Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Measurement in a Changing Ecosystem

>> KAREN: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining. Im Karen Stocks, Managing Director

of Measurement Solutions at Google.

In my day-to-day job, Ive heard a lot of concerns about measurement in todays privacy environment,

and I spend a lot of time ensuring Googles solutions can help.

The main questions Im hearing from advertisers and agencies are

how do I preserve measurement with our tagging and consent products,

how do I fill gaps and generate more-granular insights with techniques like modeling,

and how are you communicating the developments that are happening in the Privacy Sandbox

to deliver measurement without tracking individuals across the web?

Today, Im delighted to be joined by Saurabh Sharma, our Senior Director of Product Management at Google.

Welcome, Saurabh.

>> SAURABH: Hey, Karen. Glad to be here.

So, before we get started, Id actually love to ask you a question first off.

What are you hearing from customers and from the industry about measurement?

>> KAREN: Theres a lot impacting marketers today.

So, from regulation and technology changes to evolving customers expectations and behaviors,

many marketers are feeling that theres no clear answer on what to do.

In my conversations with them, several themes keep coming up.

Firstly, how am I balancing privacy while maintaining a complete picture of performance.

Secondly, how to be transparent around customer data usage, ensuring that the data I do use is consented.

And thirdly, how do you use first-party data and bring it together with cross-platform tools.

So tell me, Saurabh, how are you thinking about this from a product management perspective?

>> SAURABH: The most important thing that I want to highlight is that at Google,

upholding consumer privacy while preserving measurability remains our true north.

That said, at Google we realize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and we are invested

in multiple different solutions for marketers to continue to measure over time.

We also recognize theres lots of unknowns in the industry, and theres a lot of changes

that are happening very rapidly, and that can be frustrating and challenging.

But, we are committed to helping marketers navigate through these challenges.

>> KAREN: So, youve touched on our vision for the future of measurement being privacy first.

We think about this aligned to a few key pillars:

preserving conversion measurement without tracking individuals across the web,

informing and augmenting gaps in data that arise due to some of the industry

changes that weve spoken about, and then securing data through additional controls.

So, tell me, how do these principles come to life for marketers?

>> SAURABH: Yeah, good question. So, ultimately, we believe the future is all about consented and modeled,

when cookies and other identifiers are not available. And so, talk about the three pillars,

from a product perspective, we also think about the same ones around

preserving, informing, and securing.

So, preserving is really about maintaining existing data. And so, for example, using things

like site tagging, first-party data, and collecting user consent that marketers can do today.

Informing is really about supplementing gaps in data, and primarily if were doing this

through machine learning techniques such as conversion modeling in a privacy-safe way.

And finally, securing. This is really about future-proofing your data

and using new privacy-preserving technology like the Privacy Sandbox.

The important thing to remember here is that these three pillars address both measurement

and optimization of your media campaigns, and theyre durable over the long run.

>> KAREN: So, in addition to the Privacy Sandbox, third-party cookies and the use of other

identifiers are evolving. Theres an increased focus on first-party data, whether its from tagging

or customers own business data, like CRMs.

So, which tools can marketers use today for tagging and conversion measurement?

>> SAURABH: Today marketers can use Google Tag Manager or global site tag

as a key foundational step.

In addition, were bringing you the ability to measure conversions more accurately

even when cookies arent available, but through a product known as enhanced conversions.

And so, enhanced conversions work by allowing your conversion tags, including Google Analytics,

to use consented, hashed first-party data from your conversion page for measurement in a privacy-safe way.

Enhanced conversions also work across devices, for a better representation of total user behavior.

Ill give you a quick example. So, British online fashion and cosmetic retailer ASOS

tested using enhanced conversions to help fill in gaps in conversion measurement.

And what they saw was conversion rates on search increased by 8.6%, and YouTube conversion

increased by 31%.

>> KAREN: Wow. Theyre great results. So, having a more complete view of

user behavior is critical and can help you make insights-driven business decisions.

And, if you explain exactly what data is being collected and how it will be used,

customers can make informed decisions in the type of experiences they can have with your

brand depending on their privacy needs. So, let me look at another example.

As the marketing landscape shifted at the height of the pandemic, Nissan in Asia-Pacific developed

digital experiences such as virtual showrooms to help customers view cars on display

from the safety of their homes. In exchange for these experiences, people provided

their contact information. And so, with this first-party data, Nissan was able

to better understand and serve their customers and achieved 5 times higher test-drive requests

via their website at a 9 times lower cost. Really great results.

So, with all that in mind, what are we building to help marketers ensure that theyre giving

customers choice about how their data is collected and used?

>> SAURABH: Customer choice and consent is building on work were doing already.

Last year, we introduced Consent Mode for marketers in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom.

And this feature is really about providing new tag settings that customizes how Google tags behave

before and after users make consent decisions. So, for users that dont consent, Google tags will

adjust automatically how they behave and not use cookies when permissions have not been granted.

And so, these changes respect user choices about their cookies while also helping advertisers more

effectively measure performance in a seamless way.

In addition, were introducing new capabilities built directly into Tag Manager itself.

So, for marketers that are using a consent management solution, you can integrate directly into Tag Manager

without having to edit any website code. On the other hand, if you are a tag developer, Tag Manager will

allow you to integrate directly with Consent Mode solutions. And, it will already show you which tags

already incorporate consent and control tag behavior based on consent status without having to modify

any of your setup. And the best news of all is you can enable these new capabilities in Tag Manager today.

>> KAREN: Thats really great to hear. So, another question Im getting asked by marketers

is concern that measurement gaps are leaving blank spots in my customers journeys.

And, this can be due to increasing industry challenges like cookie loss.

How can techniques like conversion modeling help marketers unlock more-accurate measurement

and better performance?

>> SAURABH: So, right now weve been talking about preserving data, which is a first step

and a critical foundational component of being able to measure user behavior.

And, its important to do these things in tandem. But, its also important because it helps inform

conversion modeling efforts when ad interactions and conversions cant be observed.

So, for example, we talked about enhanced conversions, and ads conversion solutions actually capture

more conversion data and improves the overall quality of conversion modeling. Another example is

within Consent Mode, were already using conversion modeling today to address gaps in observable data.

And, what I would say is conversion modeling enables better optimizations to make your campaigns

even more effective, and it provides accurate performance for advertisers, already integrated

with reporting and optimization tools within Google.

>> KAREN: Thats a really good point. When businesses experience gaps in conversion measurement,

conversion modeling can help them gain a more complete picture of their conversions.

But modeling and machine learning can help in more ways than just conversion measurement.

So, can you share more about how youre thinking about modeling and machine learning across

multiple different use cases?

>> SAURABH: So, theres a few different examples that I can point to within Google Analytics.

First off, were extending Google Analytics to have behavioral reports that really

provide modeling capabilities that allow marketers to get a better sense of their customers.

Secondly, were working on ways to provide user journeys across sites and apps in a

privacy-safe manner.

Third, were introducing a new modular Google Analytics that has an advertiser experience

that centralizes our most important ads-related capabilities, making these features easier

to discover and use. And, in the future, we plan to use modeling to be able to provide insights and

recommendations to further optimize your campaign.

>> KAREN: Oh, thats really great to hear about where were going with Analytics.

But one of the other questions I always get from customers is for better understanding of

which bits of my media are working best for me? Where am I getting the best returns?

So, can you tell me, whats the latest in lift measurement, and how are your product teams ensuring

that these solutions remain durable as were going through this changing environment?

>> SAURABH: So, this ties back to the securing long-term durability, and it builds on

the themes of preserving and informing.

So, measurement products rely on durable foundations like tagging, consent, and enhanced conversions.

And, then on top of that, we build machine learning models to constantly update and ensure accurate

and up-to-date results on user behavior.

In addition, businesses that are equipped to run incrementality experiments can now also run

Brand Lift, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift measurement on the same campaign. These are

privacy-durable solutions that provide results across the entire consumer journey.

An example here is Fiverr, which is a freelance services marketplace. They ran YouTube ads to reach

audiences and used Brand Lift, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift to measure full-funnel performance.

And, what they saw was strong lift across all three measurement pieces, including a 62% lift in searches

on Google and YouTube and a 30% lift in new users.

>> KAREN: Again, Im really impressed with results. So, looking to the future, how are emerging

technologies being developed in the Privacy Sandbox going to help in the measurement space?

>> SAURABH: The Privacy Sandbox is really designed to support key measurement use cases, including

click-through conversions, view-through conversions, and cross-device conversions while at the same time

protecting peoples privacy. Now, proposals are still in the development stage, and its still early days,

but were working on behalf of marketers to handle a lot of that implementation complexity.

>> KAREN: As browser technologies evolve and regulations grow, marketers have an opportunity to

proactively lead and foster innovation for a more privacy-forward environment. And, you know what?

There is a lot that we can do now, and the time to act is now.

So, Saurabh, do you have any final thoughts for everybody?

>> SAURABH: I just want to say we look forward to partnering very closely with marketers as we navigate

this journey together. Were committed to providing you solutions to effectively measure digital campaigns

while also providing a privacy-safe experience for users. And, the key thing that I just want folks

to remember is you can get started now to ensure that your business continues to grow despite all

of these changes.

>> KAREN: Saurabh, thank you for the insights and inspiration.

And thank you everyone for joining us today.