In the new era of marketing, B2B companies that put the privacy of their customers first will be the ones that last. Do you have a plan to adapt?
Privacy regulations and changes are only increasing, and it's imperative for marketers to take action.
This urgent need is becoming clearer as a transformed digital landscape takes shape. Gartner estimates that by the end of 2024, 75% of the global population will have their personal data covered by privacy regulations.
Buyers continue to express a strong desire for personalized experiences from brands. According to Salesforce's State of Marketing report, 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. Regulations are expanding and third-party identifiers are still diminishing, despite Google's announcement to no longer deprecate cookies on Chrome.
How can B2B marketers confidently deliver these tailored experiences while also confidently staying in line with regulations and preferences around privacy? Fortunately, it’s very possible thanks to emerging technologies and techniques. LinkedIn is committed to helping you evolve to meet these challenges.
Our recently updated playbook, Maximizing performance in the privacy-first era outlines five key steps that B2B organizations can take right now to maximize performance in the privacy-first era. Here’s an overview to get you started.
#1: Own your data game by establishing a robust first-party data strategy
A study by LinkedIn and Boston Consulting Group found that more than 90% of marketers believe greater use of first-party data will play either a critical or important role in response to privacy changes. Solidifying a first-party data strategy is an essential step toward sustainable success in this new environment.
First-party data refers to information sourced directly from your audience based on their interactions with your owned media or their direct engagement with your company. Setting up a strong framework for collecting and using first-party data involves optimizing your martech stack and finding the right partners.
Own your data game today with Audience Targeting on LinkedIn. You can leverage insights tools such as Audience Insights and shape your target audiences through Matched Audiences. At launch, start broad and consider a plan to A/B test the same ad creative with different audiences to ensure your message is resonating.
Key Focus: As you invest in your first-party data, build audience trust with clear and transparent messaging around the data value exchange (how do users benefit by sharing their info?), as well as providing straightforward opt-in and opt-out opportunities.
#2: Boost with AI by embracing machine learning and modeling
These powerful technologies can add a crucial assist to your privacy-first marketing strategy. Artificial intelligence and machine learning thrive when fueled by reliable first-party data, helping marketers use that data efficiently and effectively. Capabilities made possible by AI and ML include:
- Enhanced targeting and personalization
- Predictive analytics
- Real-time campaign optimization
- Ad personalization based on behavior and preferences for different segments
Key Focus: Ensure that expert human oversight drives your AI personalization strategy.
With privacy changes taking effect, now is the time to test new technologies that can help you target at scale and drive ROI. Our predictive AI uses behavioral and conversion propensity signals to model a custom segment of high-intent buyers. Using Predictive Audiences leverages LinkedIn’s AI and your data to create tailored, high-intent audience segments.
#3: Measure like a pro through a rock-solid measurement foundation
LinkedIn’s B2B Marketing Benchmark found that 76% of CMOs are feeling pressure to deliver results. More than ever, measurement and reporting are top priorities for marketing leadership. That can feel daunting as restrictions from browsers and mobile OS platforms loom in response to third-party cookie deprecation, but leading marketers are developing resilient ways to keep a clear line of sight on impact and ROI.
Key Focus: Reconsider approaches like last-click attribution (which can overstate the role of activities such as search and display by as much as 10x). Collaborate with Sales and Finance to elevate more meaningful metrics and indicators, while experimenting with cookie-agnostic solutions such as data clean rooms.
Leverage the power of your CRM data to prove marketing impact to sales and marketing leadership. Revenue Attribution Report enables marketers to prove marketing impact to sales and leadership and connect LinkedIn marketing initiatives to sales success.
Leverage the power of first-party Conversion Tracking that is powered by the LinkedIn Insight Tag. Conversion Tracking gathers insights into post-click and view-through conversion of your LinkedIn ads campaigns, giving you the ability to measure the impact and ROI of your ads.
Additionally, Conversions API can help with signal loss related to industry changes. Conversions API allows you to send online and offline conversion events directly to LinkedIn, allowing you to improve funnel measurement, unlock stronger optimization and strengthen performance and privacy.
#4: Test, learn and win to discover what works best for your brand
A culture of testing and experimentation helps B2B companies stay agile in a fluid marketplace. You shouldn’t assume what worked yesterday will work tomorrow: test, learn and win to optimize campaigns, reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage.
Key Focus: View “performance” holistically and run tests to learn how campaigns are affecting upper-funnel metrics relating to brand health.
Take action and measure the effectiveness of your band campaign on LinkedIn through native or partner-supported brand lift testing. Brand lift testing helps you set a baseline, test and learn, and optimize.
A/B tests compare the performance of two versions of a campaign and identify which tactic or messaging is driving better results. It can improve performance and ROI and provide insights.
#5: Level up by working with a LinkedIn marketing partner
As our playbook illustrates in detail, LinkedIn has partnered with leading solutions and service providers to offer specialized capabilities in each of these important areas. Within the guide you will find practical solutions, pointers and case studies to activate predictive audiences, revenue attribution, data collaboration and more on LinkedIn.
Key Focus: Taking steps now to invest in data and solutions that are more resilient to privacy changes will help ensure you are maximizing performance across the marketing funnel.
Download our playbook, Maximizing performance in the privacy-first era for details and tactics that can help you navigate new ground with confidence. These best practices ensure a dynamic and successful approach to marketing, where data-driven campaigns respect user privacy, deliver results and build customer trust.
Topics: Targeting and audience building
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