Making the most of your data with Google Cloud

Buki Froelke: Most marketers like you are using an average of 18 data sources at once.

So how do you bring all that information into a single place to uncover meaningful insights? Well, with some help from tools like Google Cloud technology, you can unlock the full potential of your data with ease.

How’s it going everyone? I’m Buki Froelke, and you’re watching How to Think About. Let’s talk about using Google Cloud to make the most of your data.

To start us off, let’s take a look at a recent case study.

Royal Caribbean International, a leading global cruise line, had lots of scattered data and disconnected touchpoints. This made it super difficult to measure its digital advertising performance or adapt to the dynamic conditions in the market.

The team worked with Google Cloud to unify their data into one data warehouse, BigQuery, to help them make better-informed decisions about their media investments across the globe.

They were also able to unlock marketing and business data to build audience segments, improve online cost per booking, and respond quicker to changing market dynamics.

The Google Cloud technology helped their teams make data-driven decisions that increased their marketing impact on the business.

So how exactly do you accomplish what Royal Caribbean did? There are three tools that I’ll share with you today that can help get your data organised and ready to propel your business toward success.

First, let’s talk BigQuery.

BigQuery is a data warehouse that can ingest information from a multitude of sources. Think Google Analytics, Google Ads, Salesforce, and more.

It securely brings all of this data together and gives you a holistic view of what’s working and what can be adjusted to best meet your needs and goals.

In addition to this analysis power that provides you with answers to questions in seconds, there is also machine learning built right into BigQuery’s platform. Machine learning makes it simple to build propensity audiences and predictive forecasts.

Because BigQuery brings in such robust data, you can trust that the machine learning models are built on a solid foundation that can transform your marketing.

And that foundation is just the start.

Which brings me to the second tool I want to share with you today: Connected Sheets.

This is a feature within Google Sheets that lets you import data sets from BigQuery and leverage formulas and functions from Sheets. Doing so makes it simple to uncover valuable insights that can drive profitable decisions.

For many marketers, learning SQL, a standard language to manage data for querying data, can make it hard to get started with big data analysis. But with Connected Sheets, you can access, analyse, and visualise all of your data with ease.

And get this, because it works from a live connection to BigQuery, the data is constantly updating, ensuring it’s the most accurate predictions and demand forecasts.

Plus, you don’t have to keep your findings to yourself. It’s secure and simple to share and collaborate on insights with your teammates. This way you can have multiple people working in a sheet together, without compromising the integrity of the data in BigQuery.

So, now you have your data from all these sources in a centralised, organised place. What’s next?

Visualising that data.

The final tool we’re checking out today is called Looker Studio.

With Looker Studio, you can explore and present your marketing data in visually engaging ways.

And when you can visualise your data, it becomes simple to identify patterns, trends, and insights to fuel your marketing decisions and share those insights across your organization.

OK, let’s take a second to recap.

Today you got a peek into the power of leveraging cloud technology to make the most of your data and to establish a robust marketing foundation.

To learn more about advanced data and measurement strategies, subscribe to the Think with Google YouTube channel. See you next time.

Salesforce State of Marketing, 8th edition, 2022.