Cookieless world: everything you should know about it
Written by Barry Eichhorn
Owner & AI Advisor
One of the most far-reaching changes in data-driven marketing is the disappearance of third-party cookies. This blog summarises all the key insights and covers the most important updates from 2022 on a cookieless world. After reading this blog you will be fully up to date on the latest developments in the cookieless world.
Data-driven marketing
Data-driven marketing is currently undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Tech companies are taking privacy-enhancing measures and stricter legislation is on the horizon. Consumers have ever higher expectations when it comes to privacy, service and relevance. One of the most far-reaching developments is the disappearance of third-party cookies.
Privacy protection is becoming increasingly important in the online world. Last year the Safari and Firefox browsers already banned third-party cookies. In addition, Apple also wants to protect its users from large-scale data collection with the iOS 14 update of April 2021.
Finally, Google has joined this club too. In spring 2021, the world's most used browser made an official announcement that it will stop supporting third-party cookies. The change in the use of cookies will take place sometime in 2023.
When you visit a website, you can expect a cookie notice. The user is then given the choice to determine which information may be stored and/or shared. A cookie is a piece of code that adds extra functionality to a website. Websites use cookies to remember a user's action so that they are not asked to perform an action again and again.
As a result, they help to offer a better, more personalised user experience. Third-party cookies are created and placed specifically by websites other than the website you are visiting. Some common applications are cross-site tracking, retargeting and ad serving.
What are third-party cookies?
First- and third-party cookies
When it concerns a third-party cookie, the code comes from a different domain, in other words code from an external server. If the source of the code is the same as the domain, we speak of first-party cookies.
The disappearance of third-party cookies is part of a bigger movement, and the reason why we are shifting from a cookieless world to a privacy-first world is our core activity this year.
What does a cookieless world mean for your ads?
It is clear that third-party cookies will be a thing of the past within a few years. This will undoubtedly also have consequences for online advertising. Cookies are an easy way to collect information. That is why they are widely used for all kinds of different purposes. Think of anything from ad targeting to the personalisation of a platform.
With the disappearance of third-party cookies, the following challenges arise for your online advertising:
- Remarketing
With the disappearance of third-party cookies, it is becoming increasingly difficult for advertisers to invest in remarketing. Because of so-called Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), users can be kept on remarketing lists for a shorter time. This makes it even more important for online advertisers to focus on first-party data.
- Analytics & conversion tracking
Because of a stricter policy on cookies, the reliability of data in, for example, Google Analytics will decrease. Because of blocked cookies, returning visitors cannot be recognised. Ultimately this will also affect the evaluation of campaigns, and in some cases the impact of this can only be analysed after a longer period.
- A/B testing and personalisation
All personalised user data that is stored in the browser will be affected by the changing privacy measures. With the disappearance of tracking cookies, it is no longer possible to follow visitors' online behaviour over a longer period.
From this we can conclude that the possibility of personalisation in campaigns is being limited. In addition, the data is not fully reliable in all cases. After a certain time, each unique user is namely counted as a new user.
What now?!
Because third-party cookies are going away, it is important to think about the tools we currently use to achieve our goals. With the disappearance of third-party tracking, we become more dependent on platforms such as Google and Facebook. This is because first-party data will increasingly take precedence.
At BE Digital we are therefore thinking hard about which steps we need to take to be well prepared for the cookieless future.
Would you like more information about the cookieless world? Get in touch with BE Digital without obligation to see what we can do for you, or take a look at the whitepaper from the Data-Driven Marketing Association. In it they go even deeper into the disappearance of third-party cookies.