How To Improve the Quality of First-Party Signals With Tagging Audits

By Stephanie Turner, Vice President, US, RTB House

Maximizing the quality of your first-party signals through regular tagging audits can be effectively done in-house. It will not only drive improved performance campaign effectiveness but also guide long-term budget allocation and influence bottom-line results.

Marketers have already faced a forced shift to Google Analytics 4 this past year, followed by Google’s announcement that users will now have control over the use of third-party cookies in browsers, which has added another layer of complexity to an already intricate advertising landscape. This has led to the industry questioning how marketers can maintain the reach and effectiveness of personalized performance campaigns, without losing out on continuous measurement and proper budget allocation.

While this is a critical question, one essential issue is often only touched upon in the broader conversation: How can marketers improve the technical foundation of their site to ensure the highest quality first-party signals? Signals that will not only drive performance campaign effectiveness with limited third-party cookies, but also guide long-term budget allocation and influence bottom-line results.

Tags: understanding customer behavior for better performance

The privacy revolution has been unfolding for years now, with Apple and Mozilla already blocking third-party cookies, and the world’s most widely-used browser, Chrome, slowly following suit. Customers have made it clear that privacy is a top concern, with 80% prioritizing it, and this number is growing. To meet customer expectations, brands have taken multiple steps to mitigate signal loss and maintain personalized communication with their clients, but very often not enough attention is given to tag auditing—a key diagnostic tool for optimizing the quality of first-party signals.

Tags —small snippets of JavaScript that run code to gather or trigger information about a user’s behavior and interaction with a website — are fundamental to the effective performance of digital campaigns based on first-party signals. While they can facilitate the deployment of third-party cookies, their primary function is broader, as they can track user signals or manage conversions. While the use of third-party cookies may be in flux, tagging is here to stay.

When applied correctly, tags are also used to train algorithms to bid and optimize for conversions most effectively. The more detailed the tagging architecture and the information about user behavior, the better the results of performance campaigns. Currently the most advanced algorithms, leveraging Deep Learning AI, excel at using these signals to constantly improve campaign performance, so keeping first-party signals accurate to the highest possible standard gives brands a real edge.

Precise tagging also reveals the global problems on the site, where core functionality and data pieces look normal on a surface level. However, upon closer examination, it becomes evident that there is a significant issue. These can concern:

  • Attributing multiple conversions to one source when only one event occurred.
  • Losing source of information for attribution.
  • Missing conversion data for specific geographic regions.
  • Issues with the feed or individual products that may touch your top sellers.

If marketers are willing to fix these issues, this will help increase signal and attribution accuracy, allowing them to clearly see where the revenue is coming from and identify the impact of specific channels or vendors on sales. That, in turn, will enable brands to allocate marketing budgets effectively, maximizing potential revenue and sales.

Maximizing quality

Understandably the vast majority of brands do not prioritize regular tagging audits and seldom perform them when launching new features or products, relying instead on their team to catch major issues on a day-to-day basis. But, it’s rare for any single team member to interact with the entire sales process from cart to checkout, making it difficult to identify problems on an ad-hoc basis since it is unknown what to look for.

The full audit is a major task that can result in significant wins, but by ensuring that data layers are properly structured, and that owned and partner conversion logs are audited quarterly will ensure a brand stays ahead. In addition, by checking that ad URLs don’t have a 301 redirect, product feeds are verified and procedures are put in place to fix problems, brands are prepared for the future.

Maximizing the quality of first-party signals through regular tagging audits is a way to enhance the effectiveness of performance campaigns, especially as we move away from third-party cookies. Embracing this practice and performing quarterly audits will help brands to stay ahead and truly connect with their audience.