With new updates to privacy laws occurring every day, the most dynamic marketers need to be constantly aware of the changing digital ads ecosystem and why privacy matters. Google recently hosted a Privacy-Safe Growth webinar, and we outlined the top takeaways that will be beneficial to anyone participating in marketing endeavours for their business or organization. Marketers are seeing direct impacts on how well they are building and sustaining user trust.

Consumers are more concerned with how their data is used:

  • 81% of consumers in the past year have become more concerned with how companies are using their data (Axios).
  • 59% of users say they are not confident their privacy is protected by companies whose service or products they use online (Axios).

Marketers are seeing direct impacts from building and sustaining user trust:

  • 2.7x return for every dollar a company spent on privacy (Axios).
    • Ex: Cost of compliance, privacy certifications and maintaining data security.
  • 48% of people globally say they have stopped buying or using a service from a company due to privacy concerns (Axios).

The 4 Part Google Ads Growth Formula

There are four parts of the Google Ads Growth Formula, which include: Set Objectives, Get Ready, Take Action, and Evaluate & Expand. 

Step 1Set Objectives – This requires knowing your overall business objective and setting media 

objectives for your marketing efforts. It is important to make sure the business and the marketing objectives are aligned to accomplish campaign goals.

Step 2 Get Ready – Get most value out of your ads: 

3 Questions you should ask before you launch your ads:

  • Measurement – Are you meeting your objectives?
  • Strong creative – Are you breaking through?
  • Automation – Are you finding your clients’ highest value customers via automation?

Step 3 Take Action – Taking actions across the full marketing funnel using the entire suite of Google products to capture and generate demand.

Step 4Evaluate & Expand – As time passes and more data is collected, ad performance becomes clearer, giving you the data you need to test new strategies and scale.

What are the 3 next steps for a privacy-safe future:

  • 3 Steps to prepare for a privacy-safe future:
  1. Collect (global site tag, 1st party data strategy)
  2. Measure (enhanced conversions, GA4)
  3. Activate (customer match, audience expansion on display/video, smart bidding)

What is GDPR? (To learn more about GDPR – visit our GDPR Blog!)

  • GDPR addresses raising standards of privacy across the board. It requires companies to clearly identify all parties collecting, receiving, or using data from their website, apps, or other properties. In addition, they must obtain permission and consent for personal advertising. Similar regulations are being considered by many countries around the world who are not included in GDPR.
  • Direct outcomes of privacy changes:
  1. Fewer recorded conversions 
  • Impacts campaign performance
  • Restricts remarketing lists

      2. Google expects the ability to tie conversions to ads will continue to decrease

  • They expect the availability of individual level identifiers to continue to degrade over time.
  • Industry will move to rely on aggregated and anonymized measurement and data collection.
  • The understanding of the customer journey may still have gaps, even when you have the right infrastructure in place.

 

Modeled vs. observed conversions illustration – provided by Google, 2021

Chrome is taking a unique approach to a cookie-less future. The goal is preserve the web by offering privacy-preserving alternatives to 3P cookies:

  • In January 2020, Chrome announced the intention to phase out 3P cookies in 2022 via the Privacy Sandbox initiative. This has now shifted to 2023, but still remains in motion. 
  • Privacy Sandbox = New approaches so ads continue to be relevant to users while protecting identity and personal information.
    • Privacy preserving techniques include:
      • Aggregation
      • Anonymization
      • On-device processing
      • Differential privacy

 

Privacy Sandbox image – provided by Google, 2021 – to be paired with text above 

In summary, consumers are more concerned with how their data is being used than ever before, and marketers are seeing the direct impact from building and sustaining user trust. By applying the Google Ads Growth Formula and preparing your marketing campaigns by adapting to a cookie-less future, you will be better prepared. Although 2023 might seem very far away, now is the time to put measures in place to ensure you are compliant and prepared for the additional steps required to see marketing success. 

 

Contact Mindgruve today if you would like to learn more about how we can help you prepare for privacy-safe growth and take the appropriate steps needed for marketing success.