Insights

Unlocking The Power of First-Party Data: Future-Proof Solutions in CM360, GA4 and the GMP

Written by Mary Kotara | Aug 22, 2024 3:50:47 PM

The future of Google’s Chrome browser will now focus on user control rather than user privacy  — and the Google Marketing Plattform (GMP) is well-positioned to help. It offers durable solutions for brands and agencies to dive into first-party (1P) data opportunities for any media campaign. 

The power of the GMP comes from its strength in solidifying two critical elements in a privacy-first initiative: audience segmentation and conversion attribution. These elements are integral to driving campaign success and directly influencing key objectives like awareness, retention and brand adoption. 

By solidifying 1P solutions to accurately segment your audience and attribute conversions, you can durably create more personalized and relevant experiences that resonate with your audience, thereby enhancing brand loyalty and long-term growth. Let’s take a closer look at what this looks like in the GMP.

Campaign Manager 360 is your 1P data media hub

Due to the power of its measurement data — and connection to the GMP — Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) plays a critical role in your media campaigns. CM360 is an invaluable platform for media buyers to traffic ad tags across multiple publishers while leveraging a single source of truth through its floodlight capabilities. And Google continues to release new CM360 features to drive cost savings, workflow efficiencies and data alignment, like:

  • Floodlight creation for conversion pixels or audience creation
  • Direct integrations with third-party (3P) measurement vendors, Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Google Tag Manager (GTM) 
  • This includes Consent Mode compatibility!
  • Instant Reporting to glean data insights immediately, including the ability to pivot, filter and apply conditional formatting
  • Conversion domain bulk editing Cross-device CTV measurement, including YouTube

The future of CM360 includes strong connections with the GMP, Chrome's Privacy Sandbox and industry APIs to drive automation, data integrations and data reliability during a time when users have more control over their data usage, making the industry more fragmented and modeled.

CM360 simplifies and prepares your campaigns for privacy-safe enablement by giving you: 

  • Ways to connect with GA4 for Floodlight linkage
  • Offline Conversions API for audiences and conversion measurement
  • Enhanced Conversions enablement
  • Conversion modeling
  • Automatic UserID redaction and gTag formatting

Note: Read more on Adswerve’s stance on Google’s latest news.

Google Analytics 4 can help, too

A brand’s web and app data is an additional slab in the foundation of durable 1P data that easily connects to digital environments. GA4 is one of the main platforms brands lean on. It serves as a central hub for analytics teams, as CM360 does for media teams, and is a valuable addition to your stack. GA4 seamlessly integrates with CM360 for floodlights, Display & Video 360 (DV360) for audiences and bidding, and Search Ads 360 (SA360) for reporting and bidding. 

These integrations also support your audience segmentation and conversion attribution strategies, enabling 1P data targeting, suppression, and expansion within media campaigns. They also centralize measurement by aligning with a GA4 source of truth model, ensuring consistency and accuracy across your analytics.

What to do once the data is in your platforms

When your data is in your platforms and ready to leverage, experiment with these tactics:

  • Search Bidding: Value-Based Bidding: Import your GA4, Adobe Analytics or advanced BigQuery (BQ) data into Google Ads or SA360 to leverage a value-based bidding strategy.
  • Programmatic Bidding - Custom Bidding or Automated Bidding: Write a custom script, or use in-line settings with your GA4, CM360 or BQ data to bid toward your 1P data signals.
  • Audience Capabilities - Targeting, Suppression and Expansion: Upload and share your Customer Match, LiveRamp, GA4, CM360 or BQ audience sets with DV360 to target new, suppress existing or expand current 1P data audiences to achieve your KPIs.

But….what about PAIR?

Publisher Advertiser Identity Resolution (PAIR) “gives publishers and advertisers the option to securely and privately reconcile their first-party data for audiences who have visited both an advertiser’s and a publisher’s site.” Essentially, it allows brands to match their 1P data with publishers to buy more aligned and effective media. LiveRamp, NBCU and Disney’s DRAX are some of the industry players with offerings compatible with PAIR. And DV360 is an activation hub for these integrations and connected audiences. 

PAIR allows brands and publishers to match data like never before, making your programmatic media targeting stronger than through 3P cookies. Even though 3P cookies are staying, it doesn’t mean they are the best opportunity for brands to leverage. We’ve already seen buyers begin to implement these new, cookieless strategies and expect more to follow. 

If you want to discuss developing 1P data strategies, please reach out. We’re happy to help.