The importance of data strategy

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14 Mar

Having a data strategy in place will help you ensure your data is set up correctly so that the planning and execution of media or the use of new campaigns will be effective- but where do you start?

Digital media is inevitably migrating towards automation. This should make life easier, right? Well, the machine learning algorithms are only as good as the data you provide. Therefore, your data strategy needs to ensure that you use the highest quality data to achieve the best possible results.

Why is it key to have a data strategy?

This is when the hot topic of privacy comes into play. Recently there has been a considerable reduction in user privacy confidence, with Google reporting that searches for “online privacy” continue to increase. People are becoming more and more aware of how their information is collected and used for advertising purposes, and new regulations are resulting in the decline of first and third-party cookies. This impacts businesses’ ability to track and collect a sufficient volume of quality data.

Having a robust strategy that ensures optimal quality data collection will help you fill in the gaps by introducing tactics to minimise data loss. For example, automation can be enhanced using first-party data that the consumer readily hands over e.g., email addresses and purchase history (the most accurate and privacy-safe option). This in turn will boost the power of your algorithms.

When you have implemented this and collected high-quality data, it must unearth actionable insights that align with your business objectives. It’s all very well having a lot of statistics, but it needs to make sense for your business. Furthermore, having a data strategy in place will help you ensure your data is set up correctly so that the planning and execution of media or the use of new campaigns e.g., Performance Max, will be effective.

What are the key challenges in the marketplace?

The collection and deployment of data is a complex area, which often requires a level of expertise to cut through the noise. The sheer amount and disparity of the data can put up barriers and lead to confusion. Plus, it is often the case that there is a distinct lack of time and budget put aside to devise an effective data strategy.

Plus, the new privacy regulations can be difficult to pin down. The various updates to what data you can and can’t collect have left an overhanging sense of uncertainty around privacy impact. The key challenge is how businesses collect high-quality first-party data in a privacy-safe way, while adhering to media best practice.