Application of Data in Marketing Series: #2 Implementing a Measurement System

Analyzing data in a detailed and scientific manner helps optimize resources, increase ROI, and make accurate data-driven decisions. In this context, data measurement is the foundation of all in-depth analysis. This article will guide you through building an effective data measurement system to maximize the potential of your data.

Steps to Implement a Measurement System in Marketing Campaigns

Implementing a complete and effective measurement system in a marketing campaign requires a detailed and meticulous process. This system helps you better understand the effectiveness of your campaigns, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to optimize results. The process includes three main steps:

1. Set Objectives
2. Measure Data
3. Connect Data

Each step plays an important role in ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of the entire measurement system. Let’s dive into each step to understand how to implement them.

Set Objectives

The first and most important step in setting up a measurement system is to clearly define the data analysis objectives. These objectives usually stem from the business challenges of the company and specific marketing goals. First, you need to conduct an in-depth analysis of the company’s needs and objectives. Goals could include increasing sales, improving brand awareness, boosting customer engagement, or optimizing advertising costs. Each of these goals will require different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure effectiveness.

This step is extremely important because it acts as a compass for all subsequent activities of marketers. It is also a basic requirement in data analysis; the clearer and more detailed the objectives, the more specific and accurate the analysis will be. Not defining the objectives clearly will lead marketers astray, wasting time, effort, and resources without achieving the desired results, which is contrary to the optimization mindset.

The deeper the analysis objectives are defined, the more detailed and clear the measurement system will be. After setting the objectives, you need to translate them into a list of specific data points to be measured. This includes identifying the types of data to be collected, the collection methods, and the necessary tools. Properly defining objectives will help you focus on what really matters and avoid data gaps or errors when conducting analysis.

Measure Data

Once you have clearly defined the analysis objectives, the next step is to build the necessary data measurement framework. A standard data set should include the following elements:

• Type of Data: Identify the source of the data (e.g., advertising channels like Facebook, Google; sales channels like Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop Seller Center; messaging channels like Messenger, Zalo; website, apps, CRM). Additionally, categorize the data according to specific areas such as advertising data, business data, or customer data.
• Metric: Determine the Key Metrics needed for measurement, aligned with the analysis objectives on two main dimensions: Efficiency and Scale. Additionally, specify the sub-metrics to clarify the causes or issues leading to the results of the main metrics, providing marketers with deeper insights into influencing factors.
• Dimension: Identify the data slices that marketers need to analyze. These slices can be combined to create deeper perspectives, leading to the necessary insights for decision-making.

To monitor and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, you first need to detail the types of data to be collected. Then, set up appropriate platforms and measurement methods. For example, you can use Google Conversion Tag to track conversions from Google ads, Facebook Pixel to track interactions on Facebook, or other tools depending on the marketing channels you are using.

To accomplish this, you need expertise in data technology to ensure the accurate setup of connections, thereby collecting data consistently. Specifically, you will need to install tracking tags, tracking codes, and set up measurement parameters on advertising platforms and websites. Tags like Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, or custom tags must be accurately installed on the website to ensure every user action is recorded.

Furthermore, regular checking and adjusting are crucial to ensuring data accuracy. This includes verifying the functionality of tags and scripts, and updating or adjusting as needed to match changes in the campaign or advertising platform. Additionally, you need to accurately set up events to track key actions such as page visits, product views, add-to-cart actions, and completed transactions.

Connect Data

Due to the multi-channel nature of user purchase journeys, measured data is often raw and fragmented across different platforms. Therefore, the final step is to connect and unify data from different sources. This can be done by using consistent naming conventions or setting up API connections between platforms. This process not only helps you gain a more comprehensive view of the effectiveness of marketing campaigns but also supports more accurate data-driven decision-making.

When data is connected and unified, you can create detailed reports and in-depth analyses of user behavior, campaign effectiveness, and the ROI of each marketing channel. This helps you better understand what is working well, what needs improvement, and provides guidance for future optimization strategies.

To effectively connect data sets, the basic rule is to identify a common data field to synchronize data from different sources. This ensures that data from one source can be accurately transformed and integrated into another while maintaining its integrity and meaning. As measurement systems become increasingly complex and data volumes grow, the data mapping process becomes more challenging and requires powerful, automated tools.

The data connection process includes establishing consistent naming conventions for events and data attributes across all platforms. This ensures that data from different sources can be consistently combined. Additionally, setting up API connections between platforms is necessary to automate data transfer. Tools like Zapier, Integromat, or custom APIs can be used to connect data between platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, CRM, and other marketing tools, enabling seamless and efficient data synchronization.

Moreover, data storage and security must comply with privacy regulations, ensuring that customer data is not misused or leaked. You need to implement security measures such as data encryption, access control, and regular security audits to ensure that data is always protected.

Common Mistakes in Implementing a Measurement System

Not Defining Measurement Objectives Clearly and Sufficiently from the Start

One of the most common mistakes that many businesses make is not clearly and fully defining measurement objectives from the beginning. This can lead to significant risks and consequences, directly affecting the effectiveness of marketing and business strategies.

• Lack of Important Information: If measurement objectives are not clearly defined, businesses may miss out on important information about customer behavior, campaign effectiveness, and other performance metrics. For example, if an e-commerce company does not measure the user journey through stages such as product page views, adding to cart, beginning checkout, and successful payment, they will not be able to fully optimize the purchase journey.
• Wasting Resources: Investing time and resources in measuring irrelevant or unimportant metrics can lead to waste and reduce the overall effectiveness of the measurement system. Additionally, when a business has been operating for a long time, changing the structure and data tracking system can be costly and resource-intensive, even risking the loss of old data if not done correctly from the start.
• Consulting Experts: If you are unsure about defining measurement objectives, consult experts or a consulting team. They can help you set up an effective measurement system tailored to your industry and business needs. PMAX is confident as a leading agency in data measurement system consulting and implementation, helping optimize the application of data in marketing across various industries, from Branding, Lead Generation, Commerce, to Mobile Apps.

Choosing an Inappropriate Measurement Platform

Choosing the right measurement platform ensures that the measurement system operates efficiently and accurately. However, this is still a mistake that many businesses encounter. This mistake often leads to inaccurate or missing data, wasting resources on an inappropriate platform, and particularly causing difficulties in integrating and applying data for future marketing use cases.

To avoid choosing an inappropriate measurement platform, marketers need a basic understanding of the structure, measurement methods, advantages, and disadvantages of each platform, allowing them to make the best choice for their objectives and the data set to be measured. Here are some specific examples:

• Web Data Measurement: GA4 Standard and GA4 360 are both powerful tools but suitable for different business needs.
• Mobile App Data Measurement: For mobile applications, choosing between Firebase and Adjust can significantly impact your ability to analyze and optimize your app.
• Message Data Measurement: In measuring data from messaging channels, choosing the right platform is crucial to ensuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and data integration. Among the most optimal Messaging Data tools currently on the market are Pancake and Haravan social.

Choosing the right measurement platform is a crucial factor in helping businesses collect accurate data, thereby optimizing marketing strategies and achieving the best results. Ensure that you have thoroughly researched and considered the important factors before deciding on a measurement platform.

• Integration Capabilities: The measurement platform should integrate well with other systems the business is using, such as CRM, POS, and other marketing tools.
• Scalability: The platform should be scalable to meet the growing needs of the business as it expands in operation and scale.
• Features and Accuracy: Ensure the platform has the necessary features to accurately measure the important metrics for the business.
• Cost: Evaluate the cost of using the platform against the benefits it provides to ensure financial efficiency.
• Support and Documentation: The platform should offer good support and detailed documentation to help the business implement and use it effectively.

Not Regularly Checking the Measurement System

After setting up the measurement system, regular checking and optimization are necessary to ensure the system operates efficiently and accurately. However, businesses often overlook this important step, leading to many problems and unintended consequences.

For example, if an online store fails to check and discover that their Google Analytics tracking code stopped working after a website update, they could miss thousands of unrecorded transactions, leading to inaccurate revenue reports and misleading marketing strategies.

Moreover, not regularly optimizing the measurement system can result in missing out on new features or improvements from measurement tools. Measurement platforms often update and add new features to improve efficiency and analysis capabilities. If the business does not monitor and update the measurement system, they may miss these improvements, leading to poor measurement and analysis performance.

To avoid these consequences, businesses should use tools to regularly check and optimize the measurement system. Some useful tools include:

• Google Tag Assistant: This Chrome extension helps check the installation of Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and other tracking codes on the website. Google Tag Assistant helps quickly detect and fix errors, ensuring the tracking codes work correctly.
• Facebook Pixel Helper: This extension helps check and troubleshoot Facebook Pixel issues on the website, ensuring that events and data are correctly sent to Facebook Ads Manager.
• TikTok Pixel Helper: This tool is useful for checking and verifying TikTok Pixel on the website, ensuring that events and data from TikTok Pixel are accurately collected and sent to TikTok Ads Manager.

In addition to using these checking tools, businesses should also regularly check the measurement system on event management platforms like Facebook’s Event Manager, Google’s Data Manager, and TikTok. These tools provide detailed information about the events and data collected, helping to early detect errors or issues arising in the measurement system.

By regularly checking and optimizing the measurement system, businesses can ensure that tracking codes operate correctly, data is fully and accurately collected, thereby providing maximum support for business decisions and marketing strategies. Establishing a routine checking process and using support tools is the key to maintaining an effective measurement system and achieving optimal results.

Recent Updates in Data Measurement

Current trends show that new privacy regulations and the restriction of third-party cookies are changing the way user data is measured and used. Marketers need to master new tools and methods to maintain and enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in an increasingly complex environment.

Conversion API

What is Conversion API (CAPI)? Conversion API (CAPI), developed by Facebook, allows businesses to share event data directly from their servers to Facebook Ads. This is a data measurement method that replaces traditional web tracking codes (Facebook Pixel), improving the accuracy and reliability of data, especially in the context of data privacy regulations and third-party cookie limitations.

• Higher Accuracy: Send data directly from the business server to the Facebook server, minimizing data loss due to browser cookie blocking.
• Better Data Security: Data is sent directly between servers, reducing the risk of interference or theft.
• Optimized Advertising: CAPI provides more accurate and complete data, helping optimize advertising campaigns more effectively.
• Compliance with Privacy Regulations: Meets strict requirements of GDPR and CCPA, providing a safer data collection and transmission method.

Why Do You Need This Solution? With privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, and browsers like Safari, Firefox, and soon Google Chrome announcing they will completely remove third-party cookies starting from Q1 2024, the traditional Facebook Pixel will no longer be effective in collecting user data. Therefore, CAPI was created as an alternative to Pixel that every Facebook advertiser needs to master.

Switch to CAPI Now! At this point, businesses advertising on Facebook, especially e-commerce sellers, need to start planning to implement Conversion API for their websites. At PMAX, most e-commerce projects have implemented CAPI to test its effectiveness and supplement data for Pixel. Additionally, PMAX has collaborated with Meta to implement the Conversion API Gateway system, allowing many advertisers within the PMAX network to easily use CAPI configuration without incurring server-building costs and manual programming. This is an advanced CAPI connection solution that PMAX proudly pioneered in Vietnam with Meta’s trial implementation.

Enhanced Conversion Tracking

What is Enhanced Conversion Tracking? Enhanced Conversion Tracking is a measurement solution that helps improve tracking accuracy and optimize advertising by using encrypted user data. Along with CAPI, this is also a solution to address a future without third-party cookies. Instead of relying on traditional web tracking tags, Enhanced Conversion allows businesses to collect user data (such as email, and phone numbers when registering for consultation, purchases, etc.) encrypted from their servers to advertising platforms like Google Ads for more accurate conversion measurement.

Enhanced Conversion Tracking has been particularly developed by Google recently in combination with Smart Bidding. This solution not only improves the accuracy of reporting and optimizes advertising for online events but also connects offline conversion data, which is especially effective for campaigns measuring and optimizing user behavior from online to offline (O2O).

Case Study One of the successful case studies of PMAX when implementing Google Enhanced Conversion for Saigon Eye Hospital, aiming to optimize Google SEM & Performance Max advertising for offline conversion events:

• Context: Saigon Eye Hospital is the largest private ophthalmology hospital system in Vietnam with many branches nationwide. Before collaborating with PMAX, the hospital faced issues with a low qualified lead rate, high costs, and difficulty scaling the advertising.
• Solution: PMAX applied Google Enhanced Conversion with the objective of:
• Result: The qualified lead rate increased by 200%, the campaign was optimized for lead quality, helping Saigon Eye Hospital better understand the customer journey to spend more effectively, attract quality potential customers, and increase the conversion rate for the business objectives.

Predictive Tracking Model (GA4)

After officially transitioning from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) at the end of 2023, Google has upgraded numerous features to optimize measurement and data analysis in the modern context, such as event-based tracking, multi-source tracking, data privacy controls, etc. Among these, the most prominent is the Predictive Tracking Model – an advanced measurement feature combined with Machine Learning to predict user behavior.

What is GA4’s Predictive Tracking Model? The Predictive Tracking Model in GA4 uses Machine Learning to predict future customer behaviors based on current and past data. GA4 develops predictive models to overcome data loss or incomplete data due to lack of tracking information, in the context where collecting user data is becoming increasingly difficult, affecting the ability to analyze and optimize campaigns.

GA4’s predictive models currently can predict metrics such as purchase probability, churn probability, and customer lifetime value (LTV). This way, GA4 provides more detailed insights into customer behavior, helping businesses make appropriate marketing analysis and strategic decisions.

Another application of the Predictive Tracking Model is providing targeting and optimization signals for the Google Ads system. Here is a case study that PMAX implemented for Hoang Phuc International when applying the Predictive Tracking Model to optimize Performance Max advertising:

• Context: Hoang Phuc International (HPI) is a leading international brand retail chain in Vietnam. In 2023, HPI partnered with PMAX to implement marketing campaigns aiming to increase revenue on their e-commerce website.
• Solution: PMAX implemented GA4 for HPI, along with applying GA4’s Predictive Modelling to analyze and forecast sales, as well as creating a Predictive Audience – Likely to purchase in 30 days from predicted data to target Shopping & Performance Max campaigns.
• Result: Campaigns using Data Signal from Predictive Audience significantly improved the Conversion Rate, thereby helping to noticeably improve ROAS by over 400% compared to regular campaigns.

Messaging Data API

What is Messaging Data API? In recent years, the use of Social Messaging to sell and provide services has grown strongly in Vietnam. Messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Zalo are becoming the main communication channels, helping businesses reach customers directly and personally, optimizing shopping and service experiences. The growth of Social Messaging solutions has created a need to collect and analyze Messaging Data to optimize business strategies.

Choosing the Optimal Platform for Messaging Data Messaging Data API is a mandatory measurement and data connection solution for businesses deploying sales and services through Social Messaging. Therefore, choosing the implementation platform plays a decisive role and needs to be carefully researched. Optimal Messaging Data platforms should meet criteria such as:

• Easy multi-source data connection: Includes CRM/POS/Messaging applications like Facebook, Zalo, TikTok (especially with full technical support and documentation).
• Scalability and flexible customization: According to the purchase journey, customer care process for each business, each industry.
• Automation capability combined with Chatbot: This is an important feature to help businesses save time and optimize processes.
• Data connection capability with advertising campaigns: To report and optimize conversion events.

From experience in deploying Social Messaging solutions for many projects from e-commerce to Leadgen in various industries such as Health & Beauty, Home Appliance, Education, Fashion, etc. at PMAX, one of the most powerful Messaging Data platforms today is Pancake. Pancake not only meets all the above criteria at a high-quality level but also is an official partner of Meta and TikTok, exclusively deploying the latest messaging solutions such as TikTok Message Ads (Click to X TikTok).

Pancake is also a strategic partner of PMAX with many successful Social Messaging solution implementations for customers. One of them is Le Van Anh, a cosmetics brand with the main sales channel through Facebook Messenger and Livestream. With the goal of expanding revenue and optimizing ROAS, PMAX advised and helped the business implement Message and Sales data connection from POS through Messaging Data API using Pancake, thereby creating a complete data set (full funnel):

• Both to analyze and optimize marketing activities: Throughout the user journey from messaging – consulting – purchasing – becoming a loyal customer.
• And providing data signals for Facebook Ads system: With the choice to optimize bidding for final metrics (Revenue, ROAS) instead of intermediary metrics (Message, Cost per message).

Conclusion

In the modern marketing world, mastering and applying new data measurement solutions is indispensable. The above solutions may require high technical skills and a deep understanding of programming, which may make many marketers feel confused. However, it is important for marketers to clearly understand the concept, essence, and use cases of these solutions. This helps them lead the technical team to execute the correct requirements, ensuring that the solutions are implemented effectively and optimized. Understanding and applying new technologies will be the key to helping marketers maintain and enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in an ever-changing digital environment.