How to use Data as a Marketer... Targeting or Not
With changes across in the industry as well as increased regulation and renewed government interest, now is the time for marketers of all shapes and sizes to think about how to utilise the D word!
Big Data. Data is the new oil. Data-driven marketing. A data-led approach, using data and technology. Data Informing the plan.
Anyone in marketing or agency land would have heard this on shuffle and repeat the last few years, and why wouldn’t you have?
Let’s hark back to the wild-west heady days of the early 21st century. Post DPA 1998, and pre PECR and GDPR regulations, (you should know what those acronyms are, if not I suggest getting on it).
Opt-ins less tight. Opt-outs just tight enough to cover your ass. The advent of scale digital media buying through programmatic real-time bidding before the advent of brand safety. The old days of list rental and leasing data sets for your online, telephone or DM follow up. Dropping a csv file in an email. I must sound like some kind of Jurassic relic touting some of this, but that was the way not so long ago.
Thankfully we have evolved and there are new ways of using and managing data IDs, albeit personally identifiable (Mr. Simon Akers, M, 08/83) that provide immediate addressability e.g. email marketing or customer data, or non personally identifiable (143g5hj5DclH7Th508) where cookies have enabled us to infer an ID of an individual who probably has Amazon Prime, likes Holidays, Dogs and is under 55 (me again for the record, but not unique).
Now I am not the data and AdTech expert so much these days; hell a few months out of the game is like missing an entire season of Game of Thrones and expecting to keep up with the goings on of Westeros, but more the marketing planning guy with a digital head on, so this is not a prescription or user guide, but 3-4 fundamental principles to consider in the near future with planning at the heart.
To some, the following will be painfully obvious, and I hope so too. But others it may help devise a plan to help you get ahead of the game…
Firstly, let’s define what we want. There is a difference between an ID and Data. The former is needed, the latter wanted.
This has pained me for so long. Back to my fossilised data era a moment, people used to share email lists. Promise of a million records i.e. email addresses. No other insight or maybe a loose field saying YES they ticked to hear about saving on energy bills. I mean who wouldn’t (especially at time of writing in March 2022!). But wait, these are just identifiers. an EMAIL, or a SURNAME, or a 4EGrfh4tUR49, are just records and identifiers (IDs) against which you append a DATA POINT. The power is in the data alongside it, not the record. If I was going to email 1,000 target prospect in my ESP for a test, the fact I have 25k is useless to me, I would rather know which 980 filled out the form of interest, showed intent to buy a product, and similar. Less can be more. but the more is being more comprehensive and insightful. Insight being the word often overused too. An insight is a genuine piece of wow intelligence garnered from statistical data significance, be wary of overuse.
The future of addressability is changing. Adios Cookie (sometime…)
With Googles marketing stack launching Topics, it is essentially a way to target Cohorts of people. Affinity/in-market audiences who are likely to engage with your product service based on contextual signals and some. This is the latest attempt at time of scribing to futureproof ahead of the demise of the third party cookie. With Google being jury, defendant, and market leading browser and witness, they are very much setting the timelines on this (2023 latest I heard) so I would not kneejerk yet with this stay of execution, BUT in terms of new stat streams it is worth bearing in mind, and the thinking cap should very much be on…
Thinking cap : think about your own data collection
This is not rocket science, but thinking about the sourcing and the provenance of your own data assets is now going to be key. There will be less remarketing options in the proposed post-cookie future, so less granular targeting and indeed reporting is likely to be available (in the open web anyway). But actually, do we have to worry/care?
By setting up the pipes PRE data collection with a sensible CRM system, CDP or a simple email provider, you can really start to filter what matters. Think about what is important to your business. Number of employees and sector could be more important than turnover if you are B2B targeting, therefore collect (in line with legitimate interests in GDPR) what actually matters and is likely to help you. For example, a recruitment client I work with map their online lead forms (e.g. how many hires are they looking to make in x months) to elements of their CRM, so everything gets pulled in. Then segments and lists can be created by type. This sounds so rudimentary as I write it, but it is such an easy fix, but get it right early. Sharpen the axe, and data collection tree chopping will be easy, more relevant, and helps set you up for useful targeting in the future. By a little targeting it could potentially mean ABM for sales team, emailing your own base, or pushing out segments into Facebook and Google for matching or lookalikes. Forget Big data, think RIGHT DATA.
Just because you can measure it, does not mean it matters
The biggest ruse the tech industry has pulled over the ad industry this last decade is the importance of all the custom dashboards, measurements and an overcomplexity of too many KPIS. Been consulting with a client who has way too many and it can become a problem, often times different media mechanics create conflict of outcome and dilute the desired output. You need a north star (secondary KPI fine) and focus on that. Re : Data, yes you are pulling in various pieces for your view, but what actually matters for moving the needle. e.g. if my recruitment client wanted to build their pipeline 6 months from now, we would measure how many conversions we are getting from the 6-12 month form fill as a success. Not CTR, Not impressions. Not Lands Useful proxies of marketing and testing messaging and creative efficacy, and perhaps a secondary measure, but do not get hung up on overcomplication.
Speaking of which, over targeting is arbitrary and reduces your reach
If you want to grow and acquire new customers, and you keep peddling your wares to same few records or your pre determined segments of left handed Gen Z fashionistas wearing Converses, then there is little headroom for growth and plenty for message fatigue. Rather, think what genuine insight can glean from your most successful CRM members. What do your customers look like? What made them convert. Fold that out into a bigger plan, either using data (pushing out segments for modelling) or just good old fashioned media planning for non data-driven activity e.g. TV/Radio/Cinema, all of which play their part to grow incremental brand awareness and audience. As I said before, marketing needs to breed the fish, and conversion/targeted activity just catches them.
To summarise, it is NOT all about the data. Yes it helps in certain moments, but it should be used as a conduit to more opportunities, from lookalike audiences through to informing bigger plans. A tool in your toolkit. It is very much NOT the new Oil, just a bit of kindling!
SA
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