Google Puts More "Analytics" In Google Analytics
I'll preface this post with something controversial. I'm not sure Google really wants to build attribution. Every now and then Google makes some sort of splash about measurement, particularly cross-channel measurement, and then the project gets quietly sunset.
Its program manager tool has some pretty milquetoast attribution reporting. It's cross channel in the sense that it reports on the relationship of search and display/video. But the methodology is pretty simple.
Google is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. They have the smartest data scientists in the world. If they wanted to truly own cross channel modeling and measurement, they absolutely could. They could buy Visual IQ. They could create their own competitor. Of course, assuming that doesn't add another anti-competitive argument to Congress' complaints.
This week Google announced an enhancement to its GA tools that will give marketers better consumer insights into a brand's web visitors. There is even a function to predict churn against various audience segments. Using machine learning, the enhancements are meant to further refine audience targets. Why waste impression money on an audience that is 50% likely to jump?
As TechCrunch wrote, "Of course, this being a Google product it's designed to play nicely with Google Ads, YouTube and other tools like Gmail and Google Search."
Our digital team is gonna love this. Our cross-channel media planners are like, "Oh boy. more metrics."
Which leads me to my point - Google does a really great job of enhancing metrics. Adding metrics, visualizing metrics, correlating metrics. It's almost like Google media buyers could get lost in the metrics. Which is exactly what happens - at which point you risk missing the forest for the trees. Of course that keeps you counting trees in Google's forest.
