Marketers Using Brand Lift as Primary KPI More Affected by Device ID Loss
Discover how the loss of device IDs is affecting the measurement KPIs from this latest study.
The loss of third-party identifiers and changing privacy landscape are affecting marketers and advertisers worldwide. But how is the loss of device IDs, a crucial targeting method, affecting measurement KPIs? To understand this, Emodo recently conducted a study. Check out the findings here.
The evolving customer privacy landscape is significantly affecting marketers and advertisers. Privacy regulations are getting tighter by the day. Additionally, in response to privacy concerns among users, companies like Apple and Mozilla have already removed their support for third-party cookies, with Google expected to do so in 2024. All these are affecting how advertisers track and target their audiences. For example, they are forced to rely less on third-party identifiers and focus on other ways to gather audience information and target them effectively.
But how is the loss of device IDs, an important targeting method, affecting measurement KPIs? Emodo recently conducted a study to find the answer. Here are a few insights from the study.
Device ID Loss Is Leading to Reduced Campaign Effectiveness
It may be a common assumption that the key performance indicators (KPIs) taking the biggest hit are offline and online conversions, in-store, and brand lift, as they require double opt-in. At the same time, since attention, viewability, and engagement do not require this type of data-matching, it is easier to assume that they are not affected much by the loss of device IDs.
However, when we dig deeper, we can see that device ID loss may affect campaign KPIs in ways that may not be easy to detect. The study showed that marketers, whose primary metrics are brand safety, brand lift, and online conversion, are most likely to feel the effect of device ID changes in the form of reduced campaign effectiveness. About 75% of marketers who measure performance with contextual adjacency, such as brand safety, experienced a drop in campaign effectiveness.
However, campaigns relying on upper-funnel metrics like Reach are less affected. Only 32% of those who measured performance using Reach experienced a drop in campaign effectiveness.
Reach May Not Be as Protected as It Looks
While fewer marketers experience the effect of device ID loss on Reach, digging deeper shows that ID loss can make Reach look larger than it may be. This is done by misrepresenting a few impressions as incremental Reach.
Without device ID data, impressions from the same device cannot be mapped back to each other. This results in duplication of impressions that can be misunderstood as incremental Reach, thus creating a false sense of scale. In fact, marketers measuring Reach are more than 2x more likely to think they are not experiencing decreased effectiveness owing to device ID loss.
Significantly more marketers in telecom, CPG, B2B brands, and consumer electronics use Reach as a key KPI than other sectors.
See more: A World Without Device IDs: Are Marketers Open To AI Solutions for Targeting?
Marketers Measuring Engagement May Be Slightly Shielded
According to the study, marketers who measure campaign attention or engagement may be somewhat shielded from ID loss’s impact since both do not need an ID to measure. Marketers were 64% more likely to think they did not experience mitigated effectiveness because of ID loss when their KPI was engagement. Similarly, marketers are more than 2x more likely to think they do not experience decreased effectiveness because of ID loss when their key KPI is attention.
The top categories of advertisers using engagement as the core KPI are CPG, healthcare/pharma, B2B, financial services, and telecommunications. When it comes to attention, the top categories of advertisers using it as the key KPI are telecommunications, entertainment, government educational institutions, quick service restaurants (QSR)/restaurants, and automotive.
KPIs With Accompanying Metrics Feel the Impact of ID Loss
Viewability is a KPI that does not require device ID to measure. However, marketers focusing on this metric have at least another companion metric, such as Reach or attention. And this is true for many metrics. For example, marketers focusing on brand safety are very likely to feel the effects of ID changes in terms of campaign effectiveness, despite brand safety not requiring double opt-in. This may be due to other companion metrics.
Marketers are 5x more likely to think they do not experience mitigated effectiveness owing to device ID loss when the key metric is viewability. On the other hand, marketers are 7x more likely to report they experience reduced effectiveness because of ID loss when brand safety is the key metric.
Marketers Embracing Brand Lift as KPI Are Affected by ID Loss
The study found that marketers focusing on brand lift will likely be affected by the loss of device IDs. This is because brand lift-related surveys can be accomplished only with double opt-in at the time of ad exposure, as well as at the time of survey completion. Marketers are 4x more likely to report they experience decreased effectiveness owing to ID loss when brand lift is their core KPI.
Retailers are specifically affected, as they far over-index in using brand lift as a key KPI. QSR/restaurant, financial services, and consumer electronics are frequent users of this metric.
Marketers using online conversions as primary KPI are also affected by ID loss. Financial services, retail, automotive, consumer electronics, and entertainment sectors are at risk as they are more likely to use metrics like sign-ups and sales.
Key Takeaways
As seen from another study by Emodo, the loss of device IDs is already affecting marketers. Those who are measuring offline and online conversions, in-store traffic, and brand lift are specifically feeling the impact more. Simultaneously, other KPIs, too, may be impacted, just in less obvious ways. As such, advertisers should look deeper into their campaigns to ensure ID loss is not affecting them more than they perceive.
As device IDs continue to disappear, measurements based on them will further become less accurate and hence, less actionable. As such, advertisers should reconsider how they assess their campaigns’ success.
Marketers can consider flattening the marketing funnel. Emerging formats like adaptive native ads and augmented reality (AR) work at various stages of the funnel. They grab attention, engage, and convert, enabling a broader set of KPIs. Marketers can also leverage attention and engagement as key KPIs. Finally, they can use ID-independent audience models, such as AI-based predictive and contextual audiences.
These steps can help marketers recover lost scale due to device ID loss and use proxy metrics that avoid KPI ambiguity.
What KPIs are you using to measure your campaign’s effectiveness? How has the loss of device ID affected them? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Image source: Shutterstock
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