Strategy

Online Privacy

Daring to grasp the hot topic

Online Privacy, the hot topic about which very much has been said and written. Nevertheless, to this day, it remains a real obstacle for many companies. It is often not considered a priority within the organization. This is because of the seemingly low return on investment. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Companies that invested in their first-party data:

Achieve up to 2X more revenue,
and save up to 1.5x in their expenses.

[According to a Google study]

Because of the current GDPR legislation, Online Marketing is in the midst of a shift from using 'third-party data' to a 'privacy-first' landscape. We are entering a new era where companies and organizations must invest in 'first-party data.' Unlike third-party data, which is often available to multiple companies, this first-party data is unique to just your company. So we collect this data ourselves based on direct consumer consent through interactions on websites, apps and in response to online marketing initiatives.

Important in this story are transparency and value exchange. So we need to be clear what happens to their data and what we use it for. On top of that, it is crucial to give your website visitors something in value in return for their data, think discounts or exclusive offers. This transparency and value exchange makes people more inclined to effectively share their data with you. But what is even more valuable is the better relationship created with the customer, giving them higher lifetime value. So what it turns out, "privacy-first" is also "growth-first.

Consent Mode

Now how do we go about this in practice? Google Consent Mode thus allows us to GDPR-proof measure our website visitors' data subject to their consent. So based on this consent, Consent Mode determines whether it can use this data or not. This allows us to capture up to more than 70 percent of the total data. But what about the remaining 30 percent? Using machine learning, Google can give us "predictive data. An estimate of the data we have not been able to collect because of the user's consent. Thus obtain an approximation of the overall picture with the complete data.

Furthermore, Consent Mode is also future-proof. It gives companies who do invest in it an edge over competitors who do continue to rely on "third-party data.

Enhanced Conversions

Enhanced Conversions or "improved conversions" allow us to start measuring "lost" conversions. These are conversions that we can't always capture due to the use of multiple devices, browsers. But using first-party data, we can still capture this, and then use this data to fuel our own campaigns.

Through hashing (SHA-256) the Enhanced Conversions is going to encrypt the data of the user converting. Then this encrypted code is matched with Google's data. Thus, it can determine whether this person has converted through a Google ad or not. But what do you gain from this?