It’s a pivotal moment in digital advertising as consumer preferences increasingly lean toward privacy. While Google’s decision to maintain third-party cookies in Chrome remains for now, reliance on traditional tracking methods is shifting. Marketers are preparing for a future where consumer privacy takes center stage, and the effectiveness of their campaigns is evaluated in new ways.
James Gerber, VP of Product at Measured shared:
“The Google Chrome cookie decision doesn’t change much for marketers looking to measure the effectiveness of their media. Due to the increasing number of untrackable user journeys, brands must adopt broadly applicable, innovative measurement solutions to make business decisions with confidence.”
Incrementality testing and attribution, a stronger combination
As more consumers opt out of tracking, incrementality testing becomes even more critical. Think of incrementality testing like a controlled experiment. Imagine you have two plants, one you water and one you don’t. This helps you understand whether the water is truly causing the plant to grow or if it’s growing for other reasons. Similarly, incrementality testing isolates the true impact of your marketing efforts by comparing exposed groups to unexposed ones.
While incrementality offers long-term insights, attribution acts like a daily gardening log. It’s the quick record of conditions—sunlight, soil, and weather—helping to guide real-time adjustments to keep your growth on track. Attribution, whether click based or view based, guides you in making quick decisions to optimize your campaign performance
Mallory Stallings, Measurement Team Lead for Americas at Criteo shared:
“Incrementality testing allows us to cut through the noise and see the true value of each marketing dollar spent. By combining Criteo’s real-time attribution modelling with incrementality testing, we provide brands the insights they need to optimize both short term results and long-term growth.”
This hybrid approach empowers businesses to stay agile with both immediate feedback alongside a deeper understanding of long-term performance drivers.
Geo-split methodology for incrementality measurement
Geo matched-market tests have become a critical analytics tool in the modern marketer’s toolkit when it comes to understanding incrementality. At a high level, geo-testing involves applying a marketing “treatment” (e.g., the removal or addition of advertising) to a geographic “test” market and then measuring how this treatment affects sales in this market. Geo tests are one of the only ways to measure the true, incremental business impact of advertising.
By testing a small market that behaves similarly to the national market, marketers can prove the value of their media and make investment decisions on a larger scale with increased confidence. Additionally, because they do not rely on user tracking, cookies, or pixels, geo tests have become even more critical in the modern, privacy-regulated era.
This method of measuring incremental lift requires careful planning and execution to deliver a statistically sound test result that provides conclusive, actionable insights. When looking for a top-tier measurement partner, brands should look for automation capabilities that streamline the test design and deployment process, reducing time to results and operational overhead. By partnering with leading measurement experts like Measured, Criteo ensures access to impartial insights and unbiased results.
For more on how to improve your geo-testing approach, read Measured’s guide, Design, Deploy, Decision: The 3 Essential Steps to Geo-Testing Like a Pro.
Empowering a privacy-first future
In today’s privacy-first world, marketers face the challenge of navigating increasingly restricted third-party cookies. As these traditional signals become more limited, first-party data is emerging as an essential tool for understanding customer behavior. However, while first-party data provides valuable insights, it can lack the reach and scale third-party data once offered.
Criteo addresses this by enriching first-party data with advanced cross-device matching, comprehensive tracking, and powerful measurement capabilities. Marketers can use these tools to see the full impact of their campaigns, from driving new site traffic to converting first-time buyers.
For example, a marketer running a consideration campaign can use Criteo’s full funnel reporting to see how investing in upper-funnel strategies, like driving new site traffic, impacts lower-funnel outcomes, such as converting first-time buyers. Additionally, brand lift insights measure the impact on overall brand perception, offering a more complete picture beyond sales metrics.
By using first-party data, advanced measurement solutions, and incrementality testing, brands can confidently make decisions that drive both immediate performance and sustainable long-term growth. Criteo’s privacy-first measurement solutions ensure campaigns remain optimized as traditional tracking signals fade.
The future of measurement
Measured recognizes the growing importance of incrementality testing in a privacy-conscious world. They recommend that marketers adopt a multi-faceted measurement approach, combining incrementality testing with media mix modeling and platform-reported attribution for a comprehensive view of marketing performance. This combination ensures marketers have confidence in their investment decisions and alignment across internal teams.
Get started today
With Criteo’s advanced measurement solutions and trusted third-party partners like Measured, we ensure your campaigns deliver the results you need to succeed in a privacy-first world.
At Criteo, we’re happy to team up with your preferred partner of choice. Our Measurement Analytics team can guide you through setting up the most effective tests at no additional cost. From formulating hypotheses to experiment design and results interpretation, we’ll ensure your campaigns deliver optimal results. To get started, talk to an expert.
