How Marketers should prepare for Cookieless World in 3 steps?

For years, digital marketers have depended on cookies to gain insights into user behaviour. However, the use of third-party cookies to track website visitors' online activities by advertisers and marketers has become a topic of controversy. This has raised big concerns about consumer privacy. What it will be like, and how marketers should prepare for a cookieless world?

Prominent corporations such as Google and Apple initiate the gradual discontinuation of cookie support in their browsers. Digital marketers need to modify their approaches to collect information for enhancing user experience and to guarantee that advertisements reach the correct target groups.

What is a third-party cookie?

A cookie is a small text file website stores on a user's device, such as a computer or smartphone, to remember the user's preferences or to track their activity on the website. A third-party cookie is a type of cookie set by a domain other than the one that the user is currently visiting. This means that while browsing a website if there are elements such as advertisements, or social media buttons, that are served by a different domain, those domains may set their cookies on the user's browser.

Third-party cookies can be used to track the user's activity across multiple websites, not just the one they are currently on. This enables advertisers to gather information about the user's browsing history and interests, and display targeted ads based on that data. For example, if a user visits a website about hiking, and then visits another website that displays ads, the advertiser could use third-party cookies to display ads for hiking gear or outdoor equipment to that user.

The use of third-party cookies has become controversial due to privacy concerns. Some users may not want their activity to be tracked by advertisers or other third-party domains. As a result, many web browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, have announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies. This has aimed to the development of alternative methods for advertisers to gather user data, such as first-party cookies, contextual targeting, and browser fingerprinting.

What will be the impact of going cookieless on user experience?

The impact of going cookieless on user experience is not entirely clear, as it depends on how websites and advertisers adapt to the change. However, the move towards a cookieless future is expected to have both positive and negative effects on the user experience. On the one hand, going cookieless could improve user privacy by reducing the amount of personal data collected and shared with advertisers. Users may feel more comfortable browsing the web knowing their activity is not being tracked across multiple websites.

On the other hand, without third-party cookies, advertisers may find it more difficult to display targeted ads, which could result in more irrelevant or generic ads being displayed to users. This could lead to a poorer user experience, with users being bombarded with ads not relevant to their interests.

To mitigate this potential negative impact, advertisers, and websites will need to find new ways to gather user data and display relevant ads. This could involve using first-party cookies, which are set by the website that the user is currently visiting or using alternative methods such as contextual targeting or browser fingerprinting. Ultimately, the impact of going cookieless on user experience will depend on how well these alternative methods are used and how well they can deliver relevant content and advertising to users.

3 steps to help marketers head into a Cookieless World

Getting along with the cookieless world is going to be a massive challenge for marketers. There are a few steps, which they should take to prepare for this change. By taking those steps, ad targeting, buying, and optimization processes will not be as disrupted and constrained as if not.

Get prepared for sustained disruption

Create a plan for dealing with the interrelated consequences of the changes in identity and privacy policies employed by Google and Apple. According to Schmitt, as the collection of cookie data comes to an end, significant portions of digital data will be undynamic, causing advertisers to experience a piecemeal decline as they struggle with a completely altered digital advertising environment. To cope with this situation, consider making significant changes to your media mix by either retiring, redefining, or redirecting your media spending related to cookies.

Rethink practices used in ad measurement

The decline of cookies will worsen existing difficulties related to digital advertising measurements, such as issues surrounding transparency, compatibility standards, and accuracy in attributing advertising success. Additionally, it will render some current challenges noncurrent. To prepare for an upcoming period of experimentation in advertising, it is necessary to establish new measurement standards, invest in market research, and secure crucial resources, including agency personnel and deals with publishers.

Get comfortable with the walled garden world

Become accustomed to scenarios, where online activity is largely confined to a few major platforms, and adjust investments in media, technology, and data capabilities consequently. Prepare to assign more resources towards Google, Facebook, and Amazon, and anticipate an increasing number of direct media purchases with these platforms and publishers, while reducing cross-publisher programmatic display.

Alternatives to third-party cookies in marketing

There are several alternatives to third-party cookies in marketing that advertisers and websites can use to gather user data and display relevant ads. Some of these alternatives include:

●????First-party cookies: These are cookies that are set by the website the user is currently visiting. They are used to remember user preferences and login information and can be used to track user activity on the website.

●????Contextual targeting: This involves displaying ads based on the context of the website or webpage, that the user is currently visiting, rather than based on their browsing history. For example, if a user is reading an article about travelling, they may see ads for hotels or airlines.

●????Device fingerprinting: This involves collecting information about a user's device, such as its operating system, browser, and screen resolution, to create a unique "fingerprint" that can be used to track the user's activity across multiple websites.

●????Unified ID 2.0: This is a new approach to identity management that aims to provide a more privacy-conscious alternative to third-party cookies. It involves creating a single, anonymous ID for each user that can be used across multiple websites and platforms to personalize content and advertising.

●????Privacy-first data collaborations: This involves collaborating with other companies to share user data in a privacy-conscious way, such as through hashed email addresses or encrypted data sharing.

Overall, the move away from third-party cookies is expected to drive innovation in the marketing industry and direct the development of new and more effective ways of gathering user data and displaying relevant ads.

The biggest challenges for marketers in Cookieless World

Going cookieless will be a major game changer for marketers. Relaying on cookies was the way in targeting customers and assisting with attribution for years for digital marketers. In a cookieless world, that will be no longer possible at all, so they have to find another way to target particular customers with the correct products and ads. Let’s look at the 3 biggest challenges, that will need to be addressed.

The difficulty of cross-channel multitouch attribution

In the past, as consumer profiles became scattered across various devices like desktop computers, cell phones, and smartwatches, multitouch attribution was seen as the future. Tracking ad exposure across multiple channels, which reach consumers, became crucial. Despite being a difficult task of creating a unified customer view from fragmented customer journeys, this approach remained dominant for more than a decade.

However, in a cookieless world, cross-channel multitouch attribution is going to become even more challenging.

No more granularity

Marketing strategies and decision-making rely heavily on data granularity to gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour. The absence of third-party cookies implies, that marketers will have to trust entirely first-party data, resulting in a reduction of their understanding of consumers.

This means that brands may struggle to provide personalized experiences to consumers who are increasingly expecting them. This is because the primary resource for creating personalization will no longer be available to them.

Problems on the way to access data sets

Marketers have become accustomed to using third-party cookie data as a routine practice. The absence of such data means, that marketers will have to create new infrastructures to collect and analyse consumer information, which can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Alternatively, they may have to pay to access data from third parties walled gardens, which may not always be accessible.

Adjusting to limited data availability can be challenging and intimidating, and not all marketers may be willing to change their marketing strategy or decision-making processes.

Summary

As third-party cookies raise privacy concerns, digital marketers must adapt as major corporations phase out support. Preparation for sustained disruption, ad measurement rethinking, and walled garden acceptance are crucial. Alternatives include first-party cookies, contextual targeting, and device fingerprinting. The user experience impact remains uncertain and relies on how websites and advertisers adapt. Let’s say then that going cookieless will be a big challenge for marketers and customer targeting.?