The disappearance of the cookie as we know could have been given by the umpteenth suspension of the execution by Google, but there is no doubt: its end is coming. However, people are still unprepared: A recent study of 500 CMOs in the UK and US suggests that nearly 50 percent are not well prepared for the days when cookies will become a thing of the past.
They are not alone. Repeated delays and a lack of concrete roadmaps for scalable and credible long-term alternatives for identifying, targeting, reporting, and evolving marketing strategies are muddying the waters. However, there are steps that can and should be taken by companies of all kinds to prepare for the day when the cookie will finally be removed from the jar. Parking the problem and sleeping at work may prove to be more problematic in the long run, as the cookie has been one of the most fundamental aspects of performance marketing and the digital infrastructure as a whole. Preparing for his absence is a marathon, not a sprint.
It might not be attractive, but complete data compliance, proprietary data, and an activation strategy must be a crucial first step. The problem with cookies is their ubiquity. We have all become very used to dealing with them; however, they are far from being everything and everyone’s end of recognizing online customers and especially in these increasingly privacy conscious days, they have significant limitations. Google’s vice president and general manager of advertising, Gerry Dischler, put it best: “The cookies and other third-party identifiers that some claim in the industry do not meet the growing expectations of consumers for privacy. They will not resist rapidly changing regulatory restrictions. They simply cannot be trusted in the long term ”.
Fortunately, businesses have had more room to breathe to prepare for this upcoming paradigm shift from both an organizational and technical perspective in how brands and platforms gain acclaim, stay relevant, and drive long-term and long-term relationships. . Don’t do without it, the impact of cookie depreciation will be far-reaching. It will limit remarketing potential, long a staple of online acquisition in an effort to win back the attention of those who may have looked at a product or site and escaped the net. It will also limit the resolution with the walled gardens, which have become so influential. Brands often can’t imagine a future without connecting with Facebook or LinkedIn platforms to broaden the perspective on customers. Apple is already ahead after taking a first stance on the product regarding ad privacy opt-ins – given that this path is now beaten, it looks set to be well trodden. This could also trigger a full consent review and reevaluation of remarketing as a strategy, and many should take action now to review their consent to first party data if they reimagine their proposals in a new cookie-free future.
The re-evaluation of data doesn’t stop there: to fill perceived knowledge gaps, we are seeing a new increase in the use of second-party data sources and partnerships and profiling to build a more comprehensive view of the customer. As ad network audiences shrink, the size, scalability, and accuracy of cross-device tracking will make it more difficult and less valuable to sequence creatives. As a result, CRM approaches will become much more valuable, evolving into Experience Relationship Management (ERM) and providing a much richer insight into customer behavior. This will fold CRM to ERM strategies much more closely into digital planning, but will also drive further focus on consensus. This in turn will increase the level of value exchanges with consumers: basic offers will no longer be sufficient and bolder service exchanges will be needed to meet the needs of the public who are well aware of the value of their time, of their attention. and their data. When you need to reaffirm consent frequently, open the normal doors for people jumping off the ship. The value to remain must be significant.
The relationship between brand and publisher will also change: no longer simply how to start with “dropping a cookie”, the burden will be on brands to transmit explicit and clear first party consent to any publisher intended for enrichment. Data cleanrooms and a Property ID chart will become much more popular to manage this process along with dynamically maintained consensus practice. We also anticipate the development of an additional IP masking, always following the path taken by Apple with the ability of Mail to mask the tracking pixels and to mask IP addresses from e-mail senders. All of this combines to make brand trust in data management and management a fundamental fact in the post-cookie world.
All of this may seem like a lot: in fact, some of the long-standing fabric of digital marketing practices and internet infrastructure is being discarded, with no clarity as to what will replace it. But brands and marketers can take action to prepare for what’s next. Embrace the changes of adtech partners, who are also better prepared for the new cookie-free landscape. Rethinking consensus and reciprocal exchanges of values with consumers. Amplify your current data collection and find an identity resolution partner that fits your purposes. Start building second-party data partnerships, and ultimately acknowledge that tough conversations are on the way and are needed. The future without cookies may seem uncertain, scary and unknown, but its roots and often missed potential are worth remembering. Cookies have always been given credibility without a doubt, which has always been a frustration for technologists. The cookie-free future should remove the boundaries that have long been placed on the market and instead open a new, broader and richer future for complete and valuable digital experiences for the audience as a whole.
There are a few key actions we’ve taken with our savvy customers over the past 12-24 months that turn what may seem like a daunting negative into a consumer-centric positive:
- Evaluate your vendor list to see which partners you already have and may not be using their data cleanroom capabilities, such as Microsoft, AppsFlyer, Snowflake, AWS, and GCP. Don’t be scared by putting your eggs in one basket – the cleanroom’s entire purpose is to be a secure, platform-independent platform for all your first-party data to mediate its integration between your external ecosystem partners. of marketing
- Get your technology, product marketing, data and experience design teams to talk seriously about the evolution of data value exchanges. Start evolving right away and accelerate if you’ve already started. Go beyond newsletter signups, voucher codes, and re-commitment well after purchase. Build truly unique reasons to sign up and stay connected with your brand, such as exclusive packages, loyalty only you can, sustainability, and community programs that amplify reasons to share data beyond core products. This can include recycling schemes, pop-up experiences, and partner events.
- Do not forget that the third-party cookie-sunset does not close the door to sharing partner data. Use your clean room (AKA. CDP, DMP 2.0) to broker meaningful and transparent relationships with trusted partners whose proposal is free or can extend new added values to your customer base.
- .. don’t forget to address the measurement challenges that cookie-sunset is already causing. Rethink or reconsider multi-touch attribution. He didn’t keep his promises. Multi-touch attribution is developing a reputation for failure. This is NOT about deploying a standard CDP / DMP or attribution modeling solution and hey-presto!
It is about combining all available data to interpret and contextualize performance drivers, to demystify contributors and influence safe optimization – we call this full-funnel attribution output which include:
- Marketing spend with attributed view goal (e.g. Attributed vs Last Click)
- Contribution to the channel to guide a reliable budget reallocation
- Explore conversion paths to easily act on conversion blocks
- Act on the impact of the segment to optimize linear spending and invest in specific cohorts
- The effectiveness of the content values the pages and contributes to the conversion
- Insights into the incrementality of projects and campaigns to map performance attributed to specific initiatives carried out between teams
- Unify research measurement (paid + organic) to align strategies and start eliminating cannibalization, starting to confidently demonstrate incrementality
Anthony Magee is the Director of Data Technology and Experience at SYZYGY.
Sign up for the Search Engine Newsletter Watch for insights into SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.
Join the conversation with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
