Data and analytics Archives

Google puts third-party cookies on life support

Google has announced a delay in their plan to deprecate third-party cookies, meaning third-party cookies will continue to function.

The CFO-CMO balancing act: How efficient marketing keeps everyone happy

Chief Marking Officers are in a perpetual balancing act, demonstrating ROI from marketing activities under the scrutiny of the Chief Financial Officer.

Google is (finally) phasing out cookies. Here’s why it matters

On January 4, 32 million randomly selected Google Chrome users had third-party cookies disabled in their web browsers.

Data Trust

This five-minute checkup will help assess trust in your marketing data.

Are data management practices leaving you susceptible to cognitive bias?

Manual data handling and multiple siloed systems could be leaving room for biases to surface leading to inaccurate use of data.

What you need to know to be tech-ready for 2024

As I’m writing this, your floor staff will only have 1,274 more repeats of “All I Want for Christmas” to endure and chances are they were out of Whamageddon weeks ago.

Are you data ready for Christmas? Here are four key points to keep in mind

As the festive season approaches, retailers must be prepared for the influx of customer Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and analytics data.

Privacy reform safe bets: Stop using third-party data; audit your tags, review your tech stack, deal with dark data… by Christmas 2024

Government is trying to buy itself some time to decide on the hard, highly disruptive stuff thrown up by the Privacy Act review. The problem is, says Digital Balance MD, Richard Taylor, the deadlines for industry haven’t moved. We’ve already got less than half the time EU businesses had to prepare for GDPR. Here’s four things to do by Xmas 2024.

Why you should be asking customers to activate your offers

A few years ago, email marketing results were measured by one key statistic: open rates. Here’s why that’s changed.

With an overkill of tools in most tech stacks, how can you prevent data leakage?

The risk is real and the only thing that will change when privacy laws are implemented is the addition of a hefty fine for inaction now.

Asbestos or oil? Why it’s time to walk away from third-party data as government guns for brokers

It’s time to ask your media agency where it gets its data, and ditch third-party sources altogether.

Why retailers should be like Kmart and Target and review their tech stacks

As marketing budgets continue to shrink, many in the C-suite are trying to find ways to save money while maintaining, or preferably increasing, sales.

Fines for data mishandling won’t be the greatest cost to your business. Fixing reputational damage will be.

While a minimum $50m fine is not to be sneezed at, that could be just the beginning of your financial woes if your brand experiences a data breach.

Global cookie consent and privacy legislation

There are several privacy and cookie consent laws around the world that Australian businesses need to be aware of if they have website visitors or customers in a particular region – even if they do not have a physical office there.

Privacy Awareness Week: 1 – 7 May 2023

Privacy is fundamental to our existence. But how do we best protect it in today’s digital world?

CX rises from third-party cookies’ ashes

As third-party cookies disappear, it’s the turn of CX, Customer Experience, to shine. Here are various ways to improve CX.

Privacy Act Review Report

Digital Balance looks at the impact of the “Privacy Act Review – Report”, recommendations and key proposals

AI platforms and their impact on Google search

Marketers need to adapt their search strategies to cater for an increase in natural-language searches made via voice or AI search engines.

Google Optimize Sunset

Google Optimize will no longer be available after September 30, 2023, and any experiments and personalisations active on that date will end. Digital Balance can help your move to Optmizely or another experimentation platform.

Australian Privacy Update – Jan 2023

2023 is expected to bring significant changes to Australian privacy laws after a a review of the Privacy Act has been completed. Now is the time to get ready for cookie consent and more.

The future of onsite analytics and advertising tracking in 2023 and beyond

Digital Balance’s MD, Richard Taylor, on the death of cookies, and how this will affect analytics, and advertising tracking in 2023 and beyond.

Is your organisation ready to transition to the new Google Analytics 4?

Now is the time to start your migration journey to GA4. From running workshops to connecting & collecting the data that’s important to you, Digital Balance can help.

What is Adobe Activity Map and how does it work?

Despite the impressive amount of functionality it offers, Activity Map is arguably one of the lesser known features available within Adobe Analytics. Understanding how it works and what it offers and will help you decide on whether it’s a suitable link tracking solution to include in your existing or future Adobe Analytics implementation. Table of […]

Is Apple ITP breaking the internet?

Apple’s ITP is creating ghost audiences; it’s getting worse, and there’s no cure.

A quick primer for you, without getting into the technical specifics:

Around 50% of your mobile visitors are ghosts.
Around 10% of your desktop visitors are ghosts.
That means 20%-30% of all visitors are ghosts.
Did that get your attention?

ITP or Intelligent Tracking Prevention is Apple Safari’s ability to stop cross-domain tracking (specifically ad tracking), deleting or blocking cookies (1st and 3rd), with the intention of protecting user privacy by restricting the ability of ad tech companies to track people around the web.

Sizmek and the Privacy Storm

You may be aware of the recent news that Sizmek, one of the largest independent ad-tech platforms has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The business will seek to maintain current operations as it looks to either outside investment, or third-party sale to help resolve the balance sheet. It is too soon to tell whether Sizmek’s […]

Communication: The Other Art in Data Literacy

Data Literacy is often thought of as the ability to read meaningful information from data. Job descriptions for analytics roles emphasise the importance of mathematics and statistics skills to interpret and evaluate data.

Thinking of investing in attribution, predictive modelling or a DMP? Start by checking the quality of your data.

We believe that data governance and data quality are the foundations of analytics, and where businesses will get the most value for money. Patch-work fixes are a drain on resources and overtime become very costly.

Ebiquity Acquires Digital Balance

It is with great pleasure I announce our most exciting venture to date; the acquisition of Digital Balance by Ebiquity – a leading independent marketing and media analytics consultancy. Ebiquity is a great fit and giant step forward for our business. We share very similar values around agility, independence, honesty and being straight-forward. We’re looking forward to having access to Ebiquity’s core services, and leverage some of the expertise and networks that they bring to the table.

We’re Data Studio Certified! Plus A Gift For You

As part of our Google Analytics Certified Partner (GACP) status, we’ve officially added a Data Studio feather to our digital services cap! To celebrate and share a little of our excitement, we’ve made a DB Freebie for you to enjoy.

5 Tips for Thriving as a Woman in Analytics, with Moe Kiss

We have a wonderfully balanced team here at Digital Balance, but data analytics (and especially its trendy cousin data science) continues to be a predominantly male dominated field. We know diverse teams breed innovative and creative solutions, so what can we do to encourage more women into this field? In our recent catch up (click here to read), Moe Kiss gave us 5 tips for women forging a career in analytics.

How Australian retailers are tackling the data and analytics space – An interview with Moe Kiss from The Iconic

Digital Analytics is thriving in Australia, and the team here at Digital Balance love to jump at any opportunity to meet like-minded data geeks who like to call analytics home. We were lucky enough to catch up with Moe Kiss for a chat about all things analytics, gush over our favourite new platforms, and swap tag management horror stories.

Announcing our Google Analytics 360 partnership

We’ve been working hard over the last few months and we’re excited to announce that we’re now officially a Google Analytics 360 partner. As an authorised Google Analytics Certified Partner (GACP) we’ve been endorsed by Google, as one of a few companies in Australia able to provide expertise across both their standard and premium solutions.

Property prices are plateauing in most states, but Sydney is still leading the pack

Over the past five years, Australians have kept a keen eye on the property market and watched construction boom, interest rates fall, and investors clamour to get a piece of the pie.

For many, these trends symbolise a vanishing dream of home ownership; perhaps due to the prioritisation of smashed avocado, or perhaps a combination of tax benefits and abundance of credit that have disproportionately benefitted investors over first home buyers who don’t have access to Bank of Mum and Dad. Who knows!

14 metrics to get you started with your deep dive into Facebook data exports

If you’re familiar with the Facebook Insights tab but are looking for a little more detail and a little more depth, there are a few options to get you started.
Page Summary gives you the ability to look at data from today, yesterday, the last 7 days, or the last 28 days, but with the Export Data function, you can go so much further.

How much is that click really worth? The hidden reality of Facebook negative sentiment.

Figuring out what drives clicks and honing in on that will certainly drive traffic to your site – but are you listening to what your audience is saying?

How to measure your entire marketing strategy in 4 crazily simple KPIs.

Does hearing the term “KPI” fill you with fear? A step by step guide to setting 4 simple digital KPIs for your entire customer journey.

Measuring personalised experiences

Personalisation measurement is a little different. The normal way we measure stuff is page-based, or click-based, but that no longer works for a personalised experience. See how you can measure if your personalisation efforts are paying off.

Event serialisation with derived metrics

Have you got conversion values that are over 100%? In other words, have you got more people starting a form than you have visits? Or more people finishing a form than starting it? Or more people getting to step 2 of a form than actually starting it? This is a pretty common problem and stems from the way your event metrics have been set up.

A chat with Adobe.

Changes to workflow, gotcha moments and a look into the future. Tim talks to Adobe about our experiences implementing DTM for our clients.

The value of a dislike.

The introduction of a ‘dislike’ button could produce some interesting data insights for marketing on Facebook. But then what implications will it also have on brands?

Australian brands fail to deliver positive digital experiences.

Australian brands are failing to deliver the experiences that digital consumers are expecting from them. So how do they bridge the gap and develop lasting relationships?

Derived metrics – what is this sorcery you speak of?

At Summit, you might remember Bret Gundersen introduced Derived Metrics and showed a few examples. What are they? What are some use cases? Check out Derived Metric Sorcery here.

Adobe Symposium 2015 Sneaks: Mobile Reality

The Adobe Symposium in Singapore was full of new technology and advancements in digital marketing. Mobile and beacon technology are just two of the sneaks showcased by Adobe that caught my attention and how important they are to today’s marketers.

Where are the Australian Retailers?

Integrated marketing solutions are on the rise in Australia. Corporate, Government and Education are all investing, but there is a lack of investment by the retail industry. Is this a reflection of the consumers? Or the marketers?

Why you need to invest in your people if you’re investing in Adobe Marketing Cloud.

The technology to deliver on personalised omni-channel experiences is here, and consumer expectations are high. But will Australian brands be able to keep up?

Event based tracking using HTML5 Custom Data Attributes.

Find out why Custom data attributes are a better way to measure interactions on your site.

4 really great things about DTM

There’s a lot of buzz around Adobe DTM, no doubt you’ve heard of it, but maybe you’re still unsure about whether it’s something you want to take on. We take a look at 4 reasons why DTM is one of the greatest tag management solutions, and why you should be using it.

Adobe Summit London 2015 Recap

Adobe’s annual digital marketing conference in London was a truly spectacular event. Here’s my overview of the 2-day event and a few sneak peeks into what’s in store for their marketing products.

Christmas has come early – Adobe Analytics Spring 2015 Release

We’ve got new things! Adobe’s overnight update for the 2015 Spring Release of Adobe Analytics has added a number of amazing new features to the analytics platform.

AngularJS and analytics with Dynamic Tag Management (DTM).

We’ve taken a look at the hype in the web development world around AngularJS and give you some tips on how to make it work with your analytics.

Are you taking your site for granted?

Are you happy with how your website is performing, or would you like it to drive more conversions? Incorporating a structured approach to your testing is one of the ways you can improve your conversion rate.

Data analysis – are you being oversold on your analytics?

With many new businesses being borne out of ‘big data’, the term ‘data insights’ is being flung around left right and centre, and organisations are paying big dollars to analytics companies that promise rousing discoveries about their consumers.
But can true consumer insights be found in data analysis alone?

Use data for good: 3 rules to live by for personalisation strategy.

Your customer data is priceless for helping with personalisation, but to avoid being too invasive you’ll need to set boundaries and define your purpose.

Setting up Google Universal Analytics User ID tracking with Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (DTM).

Find out how the unique user ID feature of Universal Analytics will allow you to analyse the visitors to your site across multiple browsers and devices.

Debugging JavaScript with DTM in 3 steps.

You know Adobe’s DTM is a powerful platform, but are you getting the most out from it? Here’s 3 easy to implement Javascript solutions will give you the control you’re looking for.

Setting up Google Analytics Enhanced Link Tracking within Dynamic Tag Management (DTM)

Enhanced link tracking in Google Analytics has a number of benefits including providing unique data when you have multiple links with the same destination. Find out how to activate it in DTM.

Learning the potential of direct call rules within Adobe DTM (Dynamic Tag Management)

Once you get your head around direct call rules it will open up a whole new world. We take you through the steps to set up your own direct call rules in your implementation.

Measuring visitors across multiple domains in SiteCatalyst.

If you’re trying to measure visitors across multiple domains, you’ll be aware that it’s a bit of a challenge. But with the latest Analytics code you’ll be really happy to hear it is possible.

Getting familiar with Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (DTM)

You’ve decided to deploy your tags with DTM, great stuff! To help you get started here’s an overview of all the things you need to know about setting up your tags.

Are you using your web analytics as a trophy or a weapon?

Valuable time and money is being spent by companies as they culturally ready themselves for social and re-align their organisational structure to manage content. But what about our web analytics? Isn’t it time that we properly understood how to treat them?

The new Visitor Service code – what the changes mean for you

Adobe’s DTM update includes new features that allow you to integrate directly with your Analytics configuration. Based on our testing we’ve come up with a few tips to save you a bit of time and ease the frustration.

Attribution – which way do you do it?

Attribution is about applying credit for a conversion to the thing or things that contributed to the conversion. But how do you go about this, and what do you give credit to?

Learning analytics in higher education – why we still have a long way to go.

‘Learning analytics’ is being touted as a key trend to look out for in EdTech, but scratch the surface and you’ll find there’s not much substance behind most examples. See why we’ve got a long way to go before learning analytics becomes a reality in Higher Ed.

Using Data Elements within Adobe DTM (Dynamic Tag Management)

Are you new to DTM, or still struggling to make it work for you? In the first of our series of Adobe DTM articles we take a look at data elements – how to create them and then what to do with them afterwards.

eVars, props and events 101

Here’s the first of our articles to help you get your head around the building blocks required for Adobe Reports & Analytics (formerly SiteCatalyst).

Data Scientist, the new astronaut?

Data shouldn’t be treated as just another whimsical fad by marketers. The role data has to play in business marketing decisions has just as much relevance as astronauts in space.

The new Adobe Analytics Spring release

Adobe’s newest update shines the light on why it’s the number one analytics platform. We’ve had look at some of the new features and are pretty excited to share them with you.

Adobe Analytics number one again

It’s great to see that it’s not just us that’s a little bit nuts about Adobe Analytics. Apparently Forrester is too. They’ve just positioned Adobe Analytics as the global leaders in their review of analytics vendors and solutions.

Big data and avoiding analysis paralysis

Wow, we’ve got a lot of data. In fact we’ve got astronomical amounts of data. And every day, it gets bigger. The more channels and devices and apps and sites we add, the more we get. And the more data we add to augment our data (like CRM data) just seems to create even more data. It’s what we do with it that counts though.

How to prepare for a digital planning workshop.

Everyone runs their digital session differently but here are 5 of our top tips for preparing for a digital planning workshop. From learning from others to understanding what the facilitator is there to do.

The demise of the keyword

Google killed the keyword. They’ve finally put the nail in the keyword coffin, rendering both your Natural and Paid Search reports (keywords and engines) largely useless.

Adobe Marketing Cloud’s new silver lining

The future looks good with Adobe’s Marketing Cloud getting a suite of 8 new core services, all designed to help us combat fragmented views of our audiences, incomplete profiling and targeting capabilities, bring together silo’d channels, and reduce the manual work required to currently curate reports to our stakeholders.

Engagement Score: the one metric you need (if you care about brand).

It’s through the creation of content that brands must resonate with their audiences, but how do you tell what is working? Engagement Score lets you know what content is working, making it even more relevance for brands and vital for their success. Read more…

The data is there to be used.

Do you use your data to inform new campaigns, or are you guilty of re-implementing the same plan?

How to get the most out of your Adobe SiteCatalyst implementation (you’ll want your Web Analyst to read this too)

Post-implementation is a crucial time for businesses to adopt regular maintenance and training. Find out how to get the most out of your analytics platform and your web analytics team by focusing on these key factors.

Why you need to make SiteCatalyst data your single source of truth

Often companies will engage multiple agencies which means multiple measurement methodologies and preferred frameworks. While this can be to your advantage, it’s important that you define a single source of truth.

Have you got your settings right?

Parameters and attributions are important to campaign measurement and can deliver loads of great insights but only if you’ve got them set correctly. Find out how to check your settings to make sure your data is accurate.

KPIs: defining and measuring in campaigns

There’s no end to what can be measured as part of your campaign in SiteCatalyst and using your KPIs is the best way to do this. Find out exactly how to define and measure them in your next campaign.

How to create useful tracking codes

Are your tracking codes providing you with the information you want, or are you being kept in the dark? We shine the light on 3 simple tips for creating tracking codes that will give you useful insights into your campaign.

5 tips to successful campaign measurement in SiteCatalyst

Prompted by the number of questions clients ask on a daily basis, we decided to create a series of blog posts focused on how to get the most out of your campaign measurement when using SiteCatalyst. Just for you.

Understanding engagement – now even easier with Discover

Do you want to know more about your audience and how engaged they are when they visit your site?
Find out how to create a calculate metric in Adobe Ad-Hoc Analysis (formerly Discover) that will provide you with some great insights, and it’s dead easy to use.

Easier implementations: contextData

Implementing SiteCatalyst can be a lengthy process at the best of times, and development teams are often pushed to the limits. Context data comes to the rescue! Find out how to include variables in your code that allow more sophisticated tracking and make for a smoother implementation process.

Validate your data and sleep easy at night

To an analyst, there’s not a lot worse than having your boss question the validity of your work. So how can you ensure that you remain as accurate as possible over the long haul, sleep well at night, and confidently respond to the accuracy question?

5 internal search tips that will improve your user experience.

People use search for different reasons and for many different motivations. Having a well structured set of search results, with good usability is going to improve the user experience. Here are 5 of our top tips to improve your internal search measurement and help you understand the results.

Simplify your dashboards and make them even more informative.

How often do you come across a dashboard that is a) a number of pages in length b) multiple reports per page c) doesn’t really tell the story you want it to tell or d) largely unread by your intended audience and/or e) all of the previous. Inspired by simplicity, see what we’ve done to streamline dashboards, data and insights.

Does your content rule?

Content is king – but there’s no point having it if you don’t know what it’s doing for you. With just two metrics, your content performance insights will pop out at you, telling you the places to refocus your efforts.

Calculated metrics in SiteCatalyst

Calculated metrics are just one of the many ways to get more out of your data. Not every report suite needs them – you need to be selective in your creation of them, and more importantly, you need to educate your users in their use and meaning.

Metrics, dimensions or reports – what do I need?

Understanding the differences between metrics, dimensions and reports is something that many are still struggling with. Here’s a quick guide to help you on your way to using each of them at the right time.

Firefox & Safari manual link tracking

Web browsers have been causing some issues for link tracking by ignoring scripts. We’ve found some alternative methods that can easily be included into your code.

Anomaly detection, real time reporting and much more.

It just got easier. Todays updated release of SiteCatalyst will help everyone from executives, analysts and content marketers to get better, faster, actionable insights from their data. Read about anomaly detection, real time reporting, video analytics, simplified menus for everyone and more.

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