As a developer for over ten years, one task I’ve done over and over again is adding a code snippet to client websites to collect user data for search engines. It’s process. Set it and forget it.
In the last few years, the questions I receive are more and related to site performance, the heart-sinking metric known as the bounce rate, and things like conversion rates and average user data. The process is almost the same, but things have changed. Change is supposed to be good, right?
Who wins, the user or the marketer?
I’ve worked over the years to gain a deep knowledge and become a local subject matter expert in analytics. In July 2023, when Google’s universal analytics sunset, us analysts and developers knew the day was coming. Working in the new view known as Google Analytics 4, learning where my annotations and behavior flow went, I continued to provide reports and recommendations, but with an unclear future of the data.
Something about the new way kept bugging me. As the resident SME, what is most important? Deep data, or recommending that the free analytics platform everyone has used for years is better off left behind for a competitor? Having experimented with Matomo (formerly Piwik) and learning of other GDPR compliant services such as PostHog, Fathom, and Plausible, these newer services don’t use cookies and can get around having to continue to use consent banners and Apple’s privacy technology.
It should be noted, in the last eight years, Apple introduced Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) – in the earlier days of the iPhone 8 & X, Mail Privacy Protection, App Tracking Transparency (ATT), restricted the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) after iOS14 and recently, Private Click Measurement (PCM).
Combining these with Google’s Android ID (AAID) and other factors like data protection in the EU as well as the U.S. implying ‘GDPR like’ privacy protection; user metric and eCommerce data will continue to be flimsy at best, showing incomplete user journeys or purchaser lifecycles.
At no other time in history, have we given the user the ability to disallow a glimpse into their lives, whether for corporate knowledge for the smallest website or declining cookies for tracking your purchase data.
Through the history of digital media, advertisers have never been trusted because of societal changes, having implicated the need for more regulation. Between GDPR, cookies, the Apple apps “do not allow” tracking, incognito, and nameless opt-outs, marketers and advertisers have never had a harder time finding a glimpse into user data and customer insights.
What is the answer now that the future is here? How can a business understand their customers and gain that all important analytic knowledge that will enhance future user experiences?
Our team at The Partnership has created a new tool, Partnership360, which is a valuable dive into your business analytics. We will partner with you to work through data challenges and to gather the insights that will grow your business and customers.
Contact us today to schedule a demo, and take back your analytics.
