2021 has been a year of continuous change within the field of digital marketing. This year has brought the approval and reinforcement of new regulations, changes in terms of privacy, and new functionalities. We are facing continuous challenges. We must learn to adapt to help our clients, advertisers, and agencies to develop within this new digital environment.

Privacy is one of the most important changes this year. There are also new regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Plus, we are facing updates in search engines and measurement (Cookieless, ITP, etc.). It may seem like an overwhelming new ecosystem, but there are solutions. In this article, we focus on how to approach those changes for our future programmatic campaigns. 

The first of those solutions is GA4 and its integrations with Display & Video 360

This new version of Google Analytics gives us (advertisers and agencies) the ability to evolve in terms of predictive audiences. Now, we can identify behavior patterns that will help us:

• to focus our efforts
• to better understand market trends (such as probability of purchase, abandonment, or income prediction), 
• register user’s paths to conversion in real time,
• to identify where the user exits the funnel (customer journey) 

With model-based data analysis together with Display & Video machine learning, we can improve the performance of our campaigns.

What are the benefits of the integration between Google Analytics 4 and Display & Video 360?

1. GA4’s renewed interface offers us important insights related to the creation and analysis of audiences, as well as estimates of behavior probabilities and tracking of conversions from events. DV360 will be compatible as a destination for audiences created in GA4, with a few exceptions. This will allow us to combine them with our audiences with 1st party cookies in the DV audience profile, to create audiences with those users who usually buy or who return to the site often, those who have seen the site in detail, etc.
2. Conversion export Custom Bidding (CB) allows us to export cross-platform conversions to DV360 for use in Custom Bidding, using GA’s cross channel and last click attribution model. As you may know, CB offers the possibility of creating our own bidding algorithm, though for its development it needs to reach a minimum volume of conversions. This connection will provide a greater quantity of data and therefore can improve the performance of experiments.
3. Conversion Export with Native Bidding Integration: we can now export cross-platform conversions to DV360 for Native Bidding. This helps us better understand our audiences through more valuable data that will serve as the basis for the creation of our placements and our bids.
4. Real-time data enabling GTM preview and new advanced reporting functionalities to analyze the customer journey in detail by creating new reports. For example, consider a user who we know will be searching for flights online, based on their real-time searches for flights and hotels. We can use GA4 in conjunction with DV to ensure that our message reaches users at the most effective time in order to generate additional conversions.

How does GA4 integrate with DV360?

It’s very simple: it’s actually done in the same way that it was done with Google Analytics Universal. The interesting thing is that we keep both links active (GA4 and GA3) and we start collecting historical data for future actions.

With these new changes in regulations and updates, this phrase from John Lennon has come to mind:

“I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever’s going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan.” 

-John Lennon

So… How do I get started?

If you and your team want to get moving with GA4, reach out to us! You can fill our contact form here and one of our team members will be in touch shortly.

Welcome to the latest version of Google Analytics, called Google Analytics 4! This new property type (there are no views as we are used to) provides, among other things: greatly expanded predictive information, deeper integration with Google Ads, more measurement capabilities between devices, and more specific data controls.

The launch, announced on October 14, is an expansion and renaming of the well-known App + Web property launched last year. It marks an important first step in the evolution of Universal Analytics. Let’s take a look at some of its improvements:

• It will provide us with new insights and predictions based on artificial intelligence. Although machine learning-based insights in Analytics have been around for some time, new insights and predictions coming to Google Analytics 4 can automatically alert marketers to some trends, such as growing demand for a product. It can also be used to predict results such as bounce rates and potential revenue that a business could earn for a specific customer segment. This information can help us anticipate what our customers might do in order to focus on higher-value audiences.
• Improved integration with Google Ads. Now we can generate and maintain audiences of our users on the web and in the application. For example, if a user is qualified for an audience list due to an action performed on the web and was removed from a list because they made an in-app purchase, the list can automatically update to remove the user with no impact on other ads. In addition, Google Analytics 4 will report about actions in views on  YouTube that occur in the application and on the web.
• One of the biggest differences between Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics is the organization of reports based on the customer lifecycle. These reports will help us delve into specific aspects of the customer journey. For example, we can see which channels are generating new customers in the user acquisition report. Then, we can use the engagement and retention reports to understand the actions that these same customers take. Plus, we can see whether or not they stay after conversion. The new Analytics experience also aims to give us a more complete view of how customers interact with their businesses across devices and channels. We can also provide its user identification or enable Google signals to de-duplicate users on all devices, in the generation of reports, and in the targeting of ads.
• Another advantage is event tracking without code implementation. This makes it easy for us to track and measure the actions that are important on the site and in the app, and also in real-time (in Universal Analytics, events usually arrive with some latency). For example, we can measure a scroll event or video playback, without having to add code or configure event tracking in GTM.
• We are also going to have more specific user data control. Analytics 4 also helps advertisers satisfy data regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Consent mode is designed for sites that require end-user consent to collect analytics data. This new mode provides us with separate consent options for analytics and for ads. Data deletion options have also been improved, allowing companies to fulfill user deletion requests without having to delete more data than necessary. In addition, it includes a preview mode so that companies can verify the data they are about to delete.
• And how will it affect our analytics in the cookieless future? Well, as third-party cookies are removed, Google already anticipates that data scarcity will become the new norm. It will rely on machine learning to repopulate data gaps.

In conclusion, the new property of Google Analytics 4 provides a more complete cross-channel view of the customer life cycle and uses that information with predictive marketing functions, providing us with more information, and more efficient ways to act on those discoveries. Our recommendation is that when you have to configure a new property, do so with this new version. The previous version, Universal Analytics, will continue to be available. However, we recommend activating GA4, since it will be the focus of improvements and news within Google, and keep both measurements in parallel. 

Making Science can help you get started! Learn more by writing to us at info@makingscience.com.

How to continue measuring conversions while respecting new consent rules

Now that webpages must ask for the explicit consent of users before installing cookies in their browser, it is impossible to measure conversion rates for users who refuse to give their consent. With its new “Consent mode” functionality, Google looks to mitigate this impact. In this article, we’ll give you an inside look at how it works.

Two types of consent

Consent mode is focused on two types of consent: general analytics and ad personalization. These two new variables – ad_storage and analytics_storage – allow you to inform your tags (Google Analytics, GMP, and Google Ads) about the status of the user’s consent and therefore adjust site behavior according to that consent.

Consent Mode is not a CMP (Consent Management Platform). It complements the system or solution that is installed which collects the consent of the users. The tags themselves will always be executed, no matter if you have the consent of the user or not. The real change comes in the information they collect: if the user has given its consent, the tag will be executed normally, while if the user has rejected it, the tag will be executed without collecting or sending cookie information. In this way, it’s possible to continue having a basic and aggregated measurement instead of completely losing this information. With the information collected from the users who have accepted the consent, Google platforms will also be able to model the conversions for those users that have rejected it. This modeling isn’t active yet, but it’s on Google’s roadmap.

URL Passthrough

An additional functionality that can be activated is called “URL Passthrough.” This option will allow you to send the click identifier in the URL to continue associating it with a conversion in the absence of cookies. To implement it, you  must be using Google Tag Manager or gtag. In order to configure it, certain additional lines of code must be included.

Other Consent Management Platforms (such as Cookiebot or OneTrust, among others) already have direct integrations developed which facilitate activation. 

Conclusion

• Consent Mode derives from the need to comply with user consent without completely losing conversion measurement. It’s a basic and necessary element to allow us to analyze, improve, and optimize advertising.
• Consent Mode is a beta tool that is still in development and will progressively include more features and options, such as the conversion modeling mentioned above.

If you want to know more about Consent Mode, get in touch with Making Science and our team of experts.

The clock is ticking for the beginning of the retail holiday season. This year, consumers remain ready to shop.

According to an August 2021 survey by Censuswide, US respondents stated that they planned to spend around 64% of their total holiday season budget online. This represents a huge opportunity (and challenge) for sellers. If you’re interested in increasing your sales, you should step up your game!

Surely, you plan to invest more on your marketing budget than usual this season. And who isn’t? Cost per impression and click are bound to increase. It’s important to consider the best options to reach your audiences, and get serious about formats that help to maximize the reach and impact of your message. One tool that has proven useful for us and our clients is TrueView for Shopping.

Why TrueView?

More than 92 percent of internet users from the United States used YouTube to watch videos online in the past year. In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, this trend remains extremely relevant.

One valuable lesson for advertisers is that it has been proven that users recall YouTube ads more often than other social networks overall. A survey made by Statista Global Consumer Survey in mid-2021, shows the following results:

Top 10 places where YouTube viewers in the U.S. have seen adverts

Source: Social networks, YouTube in the United States 2021 by Statista

In short, people exposed to ads on YouTube are more likely to remember those ads especially compared to other channels like Search Engines, Banners, or OOH advertising.

Now we have to ask ourselves, how can we maximize this impact? Thanks to TrueView for Shopping, YouTube viewers can now click through to see a brand’s products, allowing them to easily shop for the items that are already right in front of them. From this point, companies will be able to unlock the power of YouTube by adding an e-commerce layer to the content. It is a win-win combination.

How does it work?

TrueView displays clickable product cards that allow visitors to go directly to an advertiser’s website and shop. Product cards are optimized to use dynamic re-marketing technology, or advertisers can set filters to show relevant products from the visitor’s shopping cart. These functionalities work even if a user skips an ad.

Google’s machine-learning technology and audience-matching algorithms allow advertisers to dynamically display their products to the most relevant audiences.

Get Started!

Here’s a handy guide that will walk you through setting up your first TrueView shopping campaign ↓

1. Link Your Google Merchant Center Account to Google Ads
2. Create a product feed and choose which of your products you want to showcase in your videos
3. Prioritize products according to your business objectives; remember to focus your strategy on moving users forward through your funnel
4. Make sure that you are tracking the activity across your website

Consider these important points as you get started using TrueView:

• These are video campaigns first and shopping campaigns second. Keep in mind that TrueView displays these ads before YouTube users are necessarily looking to buy something. Be sure to monitor the engagement of your ads so you can optimize in order to build awareness AND drive sales. If you’re not sure where to start with this kind of experimentation, we’re happy to help!
• YouTube is one of the most popular platforms for posting review videos. We suggest using a strategy focused on whitelisting reviewers’ channels and TrueView for Shopping. This will allow you to connect the dots between the moment a person watches a video about your product, and the moment they decide to make a purchase. 

If you want to start the holiday season with an optimized digital sales process, contact our team at info@makingscience.com. We’re here to help!

Note: This format is only available in America within Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States.