Google is deprecating third-party cookies in Q3: How performance marketing agencies should evolve their strategies in 2024?

As we head into marketing strategies in 2024, it's important to understand some of the challenges you will need to tackle this year.

1. Google’s privacy sandbox initiative is going to deprecate third-party cookies by Q3 2024.

2. The importance of first-party data-based strategies is gaining momentum.

3. While omnichannel marketing remains a dream for some marketers, it is becoming important to market yourself both in the digital and the real world.?

4. Traditional measurement and attribution techniques need to be improved due to a lack of reliable data.

5. Brands are demanding more ROI from marketing executives.

6. Brand marketing and performance marketing initiatives are getting closer but CMOs are asked to predict and show incremental outcomes on business KPIs from marketing teams.

Let’s talk about the first problem today ??

Losing third-party cookies means rethinking the way we target and understand customers online. For businesses, this presents challenges in:

• Targeted Advertising: Personalized ads based on browsing history will become a thing of the past.
• Data Collection: Gaining insights into customer behavior will require different approaches, as businesses will lose a significant source of analytics data.
• Customer Engagement: The ability to track and analyze customer touchpoints along their buying journey will be impacted.
• Retargeting Efforts: Businesses must find new methods for retargeting customers without being overly invasive or breaking data protection laws.

What steps should performance marketing agencies should take with their brands immediately to address them?

1. Move to server-side tracking from client-side tracking

Imagine you're running an apparel store and want to track the number of items sold. You can either do this by monitoring each sale yourself (client-side tracking) or you can have a system in place that records these sales automatically (server-side tracking).

Client-side tracking in an apparel store would involve using technologies like cookies and pixel tags on your e-commerce website. These tools collect data about customer interactions, such as clicking on a product, adding it to the cart, or completing a purchase. However, this method has its drawbacks. For instance, if a customer uses an ad blocker or has disabled cookies, the tracking data might not be captured correctly, leading to incomplete or inaccurate sales information.

Server-side tracking, on the other hand, involves capturing sales data directly from your store's server. Every time a customer makes a purchase, whether in-store or online, the information is sent directly from the server to your analytics system. This is akin to having an automated inventory management system that tracks sales as they happen.

The data collected this way is often more reliable and comprehensive, as it is less susceptible to being blocked or missed due to customer browser settings.

2. Leverage first-party data for contextual advertising

Contextual advertising can be made more effective by using 1st-party data. This data allows for precise targeting and personalization, ensuring that your marketing efforts are directed toward the right audience with relevant messaging. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of driving conversions and engagement.

The best thing about using 1st-party data is that it complies with privacy regulations as the data comes directly from your customers who have consented.

Storing first-party data in a centralized data room such as Lifesight Connect allows you to send real-time conversion data to your media buying platforms for better audience matching and higher ROAS.

Most performance marketing agencies should be already prepped up with both of these strategies. Period!!!

If you have already set this up ??

The next goal for you will be to win more media budgets with your customers.

A CMO in an enterprise brand working with a performance marketing agency for their marketing initiatives will only open up more budgets if you can show & predict incremental ROI from the media budgets.

How are you going to showcase this?...

Enter Scenario planning and Forecasting

Traditional marketing forecasting is a method used to predict specific outcomes based on historical data. This method can be useful in determining sales growth and return on investment (ROI) of different marketing activities. However, it can be limited in its ability to adapt to sudden changes and tends to focus on one specific plan or target. This can cause marketers to struggle when unforeseen events occur.

On the other hand, scenario planning involves using marketing mix modeling (MMM) and econometrics to create a strategic framework based on various marketing factors. This includes media mix, media cost inflation, media response, new channels, pricing, and product strategy. It also takes into account external factors such as supply chain issues, inflation, consumer response, and competitor behavior.

Scenario planning considers a broader range of possible external influences and often requires collaboration between different departments, including finance and operations. This collaboration allows for more robust analysis and planning. By considering both controllable and uncontrollable factors, and updating them as trends shift, this approach can anticipate how different scenarios might affect the impact and ROI of the marketing mix. It can then optimize budgets accordingly. This approach is more flexible and can help marketers adapt to sudden changes in the market.

Jonathan Snow has already seen it coming

Modern marketers are always looking to improve their marketing strategies and increase sales. They rely heavily on analytics, data, and business intelligence tools to achieve this.

Yet, despite the wealth of metrics available, there is often a lack of trust in marketing's impact, particularly regarding ROI calculations.

This is because marketing data often lacks scientific and statistical rigor, leaving the boardroom skeptical about the actual business impact of marketing initiatives.

To defend your budget during discussions, it's important to demonstrate a clear alignment between marketing goals and those set at the highest levels. CFOs are more likely to approve marketing budgets if they can see that marketing efforts are strategically positioned to scale the business within defined constraints.

Recently Jonathan Snow, DMD started an interesting thread predicting the marketing landscape in 2024

Hope this provided you with a few headstarts into how you should prep yourself as an agency for third-party cookie deprecation.

?? Bonus -> We have designed a test exclusively for agencies to gauge your readiness for the death of third-party cookies.??

Won’t take more than a minute. Test your readiness here.