On January 13, 2023, we made our own attempt at “predictive AI” by forecasting the digital landscape for the year. Now, with the unveiling of our AI Essentials Playbook, it’s the perfect moment to ask: How accurate were our digital crystal ball’s predictions?
As we sift through 2023, let’s rewind and reevaluate our initial bets. Attribution, activation, and the ever-growing emphasis on user privacy shaped our focus. At the same time, tools and platforms like CDPs emerged as the unsung heroes, eliminating data silos.
Original ‘Data and AdTech Trends – 2023’ Post
Attribution, activation, and respect for user privacy have been key issues for companies with regard to data. Meanwhile, new tools, technologies, and platforms like CDPs have emerged to help pool data in one place and avoid silos.
2023 is full of many opportunities and trends. Let’s dig into those we’ve identified as being most impactful.
Data & AdTech Essentials for 2023
Let’s start with some of the less obvious recommendations:
- Predictive Models: Consumers are offering up less and less of their data these days. Predictive models will help us to have better conversions. For example, through Google Ads’ Value-Based Bidding, we have the opportunity to improve campaign profitability by increasing Customer Lifetime Value.
- BigQuery: This Google tool offers more enhanced analytics capabilities – all right in the Cloud. Google Cloud now offers the use of BigQuery, a serverless, multi-cloud enterprise data warehouse so you can continue to improve your data-driven strategy. BigQuery integrates Machine Learning for advanced analytics, allows you to share valuable information across your organization, and helps you make business decisions based on data.
- Server-Side Tagging: We recommend moving measurement and advertising tags from your website to a secure server container. This helps protect your customers by restricting access to their information and increasing conversion rates on your site by reducing page load times. Server-side tagging is now supported in products from Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform, including Campaign Manager 360, Display & Video 360 y Search Ads 360.
- Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM): Start distributing your budgets based on more advanced models. MMM for example is a statistical modeling technique that identifies the relationship between marketing spending in each channel and the results obtained by it. This allows you to discover what is the optimal investment in each channel to maximize your sales.
- Connected TV: Otherwise known as the evolution of digital advertising. Connected TV is any television connected to the Internet where users stream video content. This technology provides advertisers with a new means to deliver measurable and personalized advertising. According to a study about Connected TV carried out by IAB Spain in 2022, 82% of Internet users between the ages of 16 and 75 internet streaming services. Connected TV allows for cross-device strategies. It also allows us to identify and impact users with our ads through different devices, thus measuring their effectiveness and how they have influenced the conversion process of said user. Another benefit of Connected TV campaigns is the possibility of being able to segment audiences and control frequencies, which can help lower costs.
And, a few solutions that you’ve surely heard of before:
- Privacy planning: Having a privacy plan for your company is essential (it has been now for many years). Privacy protection regulations and the demand for greater transparency from users about how companies use their data continue to increase. If we build a privacy-centric strategy, we can continue developing our advertising activity with total normality. At Making Science we opted for the implementation of solutions such as Consent Mode, Enhanced Conversions, GA4, and Facebook CAPI, which allow us to “catch up” in the privacy race. We are also committed to the use and activation of First-Party Data, an option that is increasingly accepted by organizations due to the disappearance of third-party cookies.
- GA4: All data capture, measurement, and activation technologies are becoming privacy-first. So, it’s a no-brainer to implement them. One excellent technology is Google Analytics 4 (GA4). It is a tool that will be crucial for measuring our results. It offers many new functionalities, with which we will be able to extract greater insights from our data. It will also make our measurement much more reliable.
- Hyper-personalization and AI projects: Users are demanding better and better experiences that are adapted to their reality and needs. In short, personalization was essential in 2022, but in 2023 we will have to work even harder to continue surprising them. We should look to implement AI based on the activity of our users, so that we can design and develop better products, services, messages, and, ultimately, better ways to reach our audiences.
- First-Party Data Activation: In a cookieless environment, how can we continue to impact our users in the same way as in the past? Thanks to First-Party Data, we can nurture our campaigns without putting our activity at risk. First-party data is an optimal, reliable, scalable data strategy. This activation and exploitation can be done either by CDPs or any platform that helps to manage data.
Want to learn more about our predictions for 2024? Be sure to follow our Podcast!
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