Introduction
A complete ban on third-party cookies in browsers is not far off. Mozilla and Safari have already made their choice. Google promises to join them next year or a little later. Digital marketing is on the cusp of big changes. Marketers are worried that the return on their advertising investments will become harder to measure. As the saying goes: the morning sun never lasts a day. It’s just that new rules of the game with new marketing tools await us all.
What are cookies?
These are files with information about the user’s behavior on a particular site. They are stored in the computer’s memory when the user accesses the site through the browser. When the user visits the resource again, the file from the computer is returned to the site. Upon receiving the file, this online platform will quickly identify the user. Cookies can answer the following questions:
- what operating system and browser version the site visitor has,
- what time the potential customer visits the site,
- what is the total number of visits?
They may also contain information about the location, username, password, and specific pages of the site and the products/services it viewed.
In their interests, online resources create various cookies. First-party cookies are activated only by the site visited by the user. With their help, owners of a particular resource try to improve their work, learning about your preferences, and gathering the right content. By the way, everything should be done voluntarily and any user can disable this option.
As for third-party cookies, they come from third-party sites, such as ad aggregators, and can include information from different online platforms. As an example, we can take the user who needs an electric fireplace. They go to concrete resources and look at different models. The system reacts instantly to the visitor’s interest in the electric fireplaces. On another site, thanks to third-party cookies, the user is shown relevant ads with suitable appliances.
Why third-party cookies abandoned?
After years of using cookies to track customer behavior on the web, it’s time for new approaches. Of course, data-rich personalization has helped brands study customers to form targeted offers for them. But most users have wondered at least once: who is collecting this data and what exactly do they want to know? This information can fall into the wrong hands and create a lot of problems. Major search engines suggest abandoning individual tracking in favor of profiling the system into interest groups of people. This allows for greater security guarantees for site visitors.
The time came, and the problem became of interest to the regulatory authorities. The growth of people’s distrust of this method of data collection began to affect the number of laws passed. The digitalization of society increases every year, and the issue of privacy comes to the forefront. There is a GDPR that is responsible for regulating such situations. In the European Union, structural changes in this area have been ongoing for a long time. They are regularly supplemented with new, stricter directives. The main goals are greater confidentiality for clients, and transparency of interaction between companies and users in digital marketing.
What does it mean for marketers?
New strategies are required to gather the necessary information. But the principles by which marketers conduct research to improve business remain the same. The way ads are placed will continue to affect conversion rates. Each company will be able to increase its audience on a more trusted basis. Everyone will benefit from this collaboration. For the business – it is the leads, and for the visitors of the online resource – a rich customer experience with the protection of personal data. Of course, the role of third-party cookies increases when users cooperate voluntarily. It will be possible to get a lot of first-party data. Collect them from all the available advertising channels in real-time. They will successfully form their own system of user data. It is accessible, secure, free, and sufficient for targeting and broadcasting personalized content.
How to prepare for the cookie changes?
You should be comfortable with change because it is inevitable. A good strategy for a smooth transition to a new mode of operation will help avoid losses for the business. Conduct an audit of your existing system and explore all options for adapting to the new realities. Master more contextual targeting, which uses artificial intelligence. It’s based on the context that users see, rather than personal data. That way, ads can be relevant to the platform’s theme after a particular user visits it. This will help advertisers know people’s interests. It will be easier for you to customize personalized and organic advertising to potential customers.
Don’t forget the primary data you already have and do an audit of your technical capabilities. Many people pay attention to traditional sources. This is always a huge field for any company to be active. Conduct surveys and interesting promotions. Offer engaging stories on social media in exchange for certain personal information with the explicit consent of users. This approach will help make mutually beneficial offers without privacy concerns. Use universal tools to optimize the process. Various management and systematization systems (CRM and DMP) are perfect here. It’s time to gather your resources together and put the data collection on stream through forms on landing pages and email newsletters. The main thing is to get the user interested, but it depends on your imagination.
Summary
The digital world is evolving at an escalating pace. Giving up cookies is a definite stage of development. NIXSolutions assures that despite all the difficulties, advertisers have enough alternatives and new ones will appear. Now you can prepare yourself. You need to try ready-made options, make the transition less expensive, and create the best model for the purchase of advertising.