Google limits the use of its free solutions and that is debated. For customers and partners alike, it's a cold shower : recent developments in Google tools (Analytics, Looker Studio, Tag Manager) conduisent à payer ce qui était auparavant gratuit. Mais la fin du gratuit ne se limite pas à Google et dessine un mouvement de fond… Les explications de Michael Froment, director and co-founder of Commanders Act, éditeur de la cookieless marketing platform Tagco.
Un tableau dont on ne comprend vraiment le sens qu’en reculant de trois pas. C’est l’expérience vécue par bon nombre de responsables analytics au fil des annonces de Google concernant ses solutions, de Google Analytics à Looker Studio en passant par Google Tag Manager. A soap opera that asks several questions. Is this the end of free solutions ? And how to bounce back ? To grasp the issue, a summary of previous episodes is necessary. Episode one, spring 2022 : Google announces the end of Google Universal Analytics 3 in favor of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) with a changeover set for July 1, 2023. Episode two, October 2022 : during the Google Cloud Next’22 event, a rebranding is announced ; Data studio devient Looker Studio, from the name of the company purchased two years previously. A “pro” version is announced, designed for large-scale teamwork. No one suspects at this time that the free version will see its scope of action narrowed…
The surprise of the quota system
Episode three, November 2022 : Google annonce un système de quotas qui plafonne la consommation des données GA4 depuis son interface de programmation d’application. A complex scale of tokens is put in place, per hour, per day, par type de jetons… Une complexité qui se concrétise toutefois de manière très simple dans Looker Studio : even in simple dashboards, les widgets se vident et un message d’erreur rappelle la dure loi des quotas GA4.
Companies up against the wall
Among clients and their agencies, it's a cold shower. Et la course aux solutions de remplacement qui bien souvent ne sont plus… gratuites. If this development has manifested itself in a very concrete way in the eyes of users – dashboards that glitch in the middle of a meeting – it is part of a much broader movement. Du fait de son ancrage dans les stacks Martech, Google sees each of its decisions causing a lot of ink to flow. More, let's recognize it, Google is following the same movement as many publishers. A movement started several years ago and resulting from two opposing forces. On the one hand, everyone is now convinced of it, data is considered an essential commodity for good marketing management ; the other, the collection and use of data have become much more complex and technical than they were. Consent management (in the wake of the GDPR) like server-side mode toggles (with the announced end of third-party cookies) have been there and are asking for investments.
Customer-side questions
If the end of free for tracking solutions has been underway for several years, why do customers and partners experience this development as a sudden shock ? No doubt because publishers have had to invest and monetize their platforms faster than users and partners change their habits. No wonder in fact that these transitions lead brands to question the risks that arise from the use of free solutions.. Said differently : stick to free solutions, does it not amount to accepting a risk that is now disproportionate given the importance of data to manage marketing? ? Of course, business solutions, they too, are subject to change. More, committed to their customers, their publishers must anticipate, to report and propose reasonable development scenarios. This is not the first time that marketers have had to compare the benefits between free solutions and commercial solutions.. The deployment of CMPs (Consent Management Platform) had given rise to this type of procrastination. Until the criticality of the issue (in the wake of CNIL directives) leads businesses to opt for proven business solutions, with key commitments.
Opportunities on the partner side
The discussions are also intense on the partner side. The end of free solutions opens a window giving everyone the opportunity to review their ecosystem, to possibly build new relationships. For these partners – media agencies, communication agencies, data marketing specialist firms –, this new era also opens up the opportunity to upgrade their consulting services. Fact, a brand is much more likely to consume advice to secure its investment in a paid solution than it is for a free solution. This involves ensuring the proper deployment, to good practices and, in fine, to the KING. If the shifts from free to paid are more or less well experienced, they are therefore part of the evolution of an ecosystem now faced with more complex issues. And support the growing use of data. Nothing fatal ; just a natural maturation with, at the key, some healthy and legitimate questions for everyone.
