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NEWS

Google ‘cannot proceed with third-party cookie deprecation’

Bad news for Google’s intended move away from 3rd party cookies this week.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has reported back on Google’s “Privacy Sandbox”, their solution to help advertisers still deliver targeted ads after the depreciation of 3rd party cookies.

And the CMA aren’t happy.

Why? Because they claim Google’s Privacy Sandbox could continue to benefit from user data, while restricting the same access to their competitors, and in turn advantage its ad tech services.

What does this mean? Challenges like this risk delaying Google’s intended plan to eliminate 3rd party cookies by the end of 2024, meaning that retargeting advertising that relies on this stays a little while longer.

Read more here

INSIGHTS

Takeaways from from report of 44 million post-purchase responses

A summary of 44 million post-purchase survey answers? 🤯

I’ve been excited about reviewing this 2023 report from KnoCommerce since its release a couple of weeks ago.

Why? Because post-purchase survey data shows a really unique angle that we don’t get directly from Google Analytics, because the customers themselves are answering you.

📖 And this report doesn’t disappoint! Full report here.

I’ve highlighted some key callouts from this report and takeaways below:

BRAND DISCOVERY RESPONSES: “How did you first hear about us?”

📱 FB and IG were the most common responses here - very different to what you see in Google Analytics as a top channel source. Why? Because the question asks their first interaction with the brand, which can’t easily be measured by click-based Google Analytics attribution. Previous post about this here

🗣️ Word of Mouth increased significantly in Q4 as a share of total discovery, moving from 15% in Oct to 21% in Dec. Perhaps driven by a nudge from friends and family to buy their Christmas Present?! 🎁

CONSIDERATION TIME RESPONSES: “How long did you know about us before placing your first purchase?”

🐢 61% took over a week from discovering the brand to making their first purchase, emphasising the importance of multiple touchpoints along a buying journey

💨 Almost a quarter were impulse buys with 23% discovering the brand and buying in the same day.

🛒 Google was the strongest at converting on the same day of discovery at 47%, reflecting its role as a high intent channel.

GIFTING RESPONSES: “Who is this purchase for?”

🎁 No surprises that the biggest gift buying period ramped up from 1st week of November, peaking in mid December, where at least 2/3 of purchases were bought as a gift.

💗 Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were the next top gifting periods, followed by Valentine’s Day.

💰 Average Order Value was 28% higher for Significant Other than buying for self (pictured)

CONVERSION DRIVING RESPONSES: “What brought you to our site today?”

🧑‍💻 The top answer? “An Ad” at 32%, followed by “other” at 31%.

📍 A common followup was “Where did you see our ad?”, with FB & IG making up 80% of responses.

📝 I’d challenge that this question shouldn’t be the top priority to ask customers, given that it can be reviewed within GA4 in a “last click” attribution model. However, it’s a useful exercise to see discrepancies between GA4 and what customers are saying.

TAKEAWAYS:

1️⃣ Customers buying for their partner have the highest Average Order Value (AOV) - how can you leverage your campaigns and creative towards this?

2️⃣ Your customer’s consideration time is likely longer than you think. How can you stay top of mind to your audience throughout this full consideration period?

3️⃣ Install a post-purchase survey like KnoCommerce or Fairing - it’s a no brainer to get a better understanding of your customer at scale. 💪Read more here

Other News

📍 You will soon be able to run Pinterest Ads through Google Ad Manager. Pinterest announced the plan as it approaches 500 million monthly active users on the platform. Why is Pinterest doing this? Currently, Pinterest has 80% of users outside of the US, but only representing 20% of revenue. This Google partnership will help to unlock average rev per user in international markets Read more

📊 GA4 updates: Google introduces a “Trend change detection” to it’s GA4 insights cards. It's similar to anomaly detection in how it identifies a change in data, but instead identifies changes over a longer period of time. But does anyone actually use these insight cards in the GA4 home / reports snapshot screen? 🤔 Read more here