Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): A Win-Win for Brands & Agencies

Inconsistent data collection across the commerce channels create significant barriers to performance marketing. The inconsistency in product IDs, prices, inventory, and conversion values between your website, catalog and analytic platforms, and advertising networks creates a diversion from campaign success. Because the reports are confusingly inconsistent, the data reported appear as a jigsaw puzzle of pieces that do not belong together.

A Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) serves as a bridge between the different systems associated with your business by creating a commonality of the product and conversion language. UCP provides at least six areas of standardization to help facilitate the accuracy of the commerce experience:

• Product Identity – Uniform ID numbers and attributes exist for all of your products.
• Pricing and Availability – Price, promotion and stock status are all up to date.
• Commerce Events – You are able to report on your commerce actions; viewing, adding to cart, purchasing and returning items.
• Conversion Value – A clear revenue tracking model that avoids double counting.
• Governance – All data is captured with the consent and care of the individual involved.

As a result of UCP providing consistent standards, brands are also able to measure success more accurately. The elimination of discrepancies between the backend, analytic and advertising platforms increases the overall ability to measure success with increased accuracy, and as such improvements in overall efficiency will be seen. When you have strong conversion signals, you are able to bid and target more effectively. Brands will likely have less time fighting over numbers and will have more time to focus on scaling what is working. The consistent standards of the UCP streamline the ability to expand your brand into new channels and markets.

The same holds true for Agencies. UCP is a solution to the tracking problems experienced by many agencies. Improved data feeds will eliminate the many troubleshooting issues related to tracking. When tracking issues are diminished, the speed at which agencies are able to learn will increase, resulting in higher quality tests.

FAQ’s

1) Is UCP a tool or a framework?
A framework: a standardized way to structure commerce data and events across systems.

2) Does UCP only help Google campaigns?
No. It improves cross-channel measurement and optimization wherever the same catalog and conversion logic are used.

3) What’s the biggest benefit brands see first?
Cleaner reporting and stronger conversion signals, which usually improves optimization stability.

4) What does Digital Impressions deliver?
An audit + roadmap, implementation support for standardization, performance activation, and ongoing monitoring.

5) How do we know UCP is working?
Fewer feed errors, better match between backend and platform reporting, and more stable conversion tracking.