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By Allan Thygesen, Think with Google
Today, 80% of people in surveyed countries are concerned about the state of their online privacy.1 In turn, regulators and tech platforms have restricted techniques — such as device IDs and third-party cookies — that advertisers have relied on for decades to reach audiences and measure results. The advertising industry needs to innovate and collaborate to meet people’s expectations for privacy and help businesses grow sustainably.
That’s why Google has developed new privacy-centric solutions that support your marketing objectives while keeping people’s information safe.
Google found that the best strategy to achieve this requires three core actions:
Deepening customer relationships with the help of consented first-party dataEmbracing automation grounded in accurate modelsUsing new technologies that don’t track people across the internet
Deepening customer relationships with consented first-party data
Building meaningful customer relationships requires you to earn people’s trust. This requires, among other things, helping your customers understand and choose how their data is used. Ninety-one percent of consumers in surveyed countries say that it is important for brands to be transparent about the data they collect about their customers,2 thus needing to more clearly communicate what data is gathered, why, and how to keep that information safe.
Google also innovated its ads and measurement platforms to help customers strengthen their foundation of durable, consented first-party data and to make the most of customer interactions at scale. For advertisers, the new Google tag powers measurement and informs other privacy-safe solutions such as Google Analytics 4, which helps gain insights faster than ever before and even predict future outcomes. And, for marketers operating in the European Economic Area and the UK, Consent Mode offers greater insight into conversion data while automatically adjusting tags based on user consent choices.
Embracing automation grounded in accurate models
Even with a solid foundation of consented first-party data, less observable data may lead to gaps in the customer journey. Among digital media professionals, 85% say cookie loss and accurate measurement are two of their top challenges. That’s where automation can help.
For years, advertisers have relied on machine learning to model conversion rates when there’s a gap in available data between an ad interaction and conversion, such as in online-to-offline transactions. Today, innovations in conversion modeling can also help solve for unknowns in the customer journey in a privacy-safe way by using machine learning underpinned by user-provided data. Privacy-centric modeling already powers many Google ads and measurement solutions, such as attribution and reach and frequency, to help you access the insights you need and drive better results.
And Google is always working to provide increasingly accurate and actionable insights by strengthening its models. For example, they increased browser coverage and added new model types to enhance the customer journey. Google also deepened its investments in model quality and accuracy to help businesses attribute a higher percentage of conversions that would otherwise remain unknown.
Recently, Google started recruiting participants for its Online Insights Study. This panel is built on direct and trusted relationships between Google and US consumers who opt in. Transparency and control are cornerstones of its panels. Google ensures that people know how their data will be used and protected so they can make informed decisions about whether to join the panel or continue their participation over time. Moreover, Google will not use a customer’s information for ad targeting. Instead, the data will be used strictly to validate that Google’s measurement solutions are effective.
Using new technologies that don’t track people across the internet
As the privacy landscape continues to evolve, the industry needs new technologies that will improve privacy for users while continuing to give people the insights and tools needed to grow business. Google doesn’t believe that substituting third-party cookies with covert tracking mechanisms or other cross-site identifiers will meet users’ or regulators’ evolving privacy expectations. And completely blocking third-party cookies without also providing suitable alternatives can lead to the rise of opaque practices such as fingerprinting.
That’s why Chrome and Android are working with the industry to build the Privacy Sandbox. The goal is to support the key marketing use cases you rely on — such as reaching the right audiences based on their interests, re-engaging people who have visited your site, and attributing the source and success of the ads you run — without tracking users across websites and apps.
Google will soon begin testing Privacy Sandbox APIs in Google Ads and Display & Video 360 with more global partners to help you privately and effectively reach audiences that might be interested in your business. Google will incorporate your feedback and share its findings through various rounds of testing before rolling out solutions in general availability.
More than ever before, the industry needs innovation and collaboration to protect the tools and insights businesses need to grow. Although Google can’t predict what the future will look like, it can invest in modeling solutions and new privacy-preserving technologies that embrace consented first-party data. These initiatives will help businesses measure what matters and achieve better results. Coming together to protect privacy and build the future of the advertising industry can help preserve measurement for everyone.
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A version of this article originally appeared on Think with Google.
This post was created by Think with Google with Insider Studios.
1, 2 Google/Storyline Strategies, March 2022.