
Can I use this data for Google and Meta ad targeting?
Yes. You can use zero-party data to create audience segments in your CRM, then upload custom audiences to Google Ads or Meta Ads. This is one of the most effective uses of this data because your segments are based on what customers actually told you rather than inferred behaviour.
What tool should I use to collect zero-party data in India?
It depends on your channel. For email, Klaviyo and MoEngage have good preference centre features. For quizzes, Outgrow and Typeform work well. For WhatsApp-based surveys, Interakt and Wati are the most commonly used platforms among Indian businesses.