We’re coming to a time of limited digital marketing tracking, are you prepared?

Cookies and tracking defined the last 5 years of digital marketing and that’s about to change.

By Wadih Antoun

About 3 min read . Jan 17, 2021Digital Marketing

If you’ve gone over your Facebook Ads Manager anytime the past couple of weeks you’ve probably got that message to “Start preparing for the impact of iOS 14 changes”. Or perhaps you’ve heard about the battle of the titans between Facebook and Apple about the issue of ad tracking and user data privacy. At the least, you’ve heard about the wave of anti-Whatsapp campaigns on social media caused by a recent update to their Privacy Policy.

And this is just the culmination of this issue as it’s been boiling up for the past year or so. SO if you haven’t gotten it yet: there’s a big change coming up and that’s a good thing for all of us – as users. Our data is finally being valued and protected.

For marketeers? Well, it’s no picnic, let’s say that. As is always the case with digital marketing, you need to learn, unlearn and learn again. Adaptation is the name of the game.

There’s a common saying on this topic and that is: if you’re not paying for the product, you ARE the product.

That’s true of how all those free social media you’re signed up to. Do you ever wonder how they make money to sustain such unprecedented growth? From advertisers. Who target you. They’re all trying to get your attention. (Tip: if you're interested check out The Social Dilemma on Netflix.)

As legislators and businesses are finally aware of this as it gets more public attention, changes are coming up. Big changes!

Business owners and marketers need to be aware and prepared.

Measurement is key to digital marketing and that’s what at stake. Today, we’re able to measure a users’ performance meticulously: did they just visit your home page or browse a product page? Did they add it to the cart and abandoned it or proceeded to checkout? Did they download its product sheet PDF or perhaps got stuck trying to contact your live chat? You get the picture. 

The process will change as more privacy and data protection protocols are put in place. There will be a continued need for innovation and advanced analytical skills. Marketers will need to adopt more sophisticated techniques like conversion modeling to be able to successfully judge the performance of their digital campaigns. Moreover, having a strong and robust infrastructure will make or break your digital marketing efforts in the near future.

We’ll be talking about more detailed ways to tackle these changes as things get clearer in the industry with details and protocols revealed. In the meantime, get prepared and delve into the topic.

If you’re a business owner and struggling with the next steps, get in touch and we’ll talk.

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