PPCChat | Preparing for the Shift in PPC – Tracking, Targeting & Attribution | 13th June 2023

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Julie F Bacchini recently hosted a discussion among PPC professionals, who shared their perspectives on the evolving landscape of Tracking, Targeting, and Attribution within the PPC industry. The participants engaged in conversations about their current areas of focus and outlined their strategies for addressing and equipping themselves for the upcoming months. Below is a screenshot capturing the discussion.

Q1: Which of the coming announced changes do you think will impact PPC most significantly (or at least your accounts): 1. Diminishing role of keywords 2. End of 3rd party cookies 3. Google Analytics 4 4. Apple’s URL stripping 5. Something else

Honestly, I think it depends on what niche / vertical you work in. For B2B or Niche B2C, (1) is going to play an outsized factor b/c – by definition – getting the volume necessary for machines to learn is difficult. For broad-based B2C, (4) is probably the thing that would give me the most pause. For enterprise B2B, likely (4) or (5), with (5) being regulation + legislation…the only group more incompetent than Google Support is the US Congress. – @DigitalSamIAm

I’m thinking about Apple’s URL stripping. We all want better campaign attribution. How many dashboards will be ruined from less UTM data? – @Galliguez

keywords, how exactly are we going to target search with literally the only targeting tool we have. – MichealGumbert

Diminishing role of keywords, for sure. End of cookies/URL stripping etc has been happening for years and is pretty much a non-issue at this point. Attribution still works as much as we need it to (*reporting* is a different issue). Keywords are big though. – @gilgildner

The diminishing role of keywords! Especially on smaller accounts. – @MenachemAni

GA4 is going to have a big immediate effect because so many businesses still haven’t switched over – all the algorithms are going to break. AI is going to have a big impact on the industry – from chat GPT to data-driven attribution to all the emphasis on algorithms.- @revaminkoff

End of 3rd party cookies and GA4 won’t prevent curious advertisers to do their own analysis. Diminishing role of keywords is just changing the product sold by Google meaning that it is a larger question that involves advertisers and Google first.- @Math_CK

*Short term, GA4. It’s a huge learning curve that most folks are not ready for. *Long term (not that long) diminished keywords. Clients are going to have to relearn a LOT. – @JuliaVyse

Well that’s a hard one. G4 is a ticking timebomb and third-party cookie loss is too. – @DenneyJenn

Lost tracking (3P cookies, Apple updates) is an obstacle. Might feel like a reversion to c. 2010, but survivable. KW deprecation is a massive change for GAds, blending demand gen + capture. Risks alienating advertisers. GA4 should advance the industry. I’m bullish – @teabeeshell

1. For me, feels like another way google can get wasted spend from people new to google ads, and auto-default to broad match – @PaulRooneyEcom

All of the above? The challenge we have with Google is that they do things and learn after. e.g. It worked on this one client so why wouldn’t it work on everything else. But Tracking… Well hold on to your hats, it’s going to be a bumpy ride! – @_Mizzle_

most imminent is GA4. Clients are already having issues with data. Still not seeing similar data from GA4 and UA and are thinking about how do I keep track of UA data after July 1st – @TheMarketingAnu

Of that list, probably GA4. The keywordless thing has been at work for awhile. – @robert_brady

If we’re talking about what will impact us the most right now, then my answer is G4. If we’re talking about in the future, the diminishing role of keywords. – @adwordsgirl

Can I say all of the above? Attribution is about to get nuked – between GA4, ending of 3rd party cookies and Apple’s URL stripping – it’s a giant ball of yikes. Targeting will suffer as result of all those too + the demotion/demise of keyword targeting. – @NeptuneMoon

I’m thinking about Apple’s URL stripping. We all want better campaign attribution. How many dashboards will be ruined from less UTM data? – @Galliguez

A1 I’m unsure on “the most” but: 1- will harm efficiency in SMB accounts by disallowing initial targeted focus 2- meh, G’s well on the way to this not being a tangible issue 3- will cause harm in just being a new, confusing product that will harm analysis 4- hmmm – @PPCKirk

The diminishing role of keywords. Signals, interests and intent are all great for targeting, but sometimes you can’t beat knowing exactly what someone is looking for by the words they use. – @marketingsoph

I believe you mean: what is going to give you the biggest headache? And why is it GA4? – @JonKagan

Q2: Which area do you think is going to least resemble what we have traditionally known it to be in next 18 months: 1. Tracking (tagging) 2. Targeting 3. Attribution

Targeting 100%. We’ve got to go ahead and nuke what we’ve learned over the last few years…for better or worse, it’s changing drastically. – @gilgildner

I hope it is attribution because it would be nice to stop confusing quality for quantity. But I think it probably be targeting as platforms continue to limit our ability to target. – MichealGumbert

I don’t want to sound racist or political…now that I have your attention, the answer is Tracking. Anyone who says otherwise is clearly a Patriots fan = an unstable person – @JonKagan

My unpopular opinions: 1. Tracking/Tagging – this is likely going to look a lot like what it does now with enhanced/offline conversions. If Apple goes full crazy mode w/ stripping parameters (which is a stupid choice, but whatever), then the logical solution is to bypass them. Conversion upload does that. 2. Targeting – everything looks like a DSP now, so the biggest change you *could* make is removing controls // going full black box, but (a) I don’t think most platforms are going to do that (see: Criteo) and (b) I don’t think it’d be as effective. So we’ll see changes at the margins, but I don’t think any platform is going to re-imagine targeting much more. 3. Attribution – 3P attribution has begun the slow, inexorable march toward extinction, so that’s the biggest change. Every major platform is investing in aMMMs, and (again, full candor) it’s *in their best interest to do so* b/c (1) and (2) *need offline data*. Given that attribution – on its absolute best day – is an unsolvable problem (and most days is just paying to obfuscate), I’m not too sad. – @DigitalSamIAm

Targeting! First, Exact and Phrase will be removed. Then even Broad Match will disappear, and keywords will become Keyword Themes. – @MenachemAni

I see targeting as the single biggest mover. Setting up a PMax campaign (for example) can be as much upfront planning as Search/Shopping, but instead of KWs, focused on quality assets, 1P data feeds & audiences/segments. Fundamentally different, TBD on outcomes. – @teabeeshell

this is another all of the above question, but I’m thinking Tracking first. So many of us actually can’t do Attribution without very expensive tools and Targeting is ever changing anyway. – @JuliaVyse

Attribution. There is nothing we can do to stop this. Attribution is very messy and we need to be able to tell the whole marketing story. All marketing works together and it always has.  – @DenneyJenn

I think targeting and attribution are a coin toss on which is going to look the least like what we know today. Data driven will be the only attribution model in play. I think fewer and fewer targeting variations will be in play, due to AI/ML. – @jimbanks

Attribution is rapidly shifting and will continue on that pace until we have very little insight into what is happening. As a result of that, targeting will take a hit. Get ready for your retargeting audiences (and your exclusion audiences) to vaporize… – @NeptuneMoon

All of the above? But tracking is probably the most affected – everything used to be based on cookies. – @revaminkoff

I think they’re all big and changing, but I think I’m ready to settle on “attribution” here. I think the way people “think” they can measure success and how that influences channel investment decisions is going to be (already) completely upended. So I’m going with #3 – @PPCKirk

Attribution Which can be a weird one because some clients are happy to get leads regardless of where they come from. For their marketing team/agency on the other hand – @marketingsoph

Targeting for sure. In a few years – Keywords-what??  – @TheMarketingAnu

People are still stuck on Cookies even though the ‘death of the cookie’ has lurked for years. ‘Targeting’ changes all the time & we adapt! However, Attribution with less tracking visibility… How will that work? Will it all be guesswork? – @_Mizzle_

Q3: How are you planning or preparing for the changes that are coming to search and ad platforms? Are you talking proactively with your clients/stakeholders?

Vague answer: going upmarket. All of these issues are problems, but sidestepped by clients with strong brands w/ budgets to test, scale, experiment & have strong internal analytics/BI. It’s a cop-out, but I see smaller advertisers having a hard time in the future. – @gilgildner

reading a lot of 3rd party documents because Google’s are garbage, and getting a larger bottle of Tylenol for my desk. – @JonKagan

I like to be as proactive as possible. – @MenachemAni

I coach clients that ingesting more data (sooner) = faster pivots/decisions. “Let’s adopt a testing mindset together. This is new for you AND me. Hand-in-hand, we can trip & fall together…or blaze a new trail!” The past is past, so let’s not get left behind. – @teabeeshell

we’ve been focused on GA4 and taking the rest of it slow. any for those wondering why, my clients are not ecom and focused on overall success through the year rather than product level ROAS per interaction. – @JuliaVyse

I’ve been talking to clients about these changes brewing for a while now. Obviously, we have to see what comes to pass & when, but I think we all see where things are headed & it is unfamiliar territory. We need to be the guiding light for clients more than ever. – @NeptuneMoon

Trying to avoid jumping to conclusions when we don’t have all the facts. When we need to make recommendations we aim to do them based on real data, not Google marketing speak. – @jimbanks

We have been speaking to clients for months with every new data loss that has come about. We want them to be well aware of what we can and can’t track to make the best data-driven decisions. – @DenneyJenn

GA4 has been a main priority, so once the dust settles down a bit, we’ll start talking about other topics in more detail with them. We’re trying to not overload them with much at once. It would be easy for them to loose trust in the platforms / get scared off. – @marketingsoph

Educating clients, and also educating ourselves. – @revaminkoff

The usual strategy – Read, LOTS of reading, from Viewpoints to how-to guides to conversations happening on people’s Linkedin posts. From here, then educate my clients & guide them forwards, testing & learning along the way. – @_Mizzle_

Q4: What is your biggest concern(s) about tracking, targeting and/or attribution now and into 2024?

A big thing I think about is that we spent the past decade drilling the benefits of attributable ROAS into our client’s heads. Now it’s a primary business metric for many brands & we can’t accurately report on it. We really shot ourselves in the foot with that one. – @gilgildner

when my clients who haven’t logged into GA in 2 years go in and ask me what data thresholding is – @JonKagan

I worry people can’t see the forest for the trees. This is the time to button up. Create a stellar organic presence. Polish your data. Refresh your business math. These are ALL within your control. Get the house in order & explore the new frontier of advertising. – @teabeeshell

End of UTM parameters – @Math_CK

this is going to sound weird, but expectations. We are facing a world where we have to undo 20 years (roughly) of promises that we’d be able to track everything in various ways. It’s going to be a big disappointment for a lot of brands. – @JuliaVyse

Broad match still is not an option for many many advertisers. It’s getting increasingly harder to pull learnings and data from Google Ads – which diminishes the value of the platform. Clients don’t just care about results – they also want learnings. – @revaminkoff

The era of the firehose of data is over. Tracking has already been crippled and more to come w/ cookies going away. Attribution has gaping holes. Both impact the targeting we’ve grown accustomed to. We have a lot of work to do to explain how things now work. – @NeptuneMoon

This is going to sound a bit glib. I really don’t have any worries or concerns. I can’t influence whatever changes are coming and when. I can only adopt and adapt based on the facts. Worrying won’t alter their changes – @jimbanks

Trusting the tools… extrapolated data… Working with Google for over 12 years & we learn that not everything they say is correct. Do you take the blue pill & just believe or do you take the red pill & find a new solution? – @_Mizzle_

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