Marketing In A Cookieless World

Are You Ready for the Cookie Apocalypse?

Let's first understand the definition of an apocalypse.

As CMOs are focused on the upcoming biggest sales days of the year with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Green Wednesday, the thought of the demise of the third-party cookie is probably not on the top of their list.

But it should be.

Third party cookies are soon to be a thing of the past with Chrome's reluctancy to join Apple, Facebook and Mozilla's Firefox.

Welcome to a new era of online privacy.

Consumers are demanding more privacy online. All the major web browsers have ceased (or are in the process of ceasing) support for third-party cookies.

This seismic shift toward consumer privacy has significant implications for digital marketers.

Marketing strategies that have traditionally relied heavily on third-party cookies are now outdated making serving targeted ads a real challenge for brands. Like it or not, every brand must rethink their data strategy.

Customer intelligence is more valuable than ever before.

Consumers are demanding more privacy online. All the major web browsers have ceased (or are in the process of ceasing) their support for third-party cookies.

This seismic shift toward privacy has significant implications for brands.

Marketing strategies that have relied heavily on third-party cookies are now outdated making serving targeted ads a real challenge.

Thanks to the quick demise of third party cookies, today’s marketers are scrambling to revisit their data strategies.Perhaps that is why zero- and first-party customer data is becoming all the rage. This trend is fueling the customer experience across marketing, sales and customer support.

Companies are using privacy as a marketing tool as browsers compete for users based on how safe their products are. Thanks to this seismic shift in data privacy, consumers are leery about their online privacy and blame both brands and browsers.

Apple led the way with announcing Safari’s transition away from third-party cookies followed by Mozilla’sFirefox. Despite Google Chrome’s 65% browser marketshare, Google has been dragging their feet, and after numerous delays of their Privacy Sandbox trials, they finally announced that Chrome is slated to hop on the privacy bandwagon sometime in 2024.

‍The rise of data privacy.

Recently, Ars Technica revealed that 96% of US users opted out of app tracking in the iOS 14.5 update, where Apple enforces a new privacy policy called App Tracking Transparency. Now, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV apps are required to request user permission to use techniques like IDFA (ID ForAdvertisers) to track their activity across multiple apps for data collection and ad targeting purposes.

Facebook was enraged. They went as far as to take out full-page news paper ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post with the headline, “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.”Facebook claimed that Apple’s privacy change would not only hurt Facebook but destroy small businesses worldwide."

Verizon-owned Flurry Analytics, which is used by over one million mobile apps, says US-based iPhone users agree to be tracked only 4% of the time.This trend clearly shows users are rejecting tracking at a much higher rate than previously projected.

‍What does this mean to marketers?

How will a cookie-less future affect advertising? In a cookie-less world, advertising strategies must adapt to rely less on third-party data for targeting and retargeting ads. Today, digital marketers are investing in gathering their own zero- and first-party data on their customers and exploring contextual advertising strategies.

As third-party cookie data comes to an end, marketers must adapt and accept a future of consent-based advertising. This means overhauling their strategies, including reevaluating their ad spend with Facebook and Google.

Interested in Learning More?

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