Sign in with Google A version of this article was previously published by Forbes.
There is no debate: AI is a proven game changer for businesses seeking a competitive advantage. And, while AI adoption rates have been defined as “unprecedented” by experts like famed technology analyst Mary Meeker, only the most forward-thinking leaders are focusing on what powers these systems. They recognize that while the AI model is the engine, the quality data fed into it is the high-octane fuel.
Fundamentally, AI’s effectiveness is directly tied to the information it learns from. For many businesses, their most powerful asset is their first-party data, which serves as the essential bedrock for improving AI performance. While first-party data has long been a key strategy for navigating digital landscape changes, the rise of AI reveals its true potential. When paired with AI, first-party data provides advertisers with unparalleled pattern recognition and predictive insights, all customized to meet a business’s unique goals.
Utilizing this data effectively and securely requires leaders to break down organizational and intelligence silos to connect data sets, teams, and business outcomes. In this article, we’ll provide a clear road map to unlock this potential and achieve new levels of data strength and ROI.
Defining data strength: The direct path to optimal ROI
Data strength isn’t just a new buzzword; it’s a fundamental shift in mindset. It’s about viewing your data, not as a static asset to be defended but as a dynamic resource to be wielded strategically.
Data strength is a shift from an overreliance on online signals alone to a unified ecosystem of data sources — from CRM and cloud instances to web, app, and physical store interactions. It represents the creation of an always-on, comprehensive customer view that powers better performing AI-powered marketing. Research shows organizations that have a first-party data strategy in place to enable the use of AI marketing tools are 1.5X more likely to say their performance was stronger than their competitors who lack such a strategy.1
The results are clear: the stronger your data, the more intelligent your AI, and the better your ROI. To help you unlock the full potential of your digital advertising, we’ve outlined four necessary steps to improve your data strength.
Four steps top advertisers take to improve their data strength
1. Connect your data sources
The first step of your journey is to establish a foundational link to your data sources. Think of this as a pipeline for your data to flow securely into your advertising technology. The objective is to simplify a traditionally fragmented landscape, where data from different touchpoints exists in silos, hindering performance.
- Prioritize first-party data. Improve the accuracy and durability of your web data by using a first-party versus a third-party data strategy. We strongly recommend retrofitting legacy third-party tags using tag gateway.
- Centralize all of your data. Connect and centralize all of your data sources in one place. Tools like Data Manager simplify this process by providing direct connection workflows for major data platforms you likely use already, as well as API capabilities, making it easier to manage and troubleshoot your data flow.
2. Maximize the quality of your data
Once the pipes are connected, the next step is to ensure you’re collecting the most valuable data you have. This process helps Google AI provide you with more impactful insights and recommendations, allowing you to maximize the impact of your data. This is a crucial step that relies on your team’s direct action, often through technical implementation on your site or by ingesting data into your own systems. We recommend prioritizing a variety signal types.
- Advertising signals. How your audience interacts with your ads, from where they click to what campaigns are driving the most interest.
- Customer signals. Privacy-safe information from your customers, such as emails and phone numbers, to better understand their behavior across different devices.
- Transactional signals. Measure the true value of a purchase or other key actions, ensuring you can accurately track the impact of your marketing efforts and prevent counting the same conversion more than once.
- Behavioral signals. Gain a deeper understanding of the customer journey, learning what actions users take on your website, and how they engage with your content.
By diligently collecting and sending these signals, you’re not just providing data; you’re providing high-quality, relevant information that powers more effective AI-driven advertising.
3. Activate your data with Google AI
With your robust, high-quality data in place, you’re ready to activate it. This is where you should adopt AI-powered solutions to optimize your campaigns across all of Google’s advertising platforms. A strong data set acts as a critical input for Google’s AI, enabling more effective solutions for:
- Audiences. Your first-party data is essential for identifying and engaging top customer segments and expanding your reach by finding similar audiences.
- Bidding. AI-powered bidding strategies leverage your comprehensive data to find new search queries and channels, and to optimize your budget in real time to adapt to consumer trends.
- In-channel optimization. Your data powers sophisticated attribution models, like data-driven attribution, which assigns fractional credit to each touchpoint on a user’s conversion path, providing a more complete understanding of what drives sales within each channel.
This activation step is where the tangible value of your data strength is realized, transforming basic information into actionable performance improvements.
4. Demonstrate ROI
To demonstrate gains unlocked by your first-party data you should take a modern approach to ads measurement. A strong data foundation allows you to accurately measure the KPIs that matter most to your business, such as revenue and profit. This involves using a modern measurement tool kit to prove the effectiveness of your advertising efforts.
- Cross-channel optimization: Beyond simply measuring clicks, advanced attribution models help you understand which media touchpoints provide the most value. This includes multitouch attribution, a cross-channel approach that interprets how much different channels influence the customer journey.
- Incrementality experiments: Testing things like geo and conversion lift allow you to measure the true, incremental impact of your campaigns. These experiments use a test-and-control framework to determine whether an ad caused a conversion, rather than just being present in the user’s journey.
- Marketing mix modeling: These models use advanced statistics to correlate your marketing investments with sales, helping you optimize budgets across all your marketing channels and understand the overall contribution of different media.
By embracing these modern measurement practices, you can move beyond simple last-click metrics and gain a holistic view of your advertising’s impact, proving the value of your data strength and strategy to the business.
From stronger data to improved ROI
Cultivating robust data strength is essential for driving demonstrable business outcomes in today’s competitive landscape. It enables businesses to foster stronger customer relationships and significantly increase customer lifetime value.
AI anchored on rich first-party data fuels intelligent bidding optimization, ensuring your budget is deployed with maximum impact and efficiency. This isn’t merely about refining current campaigns; it’s about strategically empowering your organization for a future of growth. Forward-thinking business leaders must recognize superior data strength as an indispensable prerequisite for unlocking the full potential of advanced AI-powered solutions.
