A life without cookies?
There is a change coming, and it’s coming quickly. Unless one hasn’t been attuned to the happenings of the digital marketing space, most people know that a cookieless future is coming. We are not talking about the yummy, chocolatey, moist and chewy baked snacks, but rather the cookies that have been fundamental to how websites have operated for well over two decades and are the foundation of the billion dollar advertising and digital marketing industry.
With the growth of the open web and the vast droves of personal information gathered by these cookies, it is no surprise that concern for privacy has been moved to the forefront as a key issue, especially in light of various customer data breaches that have exposed such data. Privacy regulations continue to tighten, and privacy protection is shaping how the online world will operate moving forward. It is estimated that around 60% of global web traffic will be cookieless this year. More and more browsers have taken steps to block the third-party cookies and Google is slated to phase out third-party cookies for their Chrome browser in 2024, which makes up well over 60% browser share. This move away from cookies is probably the most extraordinary change the digital marketing industry will experience for years to come.
Startling headlines sensationalist chatter proclaiming the end of the digital marketing no doubt has contributed to uneasiness and anxiety among marketers who are navigating the unknowns of an ever-changing landscape with apprehensions of how to approach this drastic change. Marketers have known the change is coming for years, yet many companies still do not have a strategy set in place to adapt to the coming change – a unforgiving reality waits for those who have been kicking the can down the road, still relying on present methods for identifying, understanding and reaching their customers.
To shed some light on the upcoming change, let’s clarify what a cookie is, how it works and how they will change moving forward. Cookies are small pieces of text that store information about you on your computer when you visit a website. The simple technology that started in the 90’s with Internet Explorer 2, has quickly progressed into a sophisticated way of tracking users across multiple sites, building profiles based on browsing habits and activating on targeted advertising based on said profiles. Third-party cookies in particular, have been the basis of how the web has monetized and grown into a billion dollar advertising and marketing industry.
Although many of the headlines are talking about a cookieless world, that is not necessarily true – not all cookies are going away. First-party cookies which are created and stored by the websites and allow website owners to collect analytics data, remember language settings and other useful functions that help provide a good user experience are not going way. These types of cookies are an essential part of the mechanism of ecommerce, without which a user wouldn’t be able to login to websites, nor add items to cart as that information would be forgotten with each new page load. However, first-party cookies will still be impacted by the upcoming changes.
Browsers such as Safari and Mozilla have changed the lifespan of these cookies from a 7-day window to a 1-day window. As such, returning users to a website will be viewed as a new visitor after a 24 hour period, thus affecting user-level reporting and attribution models. Third-party cookies on the other hand, are going away. These are cookies that are used for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad-serving. These cookies are not collected by website owners, but rather by advertisers, which is the primary reason for feelings of angst in the industry.
So how will these changes impact how marketers operate from day to day? The move away from third-party cookies will be felt most by media organizations and will require a shift in strategies on how to properly identify, understand and reach customers. As a marketer, here are a few steps you can take to help prepare for the upcoming changes:
1. Take detailed survey of your current data sources and technology stack to identify any areas that will be impacted by the loss of third-party cookies. This will serve as the platform from which to pivot to new strategies
2. Take the opportunity to test various iterations of campaigns without third-party data to help identify areas where alternative strategies might yield similar performance.
a. Consider device ID, cohort based audiences and contextual based targeting strategies as viable alternatives.
b. Find what works and consider augmenting these campaigns.
3. Build a first-party database strategy and hierarchy to learn more about the users on your websites. This can be collected from users through direct interactions with your website, as well as definitive identifiers such as email addresses and user IDs. This is where data collection will be viewed as a value exchange in which both parties – website users and marketers alike – will stand to gain. Users will give consent to be tracked at marketed to in exchange for access to certain areas of the site, special promotions, etc. otherwise unavailable to all users.
4. Build second-party data relationships in order to gain understanding of consumers around shared audiences.
a. Seek brands, publishers and partners that will be complementary to your user-base.
b. Consider strengthening relationships with walled-gardens such as Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon as data from these publishers will be a great asset.
c. iCrossing’s parent company Hearst has a vast amount of first-party data, gathered from their portfolio of web properties.
5. Enable Google Analytics 4 (more information here), GA4 is part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox which seeks to move all user data into the browser rather than third-party platforms. It allows behavioral tracking across websites although data will not be shared freely with advertisers.
There is no doubt that there will be a period of learning and adjustment as we transition to this new reality in the digital marketing space. Despite the purported impending doom, most marketers are typically resilient to an ever-changing landscape and will learn to adapt. Here at iCrossing, we pride ourselves in being at the forefront of transforming experiences that drive growth for the organizations we work with. We would love to have a conversation with you about your digital marketing needs. Contact us to get the process started.
Sources:
https://gumgum.com/blog/the-cookieless-future https://digiday.com/media-buying/how-to-pick-an-identifier-to-navigate-the-ad-industrys-cookieless-future/ https://advertisingweek.com/3-stages-of-transitioning-for-a-cookieless-future/ https://www.wired.com/sponsored/story/how-companies-can-thrive-in-a-cookieless-future/ https://pandectes.io/blog/data-privacy-a-glimpse-into-a-cookieless-future/ https://www.cardinalpath.com/blog/the-impact-of-the-cookieless-future-across-marketing-organizations https://evolvingweb.com/blog/cookieless-future https://leadsbridge.com/blog/cookieless-future/ https://termly.io/resources/guides/cookieless-future/ https://aritic.com/blog/aritic-pinpoint/5-points-for-cookieless-future/