The world of measurement has slowly been dismantled with seismic changes over a 10+ year period. Each change has eroded into the trust of data and measurement with most marketers running campaigns blind or overly trusting platform data.
Measurement in a post cookie and privacy world will require a very different mindset a more collaborative approach with trust at the heart of it.
This is where a measurement canvas can help set the strategy going forward. The canvas becomes a strategic play to ensure that measurement has a top down approach aligning to business objectives. It helps provide consistency in using the same business language and it’s articulation in how measurement can bridge the gap.
Four steps that brands can take to future proof their measurement strategy:
Econometrics
Econometrics will become the default measurement technique for all brands, even for brands only spending in digital. Econometrics provides a top down and a short to medium term view on how marketing mix impacting sales (or any defined KPI). Also looking at brand health tracking i.e., YouGov tracking data (brand awareness) to be fed into the Econometrics to understand the strength of the brand, it’s impact on sales and looking at competitor brands do they have a positive or negative impact on sales. In addition, looking at external variables (i.e., promotion, price) that impact the sector (i.e., number plate change) and / or brand.
Incrementality
Incrementality looks at causation and the impact of exposure to a campaign in a purchase. Which is very different to attribution which looks at correlations and the touch points to a conversion. Incrementality will be able to help answer would x sales have happened if x audience was not exposed to the campaign. Measuring for incrementality will surface insights where to eliminate the media wastage and where are the opportunities to scale and relocate budget to grow
If you want to run incrementally successfully you still need a lot of the insights that come from Econometrics without it you are running blind
— DIPESH SHAH (@mrdipeshashah) April 20, 2022
Server Side Tracking
Deploying server side TMS is all about controlling the data that is shared and data governance. All brands will have a TMS set-up which will be known as client-side tracking which still becomes a core requirement when setting up a server side TMS.
The challenges facing client side tracking:
- Loading JavaScript libraries from 3rd parties which triggers all those requests to 3rd party tracking servers
- The site owner has no control over the 3rd parties JavaScript which could cause data breaches like British Airways which is extreme but its very possible
- Trackers are getting blocked making it harder to prove the value of marketing campaigns
Deploying server side tracking put’s these issues to bed and lets the server take control.
One train of thought for server side TMS is if brands can afford to is maybe start doing a small tester with server side initially on tracking the basic data points like sessions etc to understand the variance which may help build elements of a business case
— DIPESH SHAH (@mrdipeshashah) April 20, 2022
Once server side TMS has been set-up it will allow you to deploy Facebook Conversion API and would expect other ad platforms to follow soon with their own conversion API.
Thinking about server side TMS it does feel that for most brands it’s not worth moving over to server side at this minute where it’s currently dominated by the walled gardens. The real value will be when non GAFA embrace server side
— DIPESH SHAH (@mrdipeshashah) April 19, 2022
Google Analytics 4
Embrace Google Analytics 4 in a changing world in how users behave the event driven model is the future of analytics which is very different to GA3, and its clunky hit based data model. The big thing about GA4 it allows brands to re-invent how they look at Analytics and find a solution that suits the organisation. One of the biggest advantages in migrating over to GA4 is getting access to the raw data in Big Query and being able to enrich with other data sources.
Now the dusk has settled on @googleanalytics news about GA4 I don't think its as bad if we can look ahead in 12 months time. As much as the product launch has failed miserably overtime we will see the benefits of GA4. Challenge is most business are not set-up for change
— DIPESH SHAH (@mrdipeshashah) April 13, 2022
Other considerations for brands:
Map out the data & tech requirements which will help build the right marketing data & tech ecosystem. In building the right ecosystem, constructing the measurement base is key to driving long term success. Measurement is enhanced when looking at the data available outside the organisation, think about what other free or paid data sources are required. Driving better measurement cannot be done without people this is where data engineers and data science people are going to be gold dust in being able to help bridge the measurement gap.
