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Data-Driven Advertising Field Guide

A field guide for navigating the future

TIME TO READ: 5.5 MINUTES

Bret Taylor
President, Chief Operating Officer, Salesforce

Introduction

The world is changing faster than ever, and so is the world of advertising. Customer attitudes and expectations are evolving as rapidly as the digital channels and platforms we use to reach consumers, and new privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA have only added to the uncertainty faced by the global ad business. In response to these changes, marketers’ top three priorities are now innovating, engaging customers in real time, and complying with privacy regulations.

But no matter what changes about advertising, there’s one thing that can’t change — and that’s the fact that successful advertising is (and has been for the last century) about testing and measuring data so you can understand your customers and have the most relevant conversations possible. With today’s data and technology, marketers have the opportunity to understand their customers better than ever.

This field guide is your introduction to the data-driven future of advertising, from customer-centric strategy development to cross-channel campaign launch and data analysis.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: How to understand your customers through data

Chapter 2: How to create a customer-centric advertising strategy

Chapter 3: How to launch and measure cross-channel campaigns

Conclusion

Astro hands a magnifying glass to a mask-wearing marketer

Chapter 1 How to understand your customers through data

Most businesses collect customer data in some way, but not all businesses proactively use data to understand their customers and make them feel known and seen in helpful ways. When your customer data is connected together through the right technology, it can be a treasure trove of insights that can help you build better journeys for your customers. That might be why 78% of marketers describe their customer engagement as data-driven.

Data privacy laws are evolving worldwide, and what was appropriate a few years ago may now give rise to complaints or even legal action. Respecting privacy and providing transparency are key to building trusting, empathetic customer relationships through data your audience wants you to have. That’s why the world’s most popular internet browsers are phasing out support for third-party data collection, and leading marketers are now shifting their focus to first-party data — which customers give companies permission to collect.

Woman sits at her desk while browsing her phone

Fifty-eight percent of customers are willing to share their information if they’re comfortable with the value they receive in exchange, so many marketers are taking steps to meet and even exceed today’s privacy regulations. To do this yourself, you can communicate with customers to ensure consent and use data privacy tools that add consent forms and steps to your customer journeys. Just remember that the privacy landscape is changing fast, so it’s best to use tools that can help you adapt quickly.

Step away from silos and connect customer data.

The data-driven future of advertising is only possible through data unification. Today’s leading marketers are using marketing automation to unify anonymous channel data through data management platforms (DMPs) — which they then combine with customer profiles stored in customer data platforms (CDPs) to create a single view of all known customer activity across every channel. In a nutshell, that’s the key to data-driven advertising.

To start unifying data sources, it’s important for marketers to work with other departments such as sales and customer service to evaluate all relevant data across the company. You may even need to reach out to outside agencies and partners to get a handle on all your past customer interactions.

Once you know where your data is, it’s just a matter of accurately organising and uploading it to your DMP and CDP. With dedicated oversight and a little help from marketing automation, you’ll be ready to use unified data to build connected customer experiences before you know it.

Build a data strategy.

Successfully connecting your customer data starts with a clear strategy. This means you need to start with a plan and decide what kind of data you need, how you want to segment your audiences, and how you want to use data to personalise your customer engagement.

When your strategy includes detailed planning on these points, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to proceed once you start gathering customer data in a unified platform.

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Chapter 2 How to create a customer-centric advertising strategy

Unify your customers’ identities across your technology.

As a result of nearly endless choices in the marketplace today, customers are more demanding than ever. In fact, 72% of today’s customers expect companies to understand their needs. That’s why it’s crucial to put customer needs at the center of your business goals. With enough unified data, the right research and listening tools, and a customer-first mindset, you can create advertising journeys that relate to each customer’s interests and build trusting relationships over time.

When each customer has a unified identity across all of your marketing technology, you’ll have the information you need to build marketing strategies based on their preferences on every channel. Plus, by delivering relevant content on the right channels at the right time, you can gather interaction data to inform your marketing going forward — it’s a gift that keeps on giving for marketers and customers alike.

Think through the best experience for each customer and create a personalized journey.

Treating each customer as an individual is essential, and it’s important to be able to deliver different offers and messaging to unique audiences based on their needs. Through a customer data platform (CDP), marketers can use data to identify key traits about existing customers and use that information to generate lookalike audiences as target markets for tailored advertising.

Targeting customers on a 1-to-1 basis is a foundational part of delivering the best experiences to each customer. With a full understanding of each customer’s interests and past interactions, you can improve experiences by personalizing all of your future interactions specifically to what customers want.

Astro delivers a package to a customer at their home, while a marketer gets notified of the delivery on a mobile device

Today’s leading marketers are delivering powerful 1-to-1 contextual engagement, including campaigns personalized to topics customers care about most and suppression of ads that don't apply to certain customers — all based on a unified view of each customer’s history with the brand.

Consider your next steps.

Remember, personalized advertising and customer engagement isn’t just about single moments of connection. It’s really about creating a multistage experience that shifts, moves, and evolves based on who the customer is, the content they interact with, and what they’re interested in.

To truly drive growth with data-driven advertising, you need to have a clear plan for what your next steps are after the first customer interaction. Consider how that first engagement can be a jumping-off point for future interactions and an overall journey personalized to each customer.

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Chapter 3 How to launch and measure cross-channel campaigns

Optimize every campaign with data-driven insights.

The future of advertising is all about meeting the right customer with the right content at the right time on their preferred channels. Data is the key to connecting with customers this way.

The sophisticated and successful campaigns of the future will continuously use data to integrate relevant content throughout customers’ ongoing journeys with the brand — with artificial intelligence and automation optimizing content for different audiences in real time, based on customers’ actions, to ensure the best outcome.

Today, campaign planning always calls for alignment with business outcomes and KPIs, supported by data. When building a data-driven campaign, you can begin by analyzing the journeys your customers are currently on, and measuring the success of different content and channels throughout those journeys.

One customer might prefer to learn about a new subscription through social media before eventually signing up online, while another might prefer to learn about new products through email before eventually buying in-store. Advertisers are reaching customers through a multitude of channels and formats. With cross-channel measurement, advertisers can better understand customer preferences and ensure that every message is relevant, authentic, and personalized.

Get efficient marketing insights with automated measurement.

As marketing budgets continue to shrink, proving clear value and ROI is more important than ever. With unified marketing data and automation, today’s leading marketers are delivering deep and insightful measurement reports about their advertising campaigns and customer journeys.

While it’s still essential to generate leads, it’s becoming increasingly important to track customer-centric metrics — such as customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value — as well as growth-related metrics — such as return on marketing investment, funnel conversion rate, and sales/revenue — as marketing teams seek insights that can inform improved customer journeys and bottom-line business impact.

To prepare your measurement and reporting process for the data-driven future of advertising, you can connect and harmonize all of your marketing and customer data sources through a unified marketing data model that adapts to any new campaign or channel. A key best practice is to create a standard marketing data taxonomy that you can scale across different business units, regions, and teams. This helps keep the reporting conversation consistent, no matter where it takes place.

Einstein points up to a glowing light bulb

Artificial intelligence and automation can also be used to streamline measurement and gain real-time insights. By evaluating your business goals and your customers’ needs, you can align marketing to business outcomes. By using data as a starting point, you can help create a culture of continuous marketing optimization that benefits both your customers and your quarterly reports.

Always find ways to improve.

Fundamentally, data is information — and information is insight. Be sure to consistently use your marketing data to see how your advertising is working, and keep track of which parts of your campaign are working well and which parts may not be as successful.

With an eye on continuous improvement, you can find ways to create truly compelling and personalized customer campaigns that evolve over time, powered by real-time updates based on your data.

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Conclusion

The future of advertising is coming at us fast, but with the right data and the right tools, every marketer has the opportunity to make things a bit easier. By informing your marketing with real-time insights from your customers’ preferred channels, you can create compelling journeys that connect with your customers and help your brand stand out.

The story of data-driven advertising is still being written, and we want to hear about your story, too. If you have any suggestions about ideas to add to this field guide, please reach out to Salesforce on LinkedIn or Twitter — and tag your message with the hashtag #SalesforceAd.