| Without knowing the signals to achieve your goals, you’re driving without a mapWith all the disruption in the world of marketing, building a strong measurement foundation is more important than ever, says Karen Stocks, Google’s VP of global measurement solutions. It starts with asking the right questions: In a post-cookie world, how can I set up my campaigns for measurement success? Aside from a first-party data strategy, what privacy-preserving tools can I use? And what is the relationship between AI and my first-party data? Is it privacy-safe? Get the answers here. Marketing mix models can steer decisions. See how Subway used them just a few years ago, marketing mix models (MMMs) seemed to be fading, as many considered them a relic of predigital times. But they’re far more nimble than they used to be. Subway has used them successfully, but it definitely took work. Here are a few lessons learned. Don’t oversimplify your measurement framework. Granularity can be your friend. This approach showed, for example, that layering bumper ads on top of TrueView ads drove 2X higher ROI than TrueView alone.Play the long game. Quick wins and short-term gains are easy to focus on when budgets are tight. And MMMs typically account for the effects of ads months after initial exposure. But what about the compound effect over a period of years? There’s a big picture of long-term brand health to keep in mind. Ready your stakeholder-management muscles. Feeding nuanced insights into your MMM and acting on its output may require big internal changes. Subway ensured that stakeholders were clear on the strategy and up to speed on what an MMM could (and couldn’t) do. Get the full case studyIf measurement today seems daunting, it is54% of marketers admit they’re overwhelmed by the number of data, measurement, and analytics solutions available. Source: Think with Google, July 2023.If you’re overwhelmed too (ahem, see above), this measurement formula can helpHere’s a three-step measurement process for modern marketers: Capture the right signals. A first-party data strategy is the only way to capture data safely and effectively. Google’s AI can help. Determine the value of your channels. Evaluate your channels through marketing mix modeling. We’ve often seen that marketers who use it can exponentially improve their ROI. Optimize results through experimentation. In 2020, the Harvard Business Review found that advertisers who ran 15 experiments in a given year saw about 30% higher ad performance that year, compared to advertisers who did not experiment. Constant testing is the key to determining which campaign adjustments to make in real time to drive performance.Twinkle, twinkle, data warehouse star“Closing the data gaps would help us enhance our knowledge of what our customers want and how they behave across our entire digital estate. That’s why we transformed our operational model, the way we work, and our attitude towards data.”Arn Knol, Commercial Director of E-commerce, G-StarSource: Think with Google, October 2023. Check out more measurement guidance: How conversion modeling helps you measure what mattersHow Google’s own media team handled its upgrade to Google Analytics 4 Inside Quebec City’s agile, data-driven strategy to boost hotel occupancy ratesMarketing Now & Next: Data in a privacy-first landscapeUnifying your marketing data to find your best customers with Google Cloud |
