The best thing that's happened to local media in the past 20 years.
The implementation of the GDPR regulation is more than just protecting personal data. It is a significant intervention in the digital marketing markets, where for decades the promise of technological companies regarding the effectiveness and measurability of marketing have prevailed.
Users are increasingly unwilling to allow interferennce with personal data.
Both the cookie law and the current GDPR regulation, along with general user awareness about privacy protection, have led to users increasingly refusing the installation of cookies.
As a result, we are already noticing that the actual visits in Google Analytics are about 20% to 40% lower than the actual visits.
In fact, cookies are only allowed by specific users who don't mind it. These users represent a specific target group, which does not reflect the full pattern of your users.
Advertising effectivness will decline
Approximately half of all websites in the world use Google Analytics. These sites, with cookies, help Google algorithms deeply understand user behavior all the way to the point of purchase (and sometimes beyond).
With the new GDPR regulation, the data volume will shrink even more, making Google AdWords less effective, as ad targeting will be less aligned with user preference. The same will happen with all other advertising systems based on set preferences.
Practically, the only effective channel left will be search network advertising, where ad placement is still primarily driven by user needs (search queries).
Communication effectiveness on social media will decline
The same applies to Facebook and other social networks, which, through their own analytics tools (like the Facebook Pixel), primarily collected personal data to improve their internal target mechanisms
Fewer personal data =>poorer understanding of user preferences => lower effectiveness of advertising and organic post reach.
Email marketing effectiveness will increase
You read that right. The GDPR regulation will primarily lead to the cleansing of databases. No more mass emailing just because we don't feel like doing email communication properly.
Cleaned-up mailing lists, consisting only of recipients who actually want to receive emails, mean higher communication efficiency. For years, we've noticed that such curated lists achieve at least 50% open rate, Smaller list, higher open and engagement rates.
Local media revenues will rise
As the internet bcomes virtually cookie free, at least within the EU under the new regulation, media houses will once again gain negotiating leverage for higher ad prices. The reasons:
- Without cookies, it's much harder to prove where an ad performs best, measurements are more approximate, just like back in 2013.
- Lower efficiency of online advertising leads to higher final ad costs.
- Local media have already significantly adapted, both in pricing and organization, to the demands of the digital market.
And much more to come
GDR will bring many more changes. For example, a Google Analytics certification will lose much of its former importance. The effectiveness of social media has always been somewhat questionable, as ROI was rarely calculated consistently.
Understanding what's really happening in the market will become more difficult. Which channels are working, and which aren't? Answering that will require thoughtful strategists and skilled analysts. Everything else will be just guesswork, and guesswork rarely wins.
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