MARKETER EDITION

The marketer’s playbook

for navigating today’s
privacy environment
A guide to help businesses evolve
their digital marketing strategies
What’s inside

At a glance 3

The changing privacy landscape 4

What you can do to respond

01 Build direct relationships with your customers 6

Establish a direct connection with your audience 7
Deepen your relationships with customers 8
Work with partners who also put users first 10

02 Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results 11

Consider different ways of using first-party data 12
Learn more about your audience from the partners you work with 15
Find options to engage your audience when personalization is limited 17
Rely on privacy-forward methods to fill measurement gaps 18

03 Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way 19

Bring all your data into a secure location to uncover insights 20
Make better decisions by predicting the outcomes of your marketing 23
Analyze detailed campaign data while protecting user privacy 25

Preparing for the future 26

At a glance

At a glance
Growing user concerns about privacy have set in motion a series of changes that will
reshape the digital advertising industry for years to come. Working as a digital marketer
can seem a lot more complicated these days, especially with the added pressure and
uncertainty that many are feeling due to COVID-19, but some marketers have managed
to turn these changes into opportunities. By testing more privacy-forward strategies and
evolving their practices, they’ve managed to accomplish their marketing goals - in some
cases, even better than before - while respecting people’s preferences for privacy.

This forward-thinking group of marketers has:

Redefined what it means to have strong, direct relationships with their users.
They recognize the growing importance of first-party data, making sure they have
solutions in place to collect it responsibly from customers, as well as clear privacy
policies that offer people transparency and control.

Found ways to reach their audiences and measure results when signals are limited.
They’ve expanded their toolkit for how to drive and understand results — like falling
back to context-based advertising when personalization is limited, and relying on
modeling techniques to fill in reporting gaps when conversion tracking is disrupted.

Invested in cloud technology to manage and analyze their data.

They’ve adopted cloud-based solutions that allow them to bring data from different
sources together in a secure, central location, where their teams can analyze it to
uncover and take action on new customer insights, while protecting user privacy.

Prepared their organizations and carefully chosen the partners they work with.
They understand an authentic commitment to privacy means ensuring their teams and
vendors have the expertise - and values - to deliver business results while respecting
the privacy of their users, and protecting the reputation of their brands.

3
The changing privacy landscape

The changing privacy landscape

In just a matter of months, COVID-19 has disrupted the way people live, learn and work
around the globe. As large segments of the world’s population have had to shelter in
place to slow the spread of the virus, many of the trends observed before the pandemic
have actually accelerated: shoppers turning to e-commerce, people streaming their
entertainment, and companies moving their operations to the cloud in support of a now
virtual workforce.

These are likely lasting changes that require businesses to double down on digital
marketing as a means to connect with their customers. But there’s also no denying
that the challenges digital marketers faced before COVID-19 are still there. Among
the most notable of these is people’s growing concern over how data is collected,
used and shared online.

In fact, searches for “online privacy” have grown globally by

+50% more than 50% year over year.*

Meanwhile, the industry is changing to try and address these concerns. Governments
around the world have passed new privacy regulations and expanded existing laws.
Technology platforms such as browsers and mobile operating systems have announced
or implemented new policies that restrict commonly used identifiers.

*Source: Google Data, Global English, Apr 15, 2020 - Jun 13, 2020 vs Apr 15, 2019 - Jun 13, 2019

4
The changing privacy landscape

As a result, there are challenges that you - as marketers - will need to address. For
instance, some of the approaches you’ve come to rely on for reaching audiences and
understanding the value of those interactions have already been impacted.

Creating audience lists and personalizing ads

Between regulation and platform changes, there’s now heightened attention
to and more limitations on the sources of data that can be used to select
audiences and personalize ads.

Managing ad frequency
Restrictions on cookies have made it harder to manage how many times people
see your ads. As a result, you risk irritating users - and damaging your brand -
when you show them the same ad too many times.

Measuring performance
Cookies and other identifiers are used to attribute conversions to digital media.
So when these measurement tools are constrained, it becomes harder to
accurately report on and evaluate how your ads are performing, especially for
view-through and cross-device conversions.

And if that weren’t enough, some techniques being offered to marketers as solutions to
address these challenges don’t offer users transparency or control. Take fingerprinting,
which combines very specific information about someone’s browser or device (down to
the screen resolution settings and installed fonts) to covertly identify and track individual
users without providing them a means to opt out. Brands that choose to adopt such
practices - or use vendors who do so on their behalf - are risking both damage to their
reputation and potential enforcement consequences as regulations continue to evolve.

With so much in flux and so much at stake, forging meaningful connections with
customers has never been more important. That’s why it’s critical that you have a
playbook for how to navigate today’s environment so that you can continue to drive
results while respecting and protecting the privacy of your customers.

5
What you can do to respond

01
Build direct relationships
with your customers
Despite changing business conditions and evolving user expectations, marketers
still need to find and connect with customers. As users continue to embrace new
devices and technologies, there are arguably more opportunities than ever before to
form meaningful relationships with customers, and to do so in a way that does not
compromise on trust.

And as we’ll see in this section, there’s no better way to start than by taking steps to:

E
stablish a direct connection with your audience

D
eepen your relationships with customers

W
ork with partners who also put users first

6
Build direct relationships with your customers

Establish a direct connection with your audience

When people interact directly with your business - by visiting your website, using your
app, making a phone call to your business, or purchasing from one of your stores - it
provides an opportunity to learn more about who they are and how you can address
their needs.

The information that is collected from customers in these direct interactions is called
first-party data. It is particularly valuable because it is unique to your business and the
relationship you have with your customers. That’s why it’s important that you have the
tools - and permission when required - to collect first-party data wherever those direct
interactions might take place.

Invest in a comprehensive first-party measurement solution, where cookies

are set only when someone has contact with your site. Google’s global site
tag and Google Tag Manager offer this capability, and support all of Google’s
advertising and measurement products, including Google Ads, Google
Analytics, Campaign Manager, Display & Video 360, and Search Ads 360.

Incorporate a software development kit (SDK) to your mobile app that’s

designed to help you gather information from the actions people take when
they download and engage with your app. The Google Analytics for Firebase
SDK is available for your Android and iOS apps.

Invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to help you capture

and organize the information that’s shared by people during interactions with
your business in the offline world. You can link this offline data with Google’s
advertising and measurement tools including Google Ads, Google Analytics,
Campaign Manager, and Search Ads 360.

7
Build direct relationships with your customers

Deepen your relationships with customers

Once you’ve established a connection with your audience, find ways to learn more
about them so that you can strengthen those relationships. Customers may feel more
comfortable sharing information with you that will help you serve them better, if they
see that they’re getting value in return.

There are several ways brands can deliver on this expectation.

Provide a convenience in exchange Invite people to register and

for people’s contact information, sign into an account or loyalty
like notifying them when a favorite program where they can receive
item is in stock or their order status exclusive content, personalized
has changed. recommendations and reward credits.

Offer a deal or coupon when people Encourage customers to download

agree to provide their email address your mobile app and ensure it
or phone number and receive your offers compelling ways to engage
marketing communications. your brand.

Sometimes, it can be more challenging to form direct relationships with customers,

especially if your business sells to people through other companies. Perhaps you’re
a consumer goods company, auto manufacturer or financial services provider that
traditionally works with a network of retailers, dealers or brokers. If this is the case,
consider how you can offer value and experiences that are distinct from what your
distributors can provide.

8
Build direct relationships with your customers

For example, you might recognize an opportunity to serve the needs of a particular
customer segment who would appreciate an opportunity to directly connect with you.

Case study

Consumer packaged goods company Mondelēz

connects with devoted fans of its snack brands

Mondelēz was early to recognize the growing Take one of their candy brands, Sour Patch
importance of direct customer relationships Kids. Fans of the candy can go to a website
as the marketing landscape has shifted. But where they can customize their own box of
like many other consumer packaged goods the multi-colored, sugar-coated candies.
companies, Mondelēz sells their products to They can hand-pick the flavors, and put
consumers through retailers. That’s when their name on the packaging. “When people
the company decided to work with Google choose to connect with us directly and share
Marketing Platform Partner MightyHive to information, we ensure that a high bar is
develop a first-party data strategy that carefully met in terms of the value they get in return,”
considers the “value” that’s being offered to explained Jonathan Halvorson, Global VP of
consumers in exchange for their data. Agencies, Digital, Media & Data.

Once you’ve determined how to use customer information to deliver better experiences,
it’s important to communicate it to people clearly so that they know what they’re
agreeing to. Make sure your privacy policy is easily accessible and up-to-date with your
latest practices, and consider explaining the contents of your policy in clear language. Tell
your customers how they can exercise control over the data that’s collected, including
how to opt out of tracking or submit a request to have information deleted.

9
Build direct relationships with your customers

Work with partners who also put users first

Another responsibility you have to your customers involves being thoughtful about the
business partners you work with. Choose partners that also prioritize user privacy, and
recognize how to earn and keep people’s trust.

Some questions you may want to ask:

Do they explain to users the types of data they collect and for what purposes?

Do they have the right systems to record user preferences and consents?

How do they offer users control over how data is collected and used?

Are they meeting all regulatory requirements?

When you get their responses, invite legal experts to weigh in. With so many different
privacy regulations being introduced around the world, you’ll want to make sure their
practices comply with all applicable laws for collecting, using and sharing data.

Even setting aside the potential legal ramifications, it’s important that you consider
whether the practices of a business partner or vendor align with your values. For
example, you may encounter suggestions to use or rely on methods that try to work
around people’s choices, like fingerprinting. While fingerprinting can be used in certain
cases to enhance a user’s security and prevent fraud (by authenticating the user), it
can also be used to track users without their knowledge or permission.

These kinds of techniques may seem like convenient workarounds but pose a
significant risk to your business, both in terms of reputational damage, and regulatory
consequences — especially as governments continue to evolve their definitions of
what’s permissible.

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What you can do to respond

02
Be flexible with how you reach
audiences and measure results
Developing a strategy to build stronger customer relationships is foundational, but
these days, marketers must also consider a number of additional factors - such as
privacy legislation, platform constraints and people’s individual expectations - when
making decisions for how best to engage audiences and measure what happens.

In this section, we’ll evaluate various scenarios and explore how you can:

C
onsider different ways of using first-party data

L
earn more about your audience from the partners you work with

F
ind options to engage your audience when personalization is limited

R
ely on privacy-forward methods to fill measurement gaps

11
Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

Consider different ways of using first-party data

As you build relationships with your customers, you can analyze the first-party data
that’s collected during your interactions so that you can understand them better,
including the types of ads and experiences that they’d find meaningful.

For example, how people interact with your website or app can offer clues as to
what their interests and preferences might be. Solutions such as Google Analytics or
Analytics 360 can help you analyze the data collected from your website to uncover
these kinds of insights so that you can more effectively engage an audience.

Case study

Charitable organization UNICEF USA uses

insights from Google Analytics 360 to
segment donors for different causes

The U.S. division of United Nations then used those insights to segment
Children’s Fund (UNICEF USA) wanted visitors into various audiences based
to reach prospective donors more on the causes that interested them.
effectively and increase donation And because UNICEF USA’s Analytics
amounts. Working with DELVE, a 360 and Display & Video 360 accounts
Google Marketing Platform Partner, were linked, DELVE was able to use
UNICEF USA tuned their campaign’s these Analytics 360 audiences to
message to the specific causes reach people with messages tailored
people wanted to support. Using to their area of interest through
Analytics 360, DELVE was able to Display & Video 360. This refined
gain a picture of the content visitors approach paid off with 10% year over
were engaging with on the UNICEF year growth in donor acquisition and
website, such as safe water access a 40% increase in website conversion
or earthquake disaster relief. DELVE rate from these campaigns.

Learn more

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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

Another way you can use first-party data to engage customers is by working with
partners who also have a relationship with the same customers. For example, when there’s
a group of people who’ve given both your business and Google the same contact
information, Customer Match can help you reach the users you have in common. If you
upload an encrypted data file of contact information, such as the email addresses or
phone numbers your customers have given you, Google can then provide opportunities to
reach those people when they’re engaging Google’s services or browsing the web — all
while protecting the confidentiality and security of your customer data in the process.

Case study

Professional association ISACA

uses Customer Match to get
inactive members to rejoin

The Information Systems Audit and Control Association

(ISACA) is an international nonprofit that helps IT
professionals advance their careers with trainings,
certifications and networking events. With the help of
Google Marketing Platform Partner MightyHive, they
used Customer Match in Display & Video 360 to invite
inactive members to rejoin the association.

Since these past members had previously registered

their email addresses, MightyHive was able to help
ISACA use Customer Match to reach this group with
a tailored message while they were browsing the
web. The campaign was able to help ISACA generate
memberships more efficiently than other efforts to
engage this audience, saving them up to 77% in cost per
click for membership renewal.

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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

In addition to using first-party data to deepen relationships with existing customers,

you can also use it to find completely new audiences interested in what your business
can offer. One approach is to evaluate what you know about your existing customers,
and then look for people who share similar characteristics or behaviors.

Case study

Online university UTEL UTEL in Mexico wanted to recruit more students

interested in earning a degree from the online
reaches new students university. By using similar audiences for Search,
using similar audiences UTEL’s marketing team was able to identify and reach
prospective new students whose search activity was
similar to existing students, such as searching on
phrases like “online universities” and “online bachelor’s
degree.” As a result, the team was able to increase
conversions by up to 64% for its Search campaigns.

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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

Learn more about your audience from the partners you work with

By working with the right media and content partners, you can find other meaningful
ways of using first-party data to reach the audiences you care about. Perhaps you’ve
identified a valuable group of customers and the partner has content that’s particularly
interesting to them. If the partner offers an opportunity to advertise on its content,
work with the partner to determine the most relevant message to send.

Case study

Cebu Pacific Air engages travelers with more

personalized ads across Summit Media’s websites

The Philippines’ largest airline, Cebu Pacific Air, on Summit Media’s websites related to the same
partnered with Kasatria, a Google Marketing destinations. For example, say a group of people
Platform Partner, and the region’s leading digital searched for flights to Singapore on Cebu’s website.
publisher, Summit Media, to reach travelers with Then, when they happened to be reading about
relevant ads. By analyzing its first-party website travel tips to Singapore on one of Summit Media’s
data, Cebu Pacific Air could learn about the travel sites, they’d see ads promoting Cebu’s flights
destinations that a group of travelers might be for that destination. These personalized ads drove a
interested in visiting. Those insights were confirmed 7X increase in return on ad spend and increased
when the same people engaged with content click-through rates by more than 100%.

Learn more
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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

You can also combine your first-party data with Google’s unique understanding of
people by using Google Audiences.

Case study

Telecommunications company
Vodafone uses first-party data along
with insights from Google Audiences
to reach the right customers

The division of Vodafone based in Turkey, known as Vodafone

Turkey, wanted to sell more mobile service plans to businesses,
but first it needed a way to distinguish searches coming from
enterprise buyers from those of consumers - a challenge when
the search terms used by both groups were so similar.

So the company launched a Search ads campaign to reach

this audience. They started with a first-party audience made
up of past visitors to Vodafone’s website, and then they
added Google’s detailed demographics to the campaign, which
helped filter for searches that came from enterprise buyers. The
campaign ended up generating 11 times more conversions from
enterprise customers at a 25% lower CPA.

And even if you don’t have much first-party data to start with, these audience solutions
can help you establish new connections with potential customers based on their
interests and intent. For instance, by adding an audience to a campaign or ad group,
you can connect with a wide range of audience types, such as affinity audiences who
are passionate about certain topics like sports and travel, or in-market audiences
who’re shopping for a certain product or service like running shoes or a vacation.

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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

Find options to engage your audience when personalization is limited

Marketers want to deliver the most appropriate message possible when they connect with
audiences. For instance, when users are open to seeing personalized ads, you can tailor your
ad for the audience. But when you cannot personalize ads for users – because they haven’t
consented or cookies are blocked – pay attention to the context of the ad instead, such as
the content on the web page or site where the ad will appear.

Consider how Google Audiences delivers relevant ads depending on the situation. If people’s
interests and preferences can be accurately determined, they’ll be shown personalized ads.
Otherwise, Google Audiences will rely on the context of the page where the ad is served to
determine relevance.

These days, marketers also have greater access to new technologies, such as machine
learning, to improve how ads can be matched with the most relevant context.

Case study

Google’s digital marketing team tests a new

way to deliver contextually relevant ads

Google’s digital marketing team had to be flexible One example of how the team innovated with its
with how they delivered the most relevant ad to publishing partners to contextually match ads involved
promote the Google Home Mini smart speaker. the UK newspaper, The Guardian. Ads for the Google
When it wasn’t possible to accurately determine Home Mini were placed alongside recipes in the
someone’s interests and preferences to help publication’s food section. By using machine learning
personalize an ad, they referred to the context of to help process the content of these recipes, the team
where the ad would appear instead. was able to deliver a message customized for each one.

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Be flexible with how you reach audiences and measure results

Another example of when you’ll need to be flexible involves how you manage the
frequency of your display ads. It’s good practice to keep track of how often you’ve
shown people an ad so that you can avoid bothering them repeatedly, and creating
frustration with your brand. But managing the frequency of your display ads across
websites has traditionally depended on the use of a third-party cookie.

By comparison, counting the ad impressions that happen on a single website can be

just as helpful for managing your ad frequency. For instance, when third-party cookies
are blocked, you can rely on a first-party cookie to keep track of your ad impressions
instead. Display & Video 360 and Google Ads offer this capability, and can help you
continue to manage ad frequency in a privacy-centric way even when third-party
cookies can’t be set.

Rely on privacy-forward methods to fill measurement gaps

One of the benefits of digital marketing is the ability to learn what happens after people
interact with your ads. But when it’s harder to observe conversions directly, either
because of cross-device measurement challenges, browser restrictions or people’s
consent choices, you need to rely on other methods to fill the gaps in your reporting.

Let’s take browser restrictions, for example. You can still get reliable reporting through
Google’s conversion tracking for your advertising campaigns, even when direct
conversion measurement isn’t possible. Say that a cookie isn’t present for you to be
able to attribute a conversion that happened as the result of a user interacting with an
ad on a particular browser. By analyzing patterns from past conversion data, including
the performance of your ads on other browsers, where direct tracking is possible, a
model can be created to confidently predict how people will respond to your ads when
direct measurement is blocked. That way, you can still report on conversion activity in a
privacy-centric way when cookies have been blocked.

18
What you can do to respond

03
Manage data and discover
insights in a privacy-centric way
Once you’ve cultivated strong direct relationships with users and planned for
scenarios where you’ll need to be flexible with how you engage your audience,
consider investing in cloud technology to organize and activate the data collected
during all those interactions.

In this section, we’ll reveal how cloud technology can help you to:

B
ring all your data into a secure location to uncover insights

M
ake better decisions by predicting the outcomes of your marketing

A
nalyze detailed campaign data while protecting user privacy

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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Bring all your data into a secure location to uncover insights

First-party data can come from customer interactions spread across your advertising
campaigns, websites, apps and physical locations. Brands can gain a better
understanding of their customers and how to serve them more effectively when they
bring all this information together and analyze it for insights.

Cloud-based solutions are increasingly being used by marketers to manage data while
protecting user privacy. That’s because cloud technology offers inherent privacy and
security advantages when it comes to storing and organizing large data sets, such as
encrypting all data by default and setting parameters for who has access to that data.

In addition to these benefits, cloud solutions also open up other, more advanced ways
for you to analyze data, uncover new insights, and act on them by integrating with your
marketing tools.

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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Case study

Domino’s Pizza of Canada

learns more about what
makes people order

The Canadian division of the global restaurant

brand Domino’s Pizza wanted to get a better
understanding of their customers. In order to
do that, they needed a solution that would allow
them to bring together all the different data
points that were available about their customers
so they could be better prepared to serve them
when they were ready to order again.

Working with their Google Marketing Platform

Partner Bounteous, Domino’s Pizza of Canada
combined data from different sources into Google
Cloud’s data warehouse, BigQuery, for more
granular analysis. For example, by linking online
orders tracked in Google Analytics 360 with
total revenue being recorded in the CRM system
of Domino’s, Bounteous was able to help the
restaurant chain recognize that customers who
ordered at least twice online in the past 30 days
made up 35% of their total revenue — more than
they had expected. This motivated the company
to focus their digital advertising even more on
this valuable customer group.

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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Case study

Vacation rental firm Twiddy & Co upgrades

its analytics with Google Cloud

Vacation home rental company Twiddy analyze the data and identify insights about
worked with its Google Marketing Platform Twiddy’s customers in a privacy-centric
Partner Adswerve to move its analytics to environment. For instance, when the team
Google Cloud. “The native integration between combined information like the preferred travel
the two platforms makes it seamless to take dates for past guests with the availability of
customer insights uncovered in Google Cloud, properties they’re likely to be interested in,
and act on them using Google Marketing they were able to determine when was the most
Platform,” recalls Luka Cempre, Senior Data appropriate time to promote a property to those
Scientist at Adswerve. By bringing together customers. After introducing this logic into
all of Twiddy’s first-party data into BigQuery, marketing campaigns, Twiddy saw conversion
Adswerve’s data science team could rates double compared to the website average.

Learn more

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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Make better decisions by predicting the outcomes of your marketing

When you’ve consolidated data into a central location like a cloud-based data
warehouse, a data scientist or analyst can help you do more advanced analysis on the
data. For example, they can train machine learning models using historical customer
information to predict or anticipate the outcomes of future interactions with your
customers, and those like them. This can help you to make better decisions, such as
who to reach and how much to spend, based on their likelihood to respond.

Case study

Bath and body retailer Rituals uses

Google Cloud’s machine learning
to boost online and offline sales

The digital marketing team at bath and body retail company

Rituals wanted to scale how they could find a greater number
of valuable customers. First, they brought all of their first-party
data from Google Marketing Platform, their CRM systems, and
point-of-sale transactions into BigQuery. Then, with Google
Cloud’s advanced machine learning capabilities, the team
created models that could predict how likely customers were to
make a purchase, including if the purchase would happen in a
store or online, which items they were likely to buy, and when.

Audience segments were created based on these propensities

using Google Analytics 360, and were then shared with
Display & Video 360, where a campaign was created to
reach certain groups with tailored messaging. After launching
the campaign, Rituals saw an impressive 85% increase in
conversions with a 15% decrease in cost per acquisition.

Learn more
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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Case study

Education company Kaplan connects potential students

with online universities through Google Cloud

The marketing team at Kaplan Higher Education in Search Ads 360 and Display & Video 360 that
wanted a more privacy-centric process to prioritized reaching this audience. They also
analyze and act on first-party data. So they tailored their campaign landing pages for this
turned to Google Cloud, which let them bring group to prominently feature the enrollment
their first-party data together into a BigQuery application, making it easier for these highly
data warehouse and gain access to machine qualified visitors to apply when they returned
learning technology to analyze the data stored to the website. As a result of engaging a more
there. Using historical information to identify interested audience, the university saw a 21%
common behaviors among past students, they decrease in cost per application. Kaplan’s VP of
were able to predict the likelihood a prospective Digital Marketing & Performance Management
student would ultimately enroll, based on their Aubrey Trask reflects, “When we have a
activity on the Kaplan website. For example, platform that ensures the protection over, and
website visitors who spent time exploring automates the analysis and activation of our
course curriculum or using the site’s tuition first-party data, our team can focus on what
calculator had a higher likelihood of converting. really matters, and that’s delivering a world-
The marketing team then created campaigns class education to each of our students.”

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Manage data and discover insights in a privacy-centric way

Analyze detailed campaign data while protecting user privacy

Because cloud technology has inherent advantages when it comes to managing

user privacy and security, it’s the ideal platform for data clean rooms, where media
providers can provide access to detailed, event-level data that lets advertisers analyze
campaign results in a way that doesn’t compromise user privacy.

Ads Data Hub, which is built on top of Google Cloud’s infrastructure and offers strict
user privacy protections, is one example. Marketers can use Ads Data Hub to join their
own proprietary data with event-level data from Google to enable campaign analysis.
But there’s an aggregation requirement of at least 50 users before any output can
leave the system, preventing a specific user’s identity from being compromised.

Let’s say you’d like to get a better understanding of how customers go from viewing
ads to making purchases. Using Ads Data Hub, you can combine sales data from your
CRM systems or marketing database with Google campaign data to reconstruct the
path to purchase.

You can also take action on the insights learned through Ads Data Hub. For example,
you can create audience lists based on clicks or conversions from your previous
Google campaigns and share these lists with Google Ads or Display & Video 360 to
inform who you reach (or exclude) in your subsequent campaigns, all without exposing
user information in the process.

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Preparing for the future

Preparing for the future

Many businesses continue to struggle from the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the
digital advertising ecosystem continues to change in response to user privacy concerns.
While much about the future is still uncertain, there are clear steps that organizations can
take today to stay ahead.

Create a center of excellence

Some companies have established a dedicated team or center of excellence, whose
focus is to help advise and prepare its organization for more changes ahead. Google’s
own digital media team, for example, has formed a dedicated group of experts from
different functions including legal, data science, and marketing. External partners
and vendors that help to manage customer data and advertising campaigns are also
invited to consult. And it’s this group’s job to stay on top of all the changes, consider
the impact from a variety of potential scenarios, and come up with a plan for how to
respond to each.

Participate in industry discussions

There’s a lot of dialogue happening across the industry around new technologies and
appropriate standards that can enhance privacy on the web, while also supporting
businesses that use the web to grow. It’s important that you participate in these
discussions, so that the needs that are specific to your business can be considered.
Work through the industry associations you’re a part of to ensure your voice is being
heard, and share your feedback with your vendors and partners.

Growing concerns around user privacy have impacted every corner of the digital
advertising industry and the changes that have come in response to these concerns
will continue to have an impact. But as we’ve seen from the examples in this playbook,
respecting user privacy doesn’t have to come at the cost of business results. Quite
the opposite, in fact: the tools and resources available to digital marketers today have
already created impactful new opportunities to nurture relationships with customers,
while using data responsibly.

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