An overview of data collection & user privacy in the current digital marketing landscape. Includes data collection points that are used by the paid search platforms Google Ads, Bing Ads & Facebook Ads. The power of personalisation in advertising is highlighted and whether these are received positively by consumers or are seen as intrusive.

1. Digital Advertising, Data Collection
& User Privacy
By Westley Cogan

2. Knowledge Share - Overview
➔ Data Collection - What, When & How?
● Google Ads
● Bing Ads
● Facebook Ads
● Google Analytics
● Other Platforms
➔ Personalisation - Tailored or Creepy?
● The Power of Personalisation
● Personalisation Done Right
● Personalisation Done Wrong
➔ How Can We Use Data?
➔ Ethics & Regulations

3. Data Collection - What, When & How?
● All Personal Information
entered in the Google
Account can be used in all
Google products, on partner
websites and In-Mobile
apps.
● Your searches
● Your location
● IP Address
● log-in habits (where you log in:
city, state, home, office, etc)
● Websites you visit
● Ads that you view or click
● Unique identifiers contained
in cookies
● Apps, browsers and devices
that you use to access
Google services
When is this data is
collected?
● When you sign up for a Google
account, you provide them with
personal information. If you are
signed in, they collect
information that you create
when using their services
● Whenever you are on
appropriately tagged
websites/pages
● When specific actions are taken
on a website
● Search patterns are collected
constantly to determine
interests and in-market trends
What data is collected?
● Need to be signed in to the Google
Account to allow your personal
information to be targeted by
advertisers (also ad settings are
available to limit ads)
● Utilising GPS & Location services on
browsers & mobile devices
● Remarketing Tag is created and
applied to all pages of the website -
cookies are dropped
● Conversion tracking also uses
cookies
And How?

4. Data Collection - What, When & How?
Additional Data Points:
● Web crawling
● Twitter
● Orkut (mainly Brazil and India)
● The Google Chrome browser
● Google Finance
● Google Checkout
● Google Home
● Google Assistant
● Your contact network – Your contacts
in Google Talk, Gmail, etc, make up an
intricate network of users. And if those also
use Google, the network can be mapped even
further. We don’t know if Google does this,
but the data is there for the taking.

5. Data Collection - What, When & How?
● All Personal Information
entered in your Hotmail
account can be used in all
Microsoft products, on
partner websites, and In-
Mobile apps.
● Your searches in Bing
● Your location
● Websites you visit
● Ads that you view or click
● Apps, browsers and devices
that you use to access
Microsoft services
● IP address
● Unique identifiers contained
in our cookies, the time and
date of your search, and
your browser configuration
When is this data is
collected?
● When you sign up for a Hotmail
account, you provide them with
personal information. If you are
signed in, they collect and
protect information that you
create when using their services
● Whenever you are on
appropriately tagged
websites/pages
● When specific actions are taken
on a website
● Search patterns are collected
constantly to determine
interests and in-market trends
What data is collected?
● Need to be signed in to the Hotmail
account to allow your personal
information to be targeted by
advertisers
● Utilising GPS & Location services on
browsers & mobile devices
● UET Tag is created and applied to all
pages of the website - cookies are
dropped
● Conversion tracking also uses
cookies
And How?

6. Data Collection - What, When & How?
● All Personal Information
entered in the Facebook
and/or Instagram Account
can be used in all Facebook
products, on partner
websites and
Facebook/Instagram apps.
● Pages & posts you like,
follow & interact with.
● Call history, SMS, photos,
contact list
● Your location
● Websites you visit
● Ads that you view or click
● Apps, browsers and devices
that you use to access
Facebook services
When is this data is
collected?
● When you sign up for a
Facebook and/or Instagram
account, you provide them with
personal information. If you are
signed in, they collect
information that you create
when using their services
● Whenever you are on
appropriately tagged
websites/pages
● Call history & SMS data is
collected when you use FB
messenger
● When specific actions are taking
on a website
What data is collected?
● Need to be logged in to the
Facebook Account to allow your
personal information to be targeted
by advertisers (also ad settings are
available to limit ads)
● Utilising GPS & Location services on
browsers & mobile devices
● FB Pixel is created and applied to all
pages of the website - cookies are
dropped
● Conversion/Event tracking also uses
cookies
● Using the Call & SMS function in FB
Messenger.
And How?

7. Data Collection - What, When & How?
● Google Analytics collects a
large amount of Events &
User Properties
● Correlates all the data from
various sources/mediums
depending on tagging (auto
or manual)
When is this data is
collected?
● When you create a Google
Analytics account and include a
block of JavaScript code on
pages in your website.
When users to your website
view a page, this JavaScript
code references a JavaScript file
which then executes the
tracking operation for Analytics.
● _ga first party cookies are
dropped when website is
reached and lasts 2 years
What data is collected?
● Correlates all the data from various
sources/mediums depending on
tagging (auto or manual)
And How?

8. Data Collection - What, When & How?
Examples of User Properties &
Events

9. Data Collection - What, When & How?
Other Platforms:
Similar to Facebook Messenger, They collect call history, contact
list, SMS, photos, location, type of device & first party personal
information. This can all be downloaded in a data report to comply
with GDPR. (Whatsapp is owned by Facebook)
They collect call history, contact list, SMS, photos, location, first
party personal information, credit card information (if using
Snapcash) & type of device.
Your name, address, phone number, payment information, delivery
details of people to whom purchases have been dispatched or
people listed in 1-Click settings (including addresses and phone
numbers), content of reviews and e-mails to Amazon, personal
information, photograph in your profile and voice recordings when
you speak to Alexa.

10. The Power of Personalisation
Great Personalisation - when you show up at the right time, in the right place, to the right person and
say the right thing!
When we personalise something, we are helping an audience to have a richer experience with content or
information that they have shown a preference for, while also selecting what kind of content they might
interact with in the future. At the heart of all marketing management lies the desire to present the best
possible information in the most attractive way, at the right time.
Reaching the right audience requires thought and tact. Over half (55%)* of British adults say personalised
adverts creep them out. However, targeting the one-third (36%)* that are more likely to engage with
adverts that are tailored to them can yield strong return on investment. Today, understanding consumers’
appetite for personalisation and finding that balance is critical.
*Statistics from Yougov.co.uk (26th Mar 2018)
Personalisation - Tailored or Creepy?

11. Personalisation Done Right
Amazon’s recommendation algorithm
consistently makes headlines for its strategic
approach to personalization. Using search data,
past products bought and all the data points
mentioned earlier, statistical trends are identified.
Continually being updated to create more tailored
experiences, the tool suggests products not only
to fit the individual, but different aspects of their
personality.
Cleverly encouraging impulse buying by
highlighting key tastes and products to match.
Personalisation - Tailored or Creepy?
Cadbury, made a personalized video campaign - they told a
bit about their customers’ personal tastes in chocolate.
Part of the process involved customers clicking Cadbury’s
Facebook page. Once this happened, Cadbury collected
data from their profiles which resulted in a personalized
video filled with Facebook photos and other personalized
information. Ultimately, the clip revealed the consumer’s
best match in dairy milk chocolate products.
*This Cadbury campaign obtained a 65 percent click-
through rate and a 33.6 percent conversion rate.
Ultimately, the key to properly utilizing personalized video
is to offer consumers something they want, not what your
brand would like them to want.
*Data from www.mobilemarketer.com

12. Personalisation Done Right
Personalisation - Tailored or Creepy?

13. Personalisation Done Wrong
How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl
Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did
Personalisation - Tailored or Creepy?
Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers.
Target assigns every customer a Guest ID number, tied to their credit card, name, or email address that
becomes a bucket that stores a history of everything they've bought and any demographic information
Target has collected from them or bought from other sources.
They were able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed them to assign each
shopper a “pregnancy prediction” score.
Long story short, Target started sending coupons for baby items to a gentleman’s daughter who was in
High School. The manager apologized and was then called back later by the father after speaking to his
daughter and it turned out she was due in August…
I think we can all agree that is creepy!
Full article here

14. How Can We Use Data?
• Google Trends - Seasonal search trends, geo-locations, related
topics & related queries
• Keyword Planner - Forecast search volume, cost per clicks, new
keyword suggestions etc
• Bing Ads Intelligence Tool - Bings version of a keyword research tool
• Auction Insights - Allows you to compare impression share data,
average position, overlap rate, position above rate, top of page rate
and outranking share against competitors
• Google Analytics - Trends can be identified by using all the data
collected within GA. There are set reports as well as the function to
create custom reports. Data points include, session durations,
conversion paths, browsers, devices, new users, in-market
segments etc
• Google Shopping Insights - (Only US) Similar to Google Trends but
is used to compare Google Shopping data.
• Internal data from the client, loyalty data, membership information,
products purchased etc. These can be used to identify customer
profiles and trends regarding products purchased alongside others
(like amazon) and where they are in their consumer journey
• Using customer match based on personal information acquired
with consent
Tools Available to Gain Data Insights

15. Ethics & Regulation