Google - Mason Interactive

The 4th generation of Google Analytics is already out, and there’s finally a hard deadline for when you have to completely transition over–July 1, 2023. This post will cover what’s new about GA4 and why you should be thinking about it now.

Analytics that Respects User Privacy

We know that consumers are shopping and engaging online more than ever before following the pandemic. As a result, investing in data & analytics is key to understanding customers and reaching new prospects.

As regulators and platforms evolve how consumer data can be used, people are now able to control/restrict how their data gets used for ad targeting. These are the conditions that have called for a new approach to analytics.

TLDR: GA4 is Google’s answer to a privacy-centered digital landscape.

Why does this matter?

GA4 achieves the same goal as its predecessors, albeit in a different way.

In our experience, clients like to optimize around metrics like click-through and bounce rates. In GA4, we’ll be thinking more about engaged users vs non-engaged users. Previously, if a user spent 30 seconds on your website and left without clicking anything, that may have been looked at as a bad thing. GA4 will consider a 30 second session an important event to track, even if that user doesn’t click anything.

GA4 uses machine learning to automatically generate insights from brand data to improve marketing. This replaces the modeled style of tracking from previous generations of GA. See our guide on Enhanced Conversion Tracking to understand this better.

This new generation of GA is meant to be future-proof. It will work with or without cookies so you will still be able to learn about customers even with the identifier gaps that cookies once filled–though you should still be collecting first party data.

New Features

Event editing & synthesis – you can now edit & fine-tune events logged in GA4 within the UI, without writing or adjusting code

Data Import – Track events happening outside of your website/app by sending data directly to GA4. PLUS you can import additional data & signals

Cross-Domain Measurement – Track a user’s journey across domains within the GA4 UI without writing code. You can also use templated reporting to better understand ecommerce funnels.
Migration & onboarding tools – Google understands that most people don’t like change, so they’ve made it incredibly easy to get started with a new GA4 property. There’s a getting started wizard for setup in a few clicks, and you can simultaneously collect data in both UA & GA4. This is called dual set up.

Why You Should Get Started NOW

Simply put, if you want to have QoQ or YoY data the same day that Universal Analytics is out, you’ll want to move over to GA4 ASAP.

There is no way to simply migrate an audience from UA to GA4; it has to be collected by the Google Analytics 4 tracking code. The sooner the GA4 tracking code (and maybe even some basic events and parameters) are configured, the sooner those audiences can grow and be used to support your advertising efforts.

This isn’t a small task, which is why Google recommends getting started with dual-setup. Tagging all of your pages with both Universal Analytics and GA4 will allow you to continue to benefit from Universal Analytics while beginning to collect data in your GA4 properties.

If you want to get a head start on your competitors and be ready when cookies is phased out in 2023, Mason Interactive can help you strategize around this.

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First party data refers to user information collected from direct interactions with your brand (email, site, app etc). Owning this data should now be an essential part of your marketing strategy–especially as platforms prepare to sunset 3rd party cookie tracking.

Today’s consumers are shopping online more than ever before, but they’re also more protective of their data than ever before. Despite the increase in user activity, it’s getting harder to tell who these users are and which are most likely to be interested in your products.

Apple’s new iOS privacy features allow users to refuse data tracking. Facebook & Google are moving away from 3rd party cookies. Changes like these mean that it’s up to your business to collect the data you need to understand who your customers are and which acquisition channels are the most effective.

In other words, you need to start collecting first party data.

Understanding First Party Data

Consider first party data the foundation of your marketing strategy from this point on. Since most sites won’t be able to collect the key identifier data, it’s on your business to collect it from your customers and prospects.

Asking users to share your data is challenging, but it’s much easier when the user has an established relationship with your brand. Therefore it’s incredibly important to build trust with your customers in order to collect first party data.

Want Proof? Nike Just Did It

Nike’s share price shot to an all-time high in 2020 thanks to its customer-centered DTC strategy.

The company couldn’t utilize its network of over 900 global stores in the midst of the pandemic, so it instead leaned into what it called a “Consumer Direct Offense”.

“[In] a future increasingly defined by e-commerce, fast-moving trends and, above all, the rising power of branding to drive consumer preference when competitors are just a click away, Nike realized that in order to thrive, it needed to take control of its distribution to better manage its brand and deepen its connection with consumers.”
Inside Nike’s Radical Direct-to-Consumer Strategy, Business of Fashion

Mapping the Customer Journey with First-Party Data

Connecting with your loyal customers is critical, and every single step of your customer journey should be optimized with that in mind. Here’s a helpful video on building trust with your customers and why that matters:

We can help you strategize around this so you can:

Improve targeting precision
Improve omnichannel measurement
Drive ad relevance
Close the loop on attribution
Create a single view of the customer

We’re currently helping our clients prepare for the cookie-less future. Here’s how we can help you too:

Make a roadmap for your first party data
Determine the right data sources and data points
Benchmark and monitor over time

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s meet and discuss how we can create a tailored strategy for your business.

Picture your eCommerce site as a physical store. Now, imagine your wholesale retail buyers as the businesses next door. Sure your products get sold either way, but you still want to make the sale yourself, right?

Small and medium-sized D2C brands often depend on third-party retailers for exposure to larger audiences. However, the risks include not only loss of revenue, but the opportunity to capture the first-party data needed for future sales & growth.

This is not to say that it’s a bad thing to sell your products through a larger retailer, that’s great!

However, when high-intent users directly search for your brand, you should rank higher than your retailer.

In fact, you lose big time when you don’t.

Ex: A direct search for Hamilton Dress Shirts gives 5 results for 3rd party retailers & none for the actual brand.

The right media strategy puts you in a position to make the sale and capture the first-party data you need to succeed in today’s digital landscape. The wrong media strategy surrenders sales opportunities to retailers that bid for on brand terms.

Here are a few things to think about when balancing your DTC & B2B strategies.

What’s at Stake

A few things happen when a retailer ranks higher than you on your terms. For one, they have a better chance than you to win sales. With that sale comes the opportunity to collect the customer’s first-party data, which means you won’t be able to directly engage your most likely buyers via social media, email, ads, and more. This doesn’t just affect prospect customers. First-party data can help drive brand loyalty & future sales, and you’d lose out on that too.

Going forward it’s going to be incredibly important to build authentic relationships with your customers, and it will be harder to do if you’re not appearing in direct searches.

Stop competing against yourself.

It’s entirely possible to balance your B2B relationships while owning & growing your own customer base.

At Mason Interactive, we have 13 years of experience working with DTC brands that also have a physical retail presence. We can help optimize your media strategy so you can capture your most high-intent prospects. Set a meeting with us today to learn more.

It has never been more important to understand who your potential customers are. As the industry shifts towards focusing more on consumer data privacy, it’s getting harder to track and measure prospective buyers.

As an agency, we’re staying ahead of the curve so that our clients can succeed despite the coming impact.

Source: Tech Times

We recently attended a company-wide training session with our partners at Google to discuss the future of privacy-centric measurement. This post will cover how you can explore unique implementations of Google’s Enhanced Conversion Tracking protocols.

Don’t know where to start? Send us a message to discuss what this means for the future of your business.

What is enhanced conversions?

Enhanced conversions is a feature that can improve accuracy when it comes to measuring conversion. It supplements existing conversion tags by sending hashed first-party conversion data from your website to Google in a way that still protects user privacy.

The feature uses a secure one-way hashing algorithm called SHA256 on your first-party customer data before sending to Google. The hashed data is then matched with signed-in Google accounts in order to attribute your campaign conversions to ad events, such as clicks/views.

Simply put: Say goodbye to Observed conversions, and hello to Modeled conversions based on hashed data.

Implementation

There are 3 approaches to implementation: manual (preferred), automatic tag based, and API. Once implemented, Enhanced Conversions will start working immediately, however, 60% of data can be missed if Enhanced Conversions is not applied correctly. We can help you with this.

The next generation of Google Analytics – GA4 (Google Analytics 4) has been rebuilt to include more capabilities, including predictive modeling, attribution, and LTV modeling. Once implemented, it will take 12 months of data for features to accurately model. Speaking of which…

First Party Data is Priority #1

About 80% of advertisers depend on third-party cookies. Without them, those advertisers will need to find a new way to reach their customers and prospects online. User’s behavioral and browsing data will be limited. If you depend on third-party cookies it will be significantly harder to personalize ads, A/B test, and gauge attribution.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: There is nothing more valuable than owning your first party data. Whether you have been in business for years, or are just beginning your digital journey, now is the time to evaluate what this data means to your holistic ecosystem. Enhanced Conversions will capture all email addresses, including non-gmail addresses, but keep in mind that only conversion data will be recorded.

Plan for the Future Today

Google announced that third-party cookies will be deprecated by the end of 2022, or early 2023 at the very latest.

This industry-wide change is not going away, and we encourage you to be proactive today so your business has time to adapt to new industry standards and best practices. There’s a lot to be done, so if it seems overwhelming, schedule a meeting with one of our experts today.

Glossary:

Third party cookies: Third-party cookies specifically are created and placed by websites other than the website you’re visiting. Some common uses include cross-site tracking, retargeting and ad serving.

First party cookies: First-party cookies are generated by the host domain. They are usually considered good because they help provide a better user experience. These cookies enable the browser to remember important user info, such as what items you add to shopping carts, your username and passwords, and language preferences.

For an example, let’s say you visit a website called learn.com. Any cookies put on this website by learn.com would be first-party cookies. Any cookies put on learn.com by any other site, like a social media site or an advertiser, would be third-party cookies.

Identity Resolution Providers: The process of matching identifiers across devices and touchpoints to a single profile — helps build a cohesive, omnichannel view of a consumer, enabling brands to deliver relevant messaging throughout the customer journey.

Cross-site tracking: The practice of collecting browsing data from numerous sources (websites) that details your activity

Retargeting: Using search activity to retarget visitors with visual or text ads based on the products and services for which they’ve shown interest

Ad-serving: Making decisions regarding the ads that appear on a website, deciding when to serve these ads, and collecting data (and reporting said data including impressions and clicks) in an effort to educate advertisers on consumer insights and ad performance.

We’re excited to share that our agency has achieved 2022 Premier Partner status in the Google Partners program.

This designation recognizes us as one of the top 3% of agencies in the United States.

This month, Google recognized the achievements of top-performing digital marketing partners across the globe by awarding Premier Partner status as a part of the new Google Partners program.

The Google Partners program has undergone significant changes for 2022, including redefining what it means to be a Premier Partner through new, advanced program requirements and offering new Premier Partner benefits to support growth and success with Google Ads.

“Congratulations to our Premier Partners for being among the top 3% of Google Partners in the United States. These companies stand out based on their commitment to developing product expertise, building new client relationships, and helping their current clients grow. We look forward to supporting them as they help their customers succeed online.”
– Davang Shah, Senior Director, Google Ads Marketing

Mason Interactive is part of a select group of Premier Partners in the Google Partners program. This program is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other brands or businesses. Its mission is to empower companies by providing them with innovative tools, resources, and support to help their clients succeed and grow online.

Grow With Us

As a recognized partner of Google, Mason Interactive leverages an exclusive toolbox of platform solutions that we use to help our clients grow their businesses. To find out more about how you can benefit from our partnerships, send us a message at hello@masoninteractive.com, or leave your contact information here to hear from one of our experts.

What Does this Google Algo Update Mean?

For a few months now, Google has had the Core Web Vitals algorithm update looming over us. Originally set to launch in May, now pushed back to mid-June, this update is going to change the Google ranking algorithm to factor in a website’s core web vitals. What are core web vitals, you ask? These are metrics defined by Google that identify on-page experience for users.

Core web vitals identify on-page user experience

Photo: Developers.Google.com

The three aspects of core web vitals are load time (LCP), interactivity (FID), and visual stability (CLS). Core web vitals are broken down into Mobile and Desktop experience so rankings for both desktop and mobile could be affected.

Who Does The Update Affect?

The best way to think of the core web vitals on your site is to ask yourself: is my website loading slowly? If you answered yes, then the update could affect your site. That is not to say that all of the other ranking factors are no longer valuable in the Google Algorithm. If your site has amazing content, high-quality backlinks, but loads slowly then it’s likely that you won’t see drastic drops in rankings overnight. Core web vitals is just going to be yet another factor in the cog that is the Google Algorithm. Google stated:

“A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”

How to Prepare for Core Web Vitals

Once you’ve identified that your website is loading a bit slow, the next question to ask yourself is: what is slowing down my site? Google Search Console has a core web vitals tool that shows you if there are any glaring page experience offenders.

Google stated:

“Pages that receive a score of “good” on Core Web Vitals are achieving an aspirational level of user experience, and might get a boost in the page experience component of ranking, provided other components of the page experience signal (HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, etc) are deemed OK.”

If you have some pages that receive the grade of ‘needs improvement’ and ‘poor’ then there are improvements you can work towards. None of these issues can be fixed overnight, but more so worked towards. In the meantime of improving your page experience, it’s a great idea to look at what other ways your site can improve. SEO fundamentals are always going to be important when getting your website to rank.

Still have questions? The experts at Mason Interactive can help answer any questions. Contact us to get started.