Triple Your Digital Research Budget Now: How to Leverage That Investment

There are ways to soften the blow of the AppleGoogle onetwo punch to personbased marketing and measurement On the measurement front take the gold standard measurement today the relatively clean randomized controlexposed experiments we39ve been performing online for twoplus decades Consider it might not be available soon Try new techniques in a sidebyside with the gold standard now so you can ground truth to the new probabilistic approachesAsk the right questionsGood learning agendas begin with a series of questions that lay out the fundamental challenges In this marketers will have diverse challenge questions across activation insight and messagingIf you do journey mapping will you get similar insights and conclusions when only a fraction of the people optin for measurement Try a parallel test to find out Simulate the optin question take those who say yes and compare to those that don39tAbsent digitally tracked viewthrough marketers can use Design of Experiments at the cohort or regional level to determine advertising contribution Media spend must vary over time to statistically analyze the relationship of advertising and conversionamp160Some advertisers can use panels Will panels give you what you need to replace what you are losing with identity Will Unified ID Cooperatives work well enough Is FLoC quotgood enoughquot for your needs Not sure Few people are You39ve got to do the work now so you can be sure The clock is tickingWill new techniques work predictably across time and place Most consumer products and services have dynamics of seasonality and geography that impact response These products need a full year baseline then yearoveryear lift benchmarks to be fully informed of the longrange impact in this new worldDon39t put yourself in a could have would have should have situation wishing you could go back in time to see how the new world of measurement compares to the old Do that testing now while you still have access to the old world Parallel studies will help build a bridge to the future through concrete data on the differences between old and new measurement allowing you to find calibration techniques Calibration and weighting may be critical to ensure this more limited world of digital measurement doesn39t cause harm to your businessThere are ways to offset the loss of identity by developing alternative analytics and reconsidering marketing priorities1 Take stock of how much of your marketing communications and research depend on identity classify which are at risk and which are relatively safe because you have a firstparty relationship2 For the elements that are at risk begin a series of research efforts to migrate to your next best alternative3 Take a step back and ask quotIf I were to design marketing from a blank page what would I include today and for the identity light future that would increase my ROI If you aren39t taking advantage of AI Personalization in your email make it a test and learn priority to get some direct experience through a few pilots4 Create an ROI baseline and challenge yourself and partners to improve it in spite of the identity changes Bonus your team and partners if they achieve your improvement goal5 Design sidebyside efforts with the current identity rich approaches versus the soontobe identity constrained capabilities Yes you are paying twice for almost the same thing but you must know how different your output will be so you can calibrate accordingly Just like benchmarking ROI you must benchmark reporting and insights in a pre and postidentity rich world For example perhaps you conduct an AB split test and run it two ways One with the current gold standard of creating segments and keeping them separate with a cookie identifier and another test without Perhaps you use a panel instead Perhaps you deliver only a single impression and measure immediately How different are your results Would you make different decisions based on those resultsFind money even if it hurtsThe common lament is quotI know it39s important but I just don39t have the moneyquot All available funds are tucked away in their respective financial line item with different budget owners and we can39t take money from quotworkingquot media into quotnonworkingquot because we would then have to adjust projections As holistic marketing effectiveness experts we advocate that there are times when reducing quotworkingquot in the name of effectiveness makes the remaining funds work that much harder This is one of those timesIf there are no incremental funds to be had and no priorities that can be delayed within the researchinsight budget take the money from working media temporarily And then put it back It39s political but it can be done Identify the least productive current tactics the effectiveness reduction is likely be less than half the budget reduction Restore funding once your plan is validated and the entire budget will pay back far beyond the lossThis is your next CMO meeting agendaEach marketer needs a unique learning agenda and financial plan to prepare for the future we are providing here just a starting point to help you ask the right questions as you look for answers If you haven39t done so already now is the time to align with the boss that time and resources must be dedicated to managing this seismic change In addition to what you and your team can do individually to prepare for these identity changes consider participating in MMAGlobal39s think tanks on Data in MarketingDon39t be the ones caught on your heels Be the one that figured it out and takes share from your competitorsClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Triple Your Digital Research Budget Now: How to Leverage That Investment

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Pattie Glod

Rex Briggs

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Triple Your Digital Research Budget Now: How to Leverage That Investment

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Pattie Glod

Rex Briggs

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