Marketing campaigns increasingly demand integration of systems and data, which can be quite challenging to make them communicate seamlessly. However, it's essential to consolidate all available data into a clear and straightforward overview. As a marketer, you want to maintain control over all your actions and budgets. Below, we've gathered some commonly heard comments from our practical experience. Perhaps you recognize them?
“We are satisfied with GA4”
Google Analytics 4 represents a necessary move by Google towards increased server-side tracking. However, GA4 does have several significant shortcomings that need to be mentioned. (1) In many cases, GA4 requires full cookie consent and provides limited solutions against ad blockers (used by 40% of all users). (2) It is not fully GDPR compliant for European markets.
GA4 lacks a mechanism to guarantee data storage within the EU or even select a designated regional storage location. Additionally, Google does not inform users about data storage locations or data transfers outside the EU, which directly violates GDPR regulations.
Another drawback (3) of Google Analytics GA4 is that it can take up to 24 to 48 hours before the data is fully available in your reports, limiting the ability to make quick adjustments.
“Campagne dashboard and CRM are not intergrated”
Enriching campaign results with audience segmentations in your CRM is essential for gaining deeper insights. However, integrating campaign data into the CRM proves to be quite challenging in practice. This is because many marketing tools use different types of KPIs or have various definitions, making data synchronization difficult. In such situations, you may long for simplicity and a clear overview.
“We prefer doing the reporting manually”
Creating reports manually is entirely feasible. However, it can be very time-consuming. The human element makes it prone to errors and slow. In this case, you're always playing catch-up. Ideally, you want to open your dashboard and see real-time data immediately to act promptly and make necessary adjustments.
“We have to request campaign results from IT first”
For many marketers, implementing code or trackers feels like magic. It means finding a technical person within the organization to place, modify, or request data. It's inconvenient. You want to do this yourself, now, not in three weeks. Running a campaign means being agile. The speed of your time-to-market strategy shouldn't depend on a ticket, IT availability, or an IT release calendar, we believe. :-)
