The end of cookies and classic retargeting.

Whether you're already doing retargeting or are new to the world of customer data, in this post we'll look at how you can maximize the performance and reach of your advertising campaigns by developing your own data.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance for companies of understanding consumer behavior. Today, marketing plays an even more essential role. That's why it's crucial for you to use your data, understand the opportunity it represents, understand the challenges and the actions you need to take in the next six months.

First of all, some of your customers have little impact on your business objectives, while others have much more. These are the ones you need to focus on. Whether they're new customers or not, you need to make sure you determine the value of each customer. As the path taken by users becomes more complex, let's take a look at automation. As online advertising becomes increasingly automated, machine learning can help you optimize it and bring us better results. The data you share with these algorithms becomes an important competitive advantage in your online advertising strategy. Whatever your business model, understanding customer interactions is vital.

This can give you several results, as you can see above, or encourage you to bid in relation to revenue, profit or value over time.How can you use the data you collect? By using conversion or audience data to inform our smart bidding strategy, you can increase performance and revenue in line with your business objectives. With third-party cookies gradually disappearing, it's becoming increasingly important to develop a first-party data strategy, not only to reinforce your customers' trust, but also technically for digital marketing purposes.

Companies exploiting all first-party data can double the incremental revenue generated by an ad. And they can multiply their profitability by 1.5 compared with companies that take little account of this data.

Google is investing in first-party data to prepare for the future and help privacy-conscious marketers to get more out of this information, and to exploit it more effectively and easily. So, while we've seen why data is essential, it's also important to understand the current context regarding privacy issues.

Previously, we lived in a world of fully observable data, such as cookies or device identifiers, but users' growing demands for privacy have given rise to new regulations and restrictions framing browser cookies. This has an impact on conversion metrics. What are the concrete consequences for you? The new ecosystem is very dynamic, so change is the new norm. These new regulations mark the end of third-party cookies.

This phenomenon will lead to a steady decline in observable conversions. This means you're going to have to rely more and more on the data you have for Google to model it.

In future, we'll have to invest in different technologies and place our eggs in different baskets. Unfortunately, there's no substitute for cookies, so we'll be relying more and more on modeling.

In the past, Google was able to automatically model the majority of lost conversions, but now they'll need more signals and data to improve the accuracy of their modeling. We'll look at this in more detail in the next section. Finally, we expect the ecosystem to continue to change. So it's crucial that you're ready and able to adapt to new technology.

If you're already using audience targeting, you may be wondering what this means for you. Retargeting cookies are third-party cookies, so they're going to disappear. You'll have to rely on the data you collect and transmit to Google.

Customer Match to compensate for the disappearance of retargeting

Google offers a "Customer Match" tool, which we'll look at in this section. Customer Match involves using your first-party data to reach customers you have in common via Google users logged into their account. This will become more important over time.

Marketers are increasingly investing in digitization and activation of first-party data. We know that retargeting is most often used to achieve deeper segmentation, and we'll need to use retargeting with the Customer Match solution. By segmenting your customer base, you can extend your existing customer base to new users, and you could leverage customer list targeting (Customer Match), to feed the machine learning system, enabling you to find new customers similar to those you've indicated to Customer Match.

You can then apply these lists to your campaigns and follow your usual bidding strategies.
You can then think about further developments, and discover from the Customer Match lists the customer segments to which ads have been shown, and thus broaden your targeting.

When it comes to bidding efficiency, intelligent bidding will integrate the fact that a user is on one of your Customer Match lists and his or her performance history. The system can predict the probability of that user converting. This will create greater added value. According to Google, Customer Match lists outperform other audience types.

For now, it's important to get off to a good start, so we recommend using new forms of retargeting such as Customer Match.

To get off to a good start, you need to activate the data correctly and follow best practice. For example, list size. When you send it to Google, you need to make sure you get good match rates and correct any formatting errors that may occur when it's uploaded. You also need to update this data regularly. Every two or three weeks, for example.

When advertisers update this data frequently, they see a 17% increase in traffic and conversions immediately after the update.

Strategically, it's also essential that you increase the size of the list by adding matching elements, such as e-mail address, telephone number, address.

Google shows that when advertisers add a new match element, the average size of their lists increases by 28%. If you're already using Customer Match targeting, you should use automation to improve your performance.

Google is developing new tools and features to help us determine the right value for each customer. We've talked about expanding your customer base, one of the benefits of using retargeting today. Tools such as similar audiences can help you identify new customers. Google will also be launching new campaign strategies, such as Performance Max, which will help us.

To summarize.

Google informs us that the days of the third data driven are over. We need to move forward, and Google will help us prepare for the future, prioritize users and comply with regulations. But it's also crucial that you develop a comprehensive first-party data strategy. By investing in solutions such as Customer Match, you can be sure of using the same audiences and performance you use for your marketing strategy. Customer Match serves as a crucial foundation for machine learning technologies, and will give you a major competitive advantage. As I said, nothing will replace cookies, but predictive technology. Google will enable you to achieve the business goals you're tracking today.

How will you manage the disappearance of cookies?

Agence BB Switzerland® is delighted to be at your side and to collaborate with you in this ever-changing ecosystem.