Important Google Analytics Update: Remarketing

By Woven Agency, Thursday April 13, 2017

Here at INK, we love to share any new digital updates with you and here’s the latest, Google have made an important announcement about remarketing within its Analytics platform.

So, what’s changing?

From May 15th 2017, when you create new Remarketing Audiences in your Google Analytics account, you’ll be able to take advantage of Google’s new cross-device remarketing functionality which is currently available in AdWords and DoubleClick.

What’s in it for me?

Well folks, this awesome new feature will enable you to re-target your audiences across different devices – handy ey?!

Google research suggests six in ten internet users start shopping on one device but continue or finish on a different one. It’s an interesting fact and with this new remarketing update coming into force very soon, you’ll be able to reach your customers with more relevant ads when they search or browse on multiple devices.

For example; you’ll be able to serve ads to a user who visited your website initially on a mobile, who then browsed the content on your site via desktop later that evening (as long as they’re signed into their Google account).

What’s going to happen?

  1. Google will collect data from those users who have allowed them to use information from their Google account to personalise the ads they see, along with those who have enabled Google to associate their web and app browsing history with their Google account.
  2. Google Analytics will collect Google-authenticated identifiers associated with users’ Google Accounts (and therefore, personal information) for users who visit your website.
  3. Google Analytics will temporarily join these identifiers to your Google Analytics data in order to support your audiences.

What do you need to do before the update launches in May?

The changes will commence automatically but it is important that you review your privacy policy in time for the launch so it sits in line with the update to data collection. You should explain within your policy what data your business collects and shares with Google.

What if I don’t use remarketing?

If you currently don’t use remarketing, fear not, you can turn off remarketing data collection with your Google Analytics account. To do so, simply log into your account, click ‘admin’ and choose the property you want to disable data collection for. Then click ‘tracking info’, followed by ‘data collection’. If you don’t want to collect data for advertising features, then turn off both toggles.

Please note that in addition to this you’ll just need to double check that you haven’t manually enabled any advertising features data collection in your Google Analytics tags.

Has all this talk about remarketing gotcha thinking about potential new campaigns? Well, rest assured, we’re here to help. Be sure to get in touch with our friendly team to see what we can do for you.

 

Sources: Google, Marketing Land