Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
Understanding consent
You should be aware that there are several data protection considerations associated with digital marketing analytics tools.
As a result of regulations such as GDPR in the EU, tracking personally identifiable information (PII) now requires explicit consent from the consumer. For example, you need to get consent if you are collecting cookie data from website visitors for analysis or in order to personalize advertising experiences. Many analytics programs anonymize user names, IP addresses, and other PII, but you still need consent to share website visitor data anonymously with third parties, such as Google Analytics, or with ad platforms.
It’s also important to check for local cookie policies in the regions where you are advertising . You also need to verify how your Google Tools manage consent using the various "Consent Modes" associated with Google products.
In relation to GDPR, personally identifiable information must be managed correctly, and within the terms of the consent provided by your website visitors. Collecting PII as part of your analytics program, and then mismanaging the information, can risk a data breach for improper use of PII.
To ensure this doesn’t happen, your company should have a clear policy or guidelines in place detailing how the analytics data you collect is used and managed. This should include explicit opt-in visitor consent to track user visits, collect anonymous cookie data, and share anonymously with third parties such as Google and Facebook for personalization of ads.
Most countries now require that you allow visitors to easily opt out of cookies tracking on your website. As GA4 has been built for a data-secure world, it will use machine learning modelling to plug gaps in your data collection when users opt out of analytics tracking. All of this happens in the tool itself. In other words, you don’t need to do anything to access modelled data, because GA4 will do it automatically for you. This allows you to respect people’s data protection choices while still providing you with relevant data to report and make decisions from GA4’s modelled metrics.
Back to TopCathal Melinn
Cathal Melinn is a well-known Digital Marketing Director, commercial analyst, and eommerce specialist with over 15 years’ experience.
Cathal is a respected international conference speaker, course lecturer, and digital trainer. He specializes in driving complete understanding from students across a number of digital marketing disciplines including: paid and organic search (PPC and SEO), analytics, strategy and planning, social media, reporting, and optimization. Cathal works with digital professionals in over 80 countries and teaches at all levels of experience from beginner to advanced.
Alongside his training and course work, Cathal runs his own digital marketing agency and is considered an analytics and revenue-generating guru - at enterprise level. He has extensive local and international experience working with top B2B and B2C brands across multiple industries.
Over his career, Cathal has worked client-side too, with digital marketing agencies and media owners, for brands including HSBC, Amazon, Apple, Red Bull, Dell, Vodafone, Compare the Market, Aer Lingus, and Expedia.
He can be reached on LinkedIn here.
Clark Boyd
Clark Boyd is CEO and founder of marketing simulations company Novela. He is also a digital strategy consultant, author, and trainer. Over the last 12 years, he has devised and implemented international marketing strategies for brands including American Express, Adidas, and General Motors.
Today, Clark works with business schools at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Columbia University to design and deliver their executive-education courses on data analytics and digital marketing.
Clark is a certified Google trainer and runs Google workshops across Europe and the Middle East. This year, he has delivered keynote speeches at leadership events in Latin America, Europe, and the US. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slideshare. He writes regularly on Medium and you can subscribe to his email newsletter, hi, tech.
