Marketers are prioritising the customer journey

Marketers are increasingly concerned about “understanding the whole customer journey”, new research shows, and as part of that they are looking for ways to better exploit first-party data and are turning to retail media.

A report by LiveRamp, The Summer of Data Partnerships*, says that the proportion of marketers citing the need to understand the entire customer journey jumped to 42% in Q2 2023 from 26% in Q4 2022. 

Why it matters

Data is vital to understanding the consumer journey and to media planning but many brands lack the first-party data that can better inform these activities. “Data collaboration is increasingly being recognised as a crucial element in the matchmaking process between brand and customer,” explains Hugh Stevens, UK MD at LiveRamp.

Takeaways 

• Nearly half (49%) of those surveyed said they could not find audiences to match data-led customer insights “all of the time”, indicating a lack of confidence in turning customer insights into executable campaigns. 
• 94% of those surveyed said they would work with a partner to boost first-party data capabilities.
• 59% described retail media as “an important part” of their media plan; a further 34% of respondents described retail media as something they were “increasingly beginning to adopt”.
• The proportion of marketers choosing brand awareness as a “metric that matters” leapt from 42% in Q4 2022 to 58% in Q2 2023 – ahead of return on ad spend (45%) and category reach (39%). 

*250 brand-side marketers, consisting of middle/senior managers and business leaders in the UK, were surveyed between November 2022 and May 2023 

Sourced from LiveRamp