What We Learned from Senior Chinese Marketers at Our Shenzhen Event

On January 28, FiveStones and Google hosted a luncheon in Shenzhen titled “Brandformance Marketing Breakthrough: Mastering GMP to Empower Media Activation.”

The room was filled with senior Chinese marketers, including department heads and C-level leaders from brands targeting overseas markets. After the session, 75% of attendees rated the content 5 out of 5. What stood out most was a clear shift in mindset — for mature Chinese marketers expanding overseas, decision confidence now outweighs platform capability.

“The sharing includes much insight content. It is valuable and deepens my understanding towards DV360.”

“This (the event) wasn’t just high-level theory. The sessions were packed with ‘dry goods’—practical, actionable insights that deepened our understanding of DV360 and attribution.”

Instead of campaign setup questions, the audience focused on risk, compliance, and measurement reliability.

Common questions included:

• Does server-side tagging actually reduce data loss under EU regulations?
• Why does GA4 still show high “Not Set” ratios?
• If user location data is collected via SDKs, how is consent handled — and where are the compliance risks?

These are not beginner questions.

They reflect a deeper concern:
Can I trust the data I’m using to make decisions?

For senior marketers, the challenge has moved beyond media access.The real risk now is investing budget into systems that cannot stand up to regulatory or internal scrutiny.

One clear takeaway from the session was this:
Privacy compliance now directly impacts performance.

Question from attendee:

“Can sGTM configuration solve the data loss problem of traffic channel source information under the influence of European GDPR? Currently, our GA traffic channel information has obvious loss… GA4 orders can align to 99%, but to what extent can traffic information be aligned?”

During the event, we showed how server-side tagging (sGTM) helps brands operating in markets like the EU to:

• Reduce signal loss
• Improve data accuracy
• Align ad platforms with backend sales data
• Stay compliant without sacrificing optimisation

When compliance is built into the measurement foundation, performance becomes more stable — not weaker.

For brands with overseas retail presence, offline sales have long been difficult to link back to media spend. Programmatic DOOH is changing this.

It has matured beyond simple awareness placements and can now be planned, targeted, and measured as part of a full-funnel strategy — helping brands influence real-world footfall, not just impressions.

This removes a long-standing blind spot between digital investment and physical outcomes.

Another strong theme from the room was clear: Brand and performance are not separate teams or strategies.

High-quality upper-funnel exposure directly affects lower-funnel results. When traffic quality improves, conversion efficiency follows. This is why leading brands are moving away from click-only optimisation and instead bidding toward business outcomes.

Senior teams are increasingly focused on whether their measurement systems can withstand regulatory, internal, and commercial scrutiny at the same time. This is why many brands are now looking to build a closed-loop growth architecture (where media, measurement, and optimisation continuously inform each other):

• Attract
  Use DV360 and Google Ads to reach high-quality audiences beyond open exchanges
• Measure
  Use CM360 and GA4 to validate user quality and capture meaningful signals
• Activate
  Feed those signals back into DV360 to re-engage high-intent users with relevant messaging

Modern growth is not linear. Brand investment and performance results now reinforce each other in a continuous cycle.

Summary: What We Learned from Senior Chinese Marketers

• Decision confidence now matters more than platform capability
• Compliance directly affects performance outcomes
• Online and offline measurement is becoming increasingly connected
• Brand and performance planning are inseparable
• Measurement integrity is foundational to overseas growth

The depth of discussion in Shenzhen made one thing clear: China’s leading outbound marketers have moved past basic execution. Success now depends on measurement integrity, attribution clarity, and system design.

These observations are based on direct discussions with senior decision-makers responsible for overseas growth strategy, data governance, and media investment.

If you want to assess whether your current setup meets this new baseline, connect with FiveStones at [email protected] or contact us here.