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Navigating the Complex MarTech Landscape
The digital ecosystem is rapidly evolving, marketers are facing an unprecedented challenge of harnessing increasing volumes of data, making faster decisions, and delivering more with less. All of this while navigating an increasingly complex regulatory environment which is impacting everything from cookies to artificial intelligence.
Why MarTech Investments Often Fall Short
It is little wonder that investment in MarTech is on the rise, but statistics equally show that many projects fail.
There are many reasons that projects will not hit the mark. In my experience, the role of technology is not thought about holistically, by which I mean, how it will impact the business overall – rather than a particular use case(s), how it will be implemented (who, when, why, alongside maintenance), integrated (with other systems, and into a process), and adopted (by the teams through training).
The other area that still surprises me, is that the MarTech investment focuses on the technology cost, without the support element. Or that each use-case doesn’t carry an ROI, allowing tactical to ladder up to strategic initiatives. As there are so many different types of technology investments, be that; analytics suites, Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs), Bidding Platforms, AI & Machine learning etc. Where should you start?
For me, investing in technology will usually yield both efficiency gains and performance uplifts. I’m biased, as I’ve spent my career in digital media but let’s face it, marketing budgets can be huge and will dwarf other comms channels. Therefore, maximising performance from the technology is crucial and can make all the difference.
That is why I will often ask clients to talk me through their media mix, before talking through their technological challenges. If you are spending £5m on PPC per year vs. £50m per year in Addressable and Digital Out of Home (DOOH) you’re going to make different choices.
One thing that is consistent, is clients, marketers, agencies, partners are all looking for a sole source of truth when it comes to measurement. This is a whole topic on its own and not something I’ll cover here. However, many clients rely on their websites as element of that only source of truth, therefore the analytics system sitting behind that becomes a fundamental signal on how you would look to build your MarTech ecosystem.
Google Analytics 4: A Key Tool in the MarTech Ecosystem
Google Analytics (GA4) is a key platform within the Google Marketing Platform. A robust Analytics product that when implemented correctly gives a unified view of user-journeys across websites and apps, enhanced data controls, powerful insights on churn and potential revenue, audience building which can be pushed within the Google ecosystem, and much more.
Connect GA4 to DV360 to surface your audiences to addressable content both across the web and within YouTube streamlines workflow, creating custom audience based on website behaviour, conversion data etc. With more AI being built into the platform expect these optimisations to get to more granular data sets, driving increased performance. Fusing this with 1PD and modelling signals that can be created with BigQuery and the power of the platform comes into its own.
GMP is an exceptional platform for many brands. It does require specialised expertise to get the most from it, especially as you move up the maturity curve; like I said earlier, understanding what you want for your technology and where you spend your media money, informs whether you shoot for a single ecosystem or wider approach.
I realise as you read this Google is prominent in the news, particularly regarding antitrust investigations, and separately the state of the 3rd party cookie (used for tracking in advertising). While these developments will not directly impact GMP’s functionality at this time, marketers should stay informed and consider their potential long-term implications. However, it is important to balance these concerns against the undeniable value that GMP continues to provide in terms of marketing effectiveness and efficiency.
Conclusion: Leveraging MarTech Effectively
In an era where data is critical to advertising, Google Marketing Platform stands there are an integrated suite of tools, which is moving fast in the AI space, building durable measurement solutions and is robust powerful tool. Making it the cornerstone of many successful digital marketing strategies. The question for marketers is not whether to leverage such tools, but how to do so most effectively while navigating the challenges they present.
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