Why is it important to talk about cookies now? Well, it’s because Google announced that it will join the other Browsers (Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari) in eliminating third-party cookies and will completely phase them out by 2022. With this move, it’s essential for B2B marketers to begin reassessing and restructuring their digital advertising programs.
Cookies play a fundamental part in digital ads by identifying online users and personalizing the ads they see based on their browsing experience. Essentially, two types of cookies are at play when tracking users.
In 2019, Google launched its “Privacy Sandbox” initiative as a way to move toward a more privacy-first web experience for users. Shortly after, they announced that they would end their support for third-party cookies on their Chrome browser by 2022. Safari and Firefox were the first to block third-party cookies, so Google’s announcement was the final nail in the coffin. This is especially true since Chrome makes up close to a 70% share of the browser market and handles more than half of the global web traffic.
With privacy being a top concern, it was important for Google to listen to users’ demand for more privacy, choice, and control over the way their data was being used. However, the decision to do away with third-party cookies doesn’t come without its fair share of drawbacks in the marketing world. A study by Google showed that the average publisher revenue in a world without third-party cookies would decrease by 52% for the top 500 global publishers.
Here are the most common ways marketers are using them in digital advertising:
Ad retargeting – Let’s say someone visits a specific product page on your website, but after a little bit of thought, decides not to do anything and exits your website. If you have retargeting efforts in place, you can serve up to that same user a display or text ad for the product or service from the web page they previously visited. Since retargeting campaigns are solely behavioral, they are heavily dependent on third-party data.
Frequency capping – While your ads should aim to reach new audiences, you don’t want to overdo it. You also don’t want to serve up an ad for a product or service a customer may already have. That’s when frequency capping comes in to help. Marketers can manage the number of times an ad is shown using a user ID that is currently only available via a third-party cookie.
Audience extension – When setting up an ad, you have to designate who you want to target. During this process, you may choose to target anyone who visits your website, but you may also want to reach audiences beyond that. By enabling audience extensions, you can reach look-alike audiences based on the similar behaviors of those who are your primary target. Since audience extension is based on tracking a user’s browsing activity, third-party cookies are deeply involved in this process.
Attribution modeling – Marketers need to be able to measure the impact digital media has on sales. Since third-party cookies help to identify and follow users across different platforms, multi-touch attribution models will become less reliable once third-party cookies are phased out.
Marketers favored third-party cookies because they were convenient, behavioral, and profitable. Not only did marketers find them easy to implement, but they were also easy to manage since the cookies essentially did the grunt work for them. Taking advantage of third-party cookies gave B2B marketers big wins since their behavioral data made it easy to re-engage with prospects and customers (i.e. retargeting). In fact, B2B retargeting outperforms B2C by a staggering 402% for conversions per impression according to Retargeter.
Although online users don’t necessarily enjoy being followed around online, third-party cookies helped keep their ad experiences relevant. Forrester reports that 68% of B2B buyers prefer to do their research online, and 60% prefer to not interact with a sales rep. Third-party cookies helped keep potential customers engaged and allowed them to maintain control over their buying process without intervention from sales reps.
They cause privacy issues. The number one problem with third-party cookies is that they silently track personal data from users. While users can regularly clear cookie data from their browsers, they have little control over who is collecting their information, where it’s going, or how it will be used. This situation doesn’t sit well with both consumers and B2B buyers as they have no control over the vast amount of personal browsing activities these cookies and the companies that use them can collect, use, and sell at will.
They’re device-based. Both first-party and third-party cookie identifiers are device-specific and associated with a single browser. That means that they cannot provide a reliable way to map an individual’s user experience with multiple devices or distinguish multiple individuals that may share a browser. This can create a challenge when trying to accurately target the right individual and when measuring frequency, reach, and campaign effectiveness.
They’re easily blocked. In a world where advertisements are literally everywhere, consumers have increasingly begun to use adblocker extensions to help keep ads at a minimum and prevent companies from following them around online. According to Statista, there were 763.5 million AdBlock users worldwide by the last quarter of 2019. With those numbers, the benefits of third-party cookies have already decreased.
Although third-party cookies are phasing out, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of personalized ads and one-to-one marketing tactics. If you currently rely on third-party data for your advertising strategies, there are a few alternatives you can implement now.