It’s hard to believe that many of us are already planning for 2023. Each year around this time, I begin preparing my list of tips to help businesses gear up for measurement success. I always start by looking back at what I recommended the previous year. One recommendation I gave for 2022 was to invest in a strong tagging foundation to maintain measurement effectiveness in the future. Today having a tagging infrastructure is fundamental, which is why it’s off my list for 2023. Robust tagging is now essential for everyone, including Google.
To stay resilient in uncertain times, I encourage marketers to preserve, enrich, and strengthen their measurement strategy. Here are a few ways that you can build a best-in-class foundation that will hold you in good stead for 2023’s marketing landscape.
Continue growing your first-party data
We’re all familiar with the research: Companies that use first-party data to their advantage capture tangible business results. You might think that once you’ve configured your first-party data strategy, you can leave it on autopilot, but that’s not the case. Consumer behavior and preferences are constantly changing, so you should continue to evaluate your first-party data strategy and ask yourself, “Does my setup still account for all touchpoints along the customer journey?”
95% of APAC users who use a retailer's app frequently are likely to have a greater affinity for the brand as a whole and not just its app.
Having an app is one increasingly important touchpoint for brands. Apps allow marketers, especially retailers, to build meaningful customer relationships that drive results. Ninety-five percent of APAC users who use a retailer's app frequently are likely to have a greater affinity for the brand as a whole and not just its app.1 When I speak to marketers in the Asia Pacific region, I find that apps measurement is top of mind when they think about their first-party data strategy. But this is often not the case in other markets around the world. To help marketers place apps front and center, we are offering App campaigns and measurement solutions like Google Analytics for Firebase and on-device conversion measurement.
Upgrade to the latest version of your analytics technology
In recent years, analytics technology providers have adapted new ways to preserve measurement in the face of privacy-driven changes. Many, for instance, have implemented machine learning to continue providing insights in the customer journey using sophisticated models. To keep up with the changing ecosystem, Google Analytics 4 uses machine-learning technology to surface new insights and make predictions. If you’re still using outdated analytics technology, you risk missing out on the benefits that new sophisticated modeling can bring to your business.
After updating to Google Analytics 4, McDonald’s Hong Kong gained access to machine-learning capabilities that allowed it to reach people most likely to purchase. In just two months, it was able to increase in-app orders by 550% while reducing cost-per-acquisition by 63%.
“Google Analytics 4’s machine-learning capabilities allow us to transform our digital advertising strategy efficiently and effectively by leveraging its out-of-the-box solution.”
Kai Tsang, senior director digital, customer experience, McDonald’s Hong Kong
Enrich your data with metrics that assess true value to your business
While all conversions are valuable, not all have the same value to your business. One conversion might be worth $10 while another delivers $100. As we navigate a tightening business outlook, it’s crucial to pay the right price for a given conversion. Advertisers that optimize for value rather than cost see an average 14% increase in conversion values.2 Take a moment to make sure you’re measuring conversion values that represent your business values. By doing so, your investment for each conversion can be optimized accordingly.
This doesn’t need to be an exhausting process. Once you provide the actual value each conversion drives for your business, automated tools can enrich your insights and optimize your marketing strategy — all without additional work on your part.
Many advertisers are unable to pinpoint an exact value for all conversions. If this applies to you, don’t worry. Google’s conversion value rules can adjust the value for conversion events based on relevant criteria, such as geographic location, device, or audience.
Google advertisers that optimize for value rather than cost see an average 14% increase in conversion values.
Enhance your measurement with offline insights
When setting up your measurement infrastructure, take time to confirm that it can support both online and offline marketing goals. A solid infrastructure should bridge customer touchpoints across all channels, eliminating gaps in measurement. For example, say your business collects customer leads on your website, but those customers complete their purchases in your store. If you’re able to import those offline sales into your advertising tool, you can optimize your bidding and increase the efficiency of your approach. That’s just what Groupe Renault did. By adopting an analytics solution integrated with its offline sales tool, it was able to bring offline insights into its attribution model and more efficiently allocate marketing budget.
Protect privacy while driving performance
As the global regulatory landscape continues to evolve, marketers need to ensure that their measurement solutions respect user privacy. Remember that privacy-safe tools and actionable conversion data are not mutually exclusive, thanks to proven modeling techniques. A new class of measurement tools has emerged to help you balance user privacy with marketing performance and precision.
Remember that privacy-safe tools and actionable conversion data are not mutually exclusive, thanks to proven modeling techniques.
Consent Mode is one solution specifically designed to help achieve this balance. With Consent Mode, marketers operating in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the U.K., can easily respect users’ consent choices. And when users withhold consent, resulting in measurement gaps, Consent Mode uses conversion modeling to provide a more complete and accurate view of advertising spend and outcomes. To help you properly set up Consent Mode and increase the accuracy of your insights, we recently introduced some new support and troubleshooting features.
Look to the future of measurement
Tomorrow’s successful marketers will embrace a successful measurement foundation that’s built on first-party data, underpinned by a strong tagging strategy. By leveraging insights across online and offline channels, choosing the latest analytics technologies, and optimizing for value in a privacy-safe way, you can confidently prepare your business for the challenges and opportunities ahead.
