Marketing Intelligence in a World of GDPR and Browser Restrictions

1) Measuring Campaign Effectiveness Before Consent

Just a few years ago, the effectiveness of online marketing was gauged through tracking and its underlying attribution setup. We measured, calibrated, and attributed online marketing impact using third-party web analytics data-streams, third and first party cookies, and third-party channel tracking. This process helped us determine where to place bids, how to optimize campaigns, and how to distribute the marketing budget.

2) Browsers and Operating Systems are Catching Up

The introduction of consent management has significantly influenced our data-based decision-making in marketing. Those who deliver their Consent Management Platform (CMP) script via Google Tag Manager today should prepare for potential impacts. For instance, if Apple were to block Google Tag Manager by default in the near future, how complete would the data be? To get a sense of Apple's current Safari developments, simply open zalando.de in private mode. Since the last Safari update, the consent banner is no longer displayed due to the blocking of the google tag manager and the CMP snippets therein, which means no consent can be given. The iOS 14 update has already provided us with a glimpse of what happens when BigTech continues to broaden the data protection topics. Observing how Google Chrome positions itself in the upcoming months will be interesting.

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3) Optimization of Opt-In Rates Becomes Irrelevant

In September 2019, I first encountered consent management at a retailer. I quickly realized what this means in a model with significant budgets in 26 countries. Over the years, consent management has become the standard and an optimization task in every project. Many of us are still optimizing the opt-in rates, even though I believe that this is increasingly losing relevance. Data protection authorities have taken a clear position and demand a reject button at the first level. Now, browsers are following suit and increasingly blocking known JavaScript and Tag Management Systems.

4) Challenges That Come with Increasing Browser Restrictions

Four and a half years later, we have made little progress and our data base for measuring marketing efficiency is increasingly shrinking. I see little opportunity for third-party providers to establish clean and GDPR-compliant infrastructures for measuring campaign effectiveness. I have also considered options such as Matomo or dubious server-side tracking providers who attempt to approach the topic with AI. Speaking with them can be a dizzying experience.

5) Establishing an Endpoint for Measuring Campaign Effectiveness

I believe it's time for us to develop our own measurement methods in marketing. To continue improving and reduce dependencies, we need to establish a solid foundation. We are already good at understanding our customers, acquisition costs, and customer lifetime values, and knowing from which campaigns these customers come from. To maintain this, we need to prepare adequately.
We should start by recording onsite activities and campaign parameters ourselves and connecting these insights. However, when we merge data, we must do this in accordance with GDPR. We need to aggregate data, anonymize it, and when we combine it, we need to do so with the viewpoint of privacy by design.Marketing budget allocation is not focused on the identity of an individual. Rather, it seeks to identify whether a purchase from a marketing channel comes from a new or an existing customer.

6) Establishing Your Own Measurement Method: What Does It Mean and What Needs to Be Done?

Let's take our website as an example: On our website, no consent banner is displayed as we neither set cookies nor integrate external scripts. Nevertheless, we can provide 100% accurate, meaningful information about the number of visitors we receive from various sources and campaigns. We only collect data that our server receives anyway via the https.request, including the accessed URL with campaign parameters, the user agent, and the IP address. As long as we do not draw conclusions about individuals or share the data with third parties, collecting this data is completely fine.
Using a JavaScript we developed, we send this data to (y)our server, which is operated in the Google Cloud with ADV in Germany, and not to a third domain or a tagging server on one of (y)our subdomains. This data flow allows us to perform precise measurements and analyses on the raw data, such as how many views were generated in total, per page, per channel, per campaign, per day, per hour, and per second.
We combine this raw data with the APIs of the marketing channels and the interfaces of the shop systems to import costs and integrate transaction data. On this basis, we create detailed reports that are fully GDPR compliant. Although we could theoretically read out server logs, we prefer the client-side variant, among other things, due to CDN caching.

7) What Can Marketing Teams Expect?

This technology allows marketing teams to perform 100% accurate measurements, assess the success of individual campaigns and advertising materials, and model the marketing mix. It is important to distinguish between measurement and tracking. We do not track and do not pass on data to third parties. We also do not create profiles but simply measure the campaign performance, without using cookies or accessing the user's end device. In the end, it's all about getting the most out of existing marketing budgets, gaining insights, and improving control.

8) How and Where Should I Start?

If you are interested in an exchange or have questions about starting server-side measurement, including the resources and skills needed, feel free to send me a message or call me.