Marketing in a post cookie world

The end of cookies is upon us. And I’m not talking about baked treats.

At the beginning of 2024, Google announced it was phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome by the second half of the year.

The tech giant has since delayed this process many times.

But the start of the end for third party cookies began in 2020, when Firefox and Safari blocked their usage. So, we know it’s coming. We just don’t know exactly when. But that hasn’t stopped marketers all over the globe from plotting their way forward.

If you don’t know what cookies are by now…I don’t know what to tell you.

(I only recently learned but now I have a superiority complex about it.)

Nonetheless, let me give you a quick rundown.

Third-party cookies are a text file that's stored in your browser and used for identifying your device as you browse a website. While that’s the simplest way to describe them, it doesn’t mean much without comparing them to first-party cookies.

First-party cookies are placed in your browser by the website you are on.

Third party cookies are placed in your browser by a completely different website than the one you're browsing.

First-party cookies help a website 'remember' your actions and preferences. This helps the website customise your user experience. Say I log in to an e-commerce site, when I log out, my username can be stored in a cookie in the browser. Next time I open the website, the browser will send the cookie to the web server, and then prompts me with it. Are you still with me?

On the other hand, third-party cookies are used for tracking. When I do my shopping on this e-commerce site, the server uses a cookie to remember I have logged in to my account (first-party). But, I may not be aware that a cookie from an ad network is also stored in my browser, and tracking my activity. Even if I’m not currently accessing this ad network at the time.

This is why third-party cookies are so valuable to marketers and advertisers.

AND NOW GOOGLE IS TAKING THEM AWAY FROM US.

Meaning it’s no longer a solution for targeting in our campaigns. So, we need to prepare.

Which some of us apparently are not doing. As of September last year, only 8% of marketers said they were 'fully prepared' for the cookie crackdown.

Which is not a part of some far away land, by the way.

'Every day it’s becoming more difficult to track a user’s entire purchase journey, meaning marketers are having to rely on less accurate measurement and more assumptions,' said Brooke Osmundson, Director of Growth Marketing at Smith Micro Software.

So, what’s a brand to do?

1. Collect your own damn customer data.

Go old school baby. Build and enhance your first-party data collections. Use website forms, surveys, email sign-ups, and loyalty programs to ask customers for their information. Implement or upgrade your CRM systems to manage this data.

Remember, you have to provide value exchange. Give customers a reason to share their data with you. This could be access to exclusive content, discounts, or rewards systems.

Why it works: Collecting data directly from customers helps you follow privacy rules and maintains trust in your brand.

2. Leverage contextual advertising

Where, not who. Shift your focus from audience-based to context-based advertising. This means placing ads based on the webpage's content rather than the user’s previous behaviour. Using AI can be particularly helpful in analysing page content and matching ads to relevant topics.

Why it works: This method doesn't rely on personal data, making it a privacy-safe alternative to third-party cookies. It also means your ads will appear in relevant contexts, which can lead to better engagement and conversion.

3. Use new ways to identify and target customers

New solutions. Explore and adopt new technologies that help you track and target customers in a privacy-safe way. For example, Unified ID 2.0 offers a way to track and target across the web without cookies.

Remember, people are super precious about their data privacy. So communicate your data practices to customers and provide easy-to-understand privacy controls. Transparency builds trust and encourages users to opt-in to data sharing.

Why it works: You can still target customers effectively across platforms and devices. But being open about your data practices will help you build trust and encourage your customers to share their information with you.

The end of cookies doesn’t mean the end of effective targeting.

Just look at this example from AdWeek:

'A world-leading technology brand needed to grow its already-large consumer awareness while cutting costs.

The brand activated three campaigns, each promoting a unique product. For each campaign, the brand compared the performance of a cookie-less solution against cookied deals and tested the solution against their own first-party customer data.

The cookie-less solution drove 325 million ad impressions across three campaigns saving an impressive 25% on data fees. This maximized the brand’s budget and campaign outcomes, ensuring dollars were spent on working media exclusively vs. third-party data.'

See guys, a post cookie world, is just as sweet. You just need to be prepared.

-Sophie, Writer