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They help determine the effectiveness of various marketing channels and campaigns in driving conversions or sales. Google is planning to Sunset four of these models in the coming months.

Acronym’s Associate Manager, Paid Search, Noemi Rhodes’ POV on what marketers need to do to prepare for this change was featured in MarTech’s AdTech.

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In this blog post, we will explore the four most important ways that digital marketers can utilize data analytics to improve their marketing efforts.

1. Customer profiling.

One of the most important ways that digital marketers can utilize data analytics is through customer profiling. By collecting and analyzing customer data, marketers can gain a better understanding of their target audience’s needs and preferences. This understanding can help you tailor your brand’s marketing messages to be more relevant and engaging to their audience. Customer profiling can also help marketers identify new opportunities for growth and expansion by uncovering untapped market segments or customer behaviors.

2. Campaign performance tracking.

Another important way data analytics helps improve marketing efforts is by tracking campaign performance, including metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer engagement. This can help you understand what is working and what isn’t. This information can then be used to optimize future marketing campaigns and improve overall campaign performance. Performance tracking can also help marketers identify areas for improvement, such as targeting a different audience or using different messaging.

3. Predictive analytics.

Digital marketers can also utilize data analytics to predict future customer behavior and market trends. By using predictive analytics tools, marketers can analyze large data sets to identify patterns and trends that can help them make more accurate predictions about future customer behavior. This information can then be used to develop more effective marketing strategies that are aligned with the evolving needs and preferences of their customers.

4. A/B testing.

Finally, digital marketers can utilize data analytics to conduct A/B testing. A/B testing involves testing two versions of a marketing campaign to determine which one is more effective. By tracking metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer engagement, marketers can gain insights into which version of the campaign is resonating better with their audience. This information can then be used to optimize future marketing campaigns and improve overall campaign performance.

Data analytics has become an essential tool for digital marketers to profile their customers, track the performance of their campaigns, use predictive analytics to forecast future trends and behaviors, and conduct A/B testing, digital marketers can make data-driven decisions that lead to improved business outcomes.

With the right data analytics tools and strategies, digital marketers can gain a competitive advantage and drive business success in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.

If you need assistance developing the right analytics strategy or how to apply your data to develop smarter, more effective campaigns, contact us today. We’re here to help.

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Never fear! We have the full video here for you. Acronym’s SVP, SEO, Winston Burton joined RenderSEO, Co-founder, Rachel Gill to discuss how marketers can integrate ChatGPT into their Local SEO efforts.

A few key insights include:

• How ChatGPT can help with Google business profile listings
• How ChatGPT can be used to monitor local SEO performance
• How ChatGPT can help businesses localized in content creation

Watch below and let us know if you have additional questions or contact us if you could use help with your Local SEO strategies.

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The MarTech landscape is always changing and improving so Acronym is here to ensure you are current on the latest news, tools and tactics to improve your measurement.

The Google tag (gtag. js) is the simplest way of connecting your entire website to all Google products and to multiple destinations and Google just announced an update that improves the tagging experience with a single, reusable tag built on top of your existing gtag.js implementations that helps you measure impact and preserve user trust.

Over the next few weeks customers who use the global site tag (gtag.js) file will have the ability to send data to both Google Analytics and Google Ads with one tag called the “Google tag”.

This allows for more capabilities without any additional tagging/coding.

Google explains this update on their Ads and Commerce Blog:

“We’re improving the tagging experience with the new Google tag — a single, reusable tag built on top of your existing gtag.js implementations that helps you confidently measure impact and preserve user trust. Starting today and rolling out over the next week, the Google tag will unlock new capabilities to help you do more, improve data quality and adopt new features — without requiring more code. As we’ve previously recommended with the global site tag, the Google tag should be installed on all pages of your website. For customers using Google Tag Manager, you will not experience any changes to your setup today. But, stay tuned for future updates on tighter integration and upgrade paths between the Google tag and Google Tag Manager.”

In the coming months, you’ll also be able to use your existing Google tag installation when setting up another Google product or account or creating new conversion actions, instead of configuring additional code each time.

As a reminder, Acronym owns the Adobe Launch Extension for the Global Site Tag. As experts in all things Google tagging, our Analytics team is here to support your implementation. Contact us today. We’re here to help.

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Google delayed the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome by another year, with plans to start phasing them out in 2024 instead of 2023 as originally planned.

Google needs more time to test its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which is a less intrusive solution for delivering targeted advertising. Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, stated in a blog post:

“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome. This deliberate approach to transitioning from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting.”

Google plans to gradually transition from third-party cookies to the Privacy Sandbox rather than abruptly replacing them with something new. A trial version of the Privacy Sandbox API is available to developers. In August, the trial will expand to millions of people globally.

Chavez continues:

“By Q3 2023, we expect the Privacy Sandbox APIs to be launched and generally available in Chrome. As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. As always, you can find up-to-date timelines and milestones on the Privacy Sandbox website.”

For marketers and advertisers, this means more time before adjusting your advertising strategies to target Chrome users.

At Acronym, we believe this move away from third-party cookies isn’t such a bad thing. Cookies were always directional. By focusing on the total customer journey and their engagement with your branded content or within your own app, you can capture more meaningful data, faster, and utilize it to deliver the experiences your customers crave. 

We’ll keep you posted on more cookie news from Google. In the meantime, if you need help transitioning to a more comprehensive view of your customer data, please contact us today. We’re here to help.

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Still, with all the data available to companies today, Forrester reports that 73% of corporate data goes unused for analytics and is rarely shared across the enterprise.

Why does data-sharing matter?

Leveraging data within your organization has the potential to deliver value in many areas. It can help lower costs and increase profits while also reducing risk. Pivoting to a data-driven approach will allow your organization to anticipate changes and challenges more effectively and accurately.

Insights derived from real-world data will allow you to look farther into the future. Customers openly provide insights to help brands understand their wants and needs. With an integrated data strategy, you’ll be able to set solid, measurable goals several years into the future and transform your business, through:

• Personalized customer experiences. Your communication, products, and services will be tailored to your customers based on insights derived from data, which leads to greater customer satisfaction.
• Improved decision-making. Key processes will be optimized, allowing you to make smarter decisions faster.
• Improved efficiency.  Automate time-consuming manual tasks, which reduces costs and ensures more accurate results.
• Stronger cybersecurity. Using AI-driven data limits the scope and impact of potential cyberattacks by identifying potential vulnerabilities before they become issues.
• Ambitious social goals. Greater insight into your organization’s data won’t merely benefit you financially. It also helps identify new opportunities, such as increasing diversity or pursuing sustainable business practices more effectively.

So, how do you ensure your data is shared and leveraged?

Here are tips to make your data more discoverable, pervasive, and reusable across the company:

• Foster a culture of “data-sharing” vs. “data ownership.” Data that resides only within one department must be analyzed and shared more broadly across the leadership team. To do this, you must foster a culture of “data-sharing” versus “data ownership.” We recommend creating data stewards who are responsible for company-wide dissemination of all insights.

You will also need to gain Leadership buy-in to remove the inherent obstacles to data sharing. Within your IT department, distinguish your data management strategy between data warehouses, data lakes and data hubs. This will help prevent silos.

• Heighten accountability with a data ecosystem strategy.With increased transparency into your data comes greater accountability. When you create a data ecosystem with clear expectations around the purpose of data sharing across all departments, it’s helpful to have a single leader who is entrusted with the oversight of company-wide data sharing.

Often, CIOs or Chief Data Officers can fill this gap while addressing privacy concerns, ethics and cybersecurity. This leader can establish the expectations for data-sharing, including what data should be shared internally, what data should be sourced from partners and how to align the insights from the total ecosystem for a model that works best for all teams. In some cases, your agency partner can help establish this strategy with your data leaders.

• Embrace unwelcome insights. Data analyses often challenge conventional assumptions about your customers’ wants and needs, including changes to the journey. This can mean your data reveals information that leaders don’t necessarily want to hear. But, as the saying goes, you cannot change what you don’t know. View all new insights as an opportunity to transform your business processes or user experiences.

Meanwhile, Many brands struggle with existing analytics solutions. According to Gartner, only 12% have the ability to collect online data at an individual level, and though 65% of brands report using digital analytics software, more than half (53%) say they’re not completely satisfied with their current solution.

At Acronym, we employ 40 billion data points daily and offer our Clients custom dashboards to ensure these insights are easily digestible and can be applied across the entire organization.

If you need assistance with your data ecosystem strategy, contact us today. Our Analytics teams are standing by.   

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Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s latest web and app analytics solution offering reporting and analysis capabilities. The new tool delivers an increased focus on predictive analytics, data visualization, and insights generated through machine learning. This solution is meant to replace its predecessor, Universal Analytics (UA or GA3).   

Google recently announced they will retire UA on July 1, 2023 for free accounts and on October 1, 2023 for 360 customers. There are several reasons Google is moving forward with GA4 despite its limitations. The primary reason is that it does not make sense for Google to maintain two parallel tools with different measurement models. Secondly, the European Union’s increasing scrutiny on Google’s data privacy practices almost necessitates a new approach to privacy, and perhaps a fresh slate free from problematic data collected previously. No matter the impetus, the announcement will affect all users of Google Analytics.  

What Does the Announcement Mean? 

This move forces marketers to migrate to Google’s latest analytics tool on shorter timeline than expected.  

Google confirmed data will still be available to view and export for at least six months after the retirement date, which gives marketers until the end of 2023 to export any data they may want from Google Analytics. Starting in 2024, it is likely that the data will be deleted from Google’s servers, and therefore inaccessible in the interface or via API.  

Of course, there will be challenges springing from this transition. Since the announcement, Google has not provided a straightforward way to: 

• Directly upgrade UA to GA4 
• Directly import UA data into GA4 
• Find equivalents for out-of-the-box reports in GA4 without customization 
• Easily migrate reports using the Google Analytics spreadsheet add on or any other third-party tool that leverages the API 
• Prepare report consumers for changes in tracking methodologies, or shifts from historic reporting or patterns 

Acronym recommends taking proactive measures to ensure that these challenges are considered in your migration plan. 

What Are the Implications? 

GA4’s approach to data collection and reporting differs drastically from UA in a few ways that markets should understand:  

Event-Based Data Model 

UA uses a page view and session-based model for reporting on behavior with different types of hits (events, eCommerce, and social interactions) being grouped into these scopes. In contrast, GA4 is an event stream with every interaction captured as a single type of event. Unlike the familiar event schema (category, action, label) we know from UA, all events are simply captured as events requiring marketers to rethink their current tracking strategy. What is available, however, are event parameters, which are metadata that can be captured with events to provide further information about a given interaction.  

Reporting 

Some of the reports available in UA do not have an equivalent in GA4, so replication or rethinking of current reporting may take some time. However, GA4 does offer flexible reporting within the out-of-the-box reports and the option to create custom reports in the Explorations section. Additionally, the concept of views has not been implemented in GA4 yet, requiring marketers to use segmentation to filter out the data they need. 

Increased Flexibility 

Migrating to GA4 should be considered an upgrade with several new features that UA cannot offer. Sampling limits, a long-standing issue in UA reporting, are much higher at 10M events per query for free accounts and up to 1B for 360 users. Additionally, BigQuery streaming exports are now unlimited for both free and paid users of GA4. Lastly, web and app experiences can now easily be analyzed together within the same property providing a more complete view of your users.  

Differences notwithstanding, the motivation for migration is clear – data collection will cease and previously collected data will be deleted by 2024. Organizations need to start planning sooner rather than later for this reality. 

What Do You Need To Do? 

Create and execute a game plan to configure and install GA4 over the next couple of months. You should aim to have as much data in GA4 as possible to compare trends against UA.  

Acronym recommends using the following as a base for your game plan: 

• Develop a KPI roadmap. GA4 is substantially different in its approach to data collection, so now is the perfect time to revisit your stakeholder’s requirements to ensure there are no gaps in reporting. 
• Update your documentation. If you have existing documentation surrounding your implementation, ensure that is accurate and complete. If you do not have any existing documentation, now is the perfect time to make your (and your team’s) future lives easier! Take the time to document your KPIs, implementation details, and configurations, including for any new requirements from your KPI roadmap. This is the prefect time to map out the UA events and goals to their counterparts in GA4. 
• Configure the GA4 interface. Create the property if you haven’t already. Then, configure data streams, select your conversion events, and implement any other customizations you need.  
• Update your tag management system. Using your updated documentation, make any necessary changes within your tag management system of choice and test thoroughly in your lower environments.  
• Publish, monitor reporting, and adjust! Although GA4 and UA data will never match exactly, it is important to thoroughly review the data in GA4 to ensure that it aligns with your expectations and historic trends found in UA. If it does not, then review your implementation and configuration and tweak as necessary. You should keep UA enabled during this period, though Acronym recommends keeping it enabled until Google deprecates it.  
• Finalize the GA4 configuration. Once you are satisfied that GA4 is implemented properly, add connections with any additional Google products you use, update your user lists, and re-label the previous UA properties to ensure stakeholders use the GA4 property moving forward.  
• Provide training for your business teams. GA4’s interface and reporting model is drastically different than UA, so other stakeholders will need training and direction on how to properly use the tool. This is also the perfect time to set expectations that the data will not line up exactly with what was previously seen in UA. 
• Finally, understand your historical analysis requirements & build a data export plan. Although UA properties are not disappearing immediate, Acronym recommends exporting historic data from these properties. The exported data not only allows for reporting continuity within external reporting systems, but also prepares for the end of 2023 when the UA data will no longer be available. There are several methods for exporting data, and Acronym can help with selecting the correct method and exporting data into your business intelligence tool(s) of choice. 

Of course, every organization is different and there are always additional details, considerations, and customizations that you must consider when tailoring the tool for your business. No generic guide is a substitute for an individualized or expertly created plan.  

How can Acronym help? 

Acronym’s teams of expert data architects, analysts, and engineers can help with the entire process of migrating to GA4. We strongly believe that the most successful Marketing programs are built on an Analytics foundation that is custom tailored to each brand’s unique needs. We leverage our knowledge of the industry and tool’s best practices, interview your relevant stakeholders, and perform a website discovery process to create a comprehensive and prioritized list of Key Performance Indicators, relevant and thorough documentation, as well as the full configuration and QA of the GA4 deployment.  Once GA4 is fully deployed, our team of data engineers can provide guidance and the muscle power to properly export UA data ensuring you have access to the historical trends you need. Contact us today to learn more.

POV By Philip Lawrence, VP, Digital Analytics, Acronym

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As explained by LinkedIn:

“Understanding which channels and messages have the greatest impact on the decision to take a desired step, such as a buyer requesting a product demo or a job seeker applying to a job posting, is critical to the effectiveness of any marketing campaign. Through the integration of Oribi’s technology into our marketing solutions platform, our customers will benefit from enhanced campaign attribution to optimize the ROI of their advertising strategies.”

LinkedIn already offers a range of marketing and advertising solutions. However, users have pushed for targeted ad features and better attribution models within the professional networking platform. Solutions like Oribi, which competes with platforms like Google Analytics, could deliver those enhanced attribution metrics.

The new analytics tool will provide code-free data that makes LinkedIn a more robust platform as marketers can now see visitors’ actions on a brand’s website and group those actions into behaviors that can provide deeper analysis without the need for third-party cookies or in-app tracing. This will help LinkedIn align with emerging privacy trends and the deprecation of cookies.  

Marketers can use targeting features via platforms like LinkedIn to engage with a precise audience base or even network with peers in a specific role, industry, or interest. In fact, Acronym recently won Sprout Social’s Agency Campaign of the Year for its use of LinkedIn (and Facebook) to drive qualified applications and leads to Wharton Executive Education’s online “Wharton Live Programs.” The integration of Oribi’s technology will allow marketers to better optimize their ROI and overall strategies as it will become easier to measure conversions from various campaigns.

If you’d like assistance leveraging LinkedIn for recruiting or to better connect with business customers, contact us today. We’re happy to help.

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