Your New Favorite Cookie Has No Flavor

So Google pushed out the Cookie-apocalypse from 2022 to 2023 to now 2024. you had a whole extra year to get ready. What did you do? Nothing? Don’t fret, you still have time. Or maybe you have no idea what that first sentence means… then you should probably keep reading.

What is a Cookie?

At the most basic form, a cookie is a small bit of data. It is unique to your computer or device to help identify you, but also to improve your web experience. Anyone that has ever gone to a website to view an item and later that item appears in ads to them, has been cookie’d. These little bits of data are also responsible for saving your passwords/usernames and shopping carts when you leave and return to websites.

First-Party vs Third-Party Cookies

A good way to think about this is that first-party cookies are the information you are explicitly giving to a site, such as your name and address when you sign-up for an account or login to a website. That site then owns that data and it does not get shared.

Third-party cookies are what get pushed across domains or sites from tracking a user’s activity on the web. This is what enables companies to market relevant content to their users based on past behaviors. This is also the data that creates privacy concerns because you are not choosing to share this data.

Why are they removing Cookies?

This started with privacy concerns back in 2018 when GDPR was passed in the UK. It was followed by CCPA in the US; Spurring more state privacy laws in 2021. Ultimately people were starting to get more concerned with being tracked and any personal identifiable information (PII) being sent.

And it wasn’t just government legislation pushing this call for more privacy. Apple was the first to remove cookies from its web browser, Safari, on iPhones starting in 2017 and all were gone by 2020. It also now requires apps on the iPhone to ask permission to track a user’s activity. Firefox also has been blocking some third-party cookies since 2019. Google will be the next juggernaut stating they plan to remove cookies from Chrome sometime in 2024 (which is a second pushback from the previous date of late 2023). For a full list of changes, see Seer’s blog on Privacy.

These companies are trying to protect the end user from having their information and habits shared across the internet. While that does sound noble, it will make the jobs of marketers a bit harder and content served to you perhaps a bit less tailored.

How will content be marketed to users and how can you ensure relevancy?

Google first spoke of using FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), but has since backed away from that in favor of Topics. FLoC ultimately had too many categories that would lead to building a too detailed view of a user, almost the opposite of maintaining some anonymity. Topics is similar in that it will group people into cohorts, but based on fewer categories. There were also some concerns over grouping people based on categories that can be sensitive to users and may become erroneous, which Topics should avoid using.

Learn More:

From FLoC to Topics: Google Pivots Approach to Interest-Based Advertising

Therefore, Chrome, the largest browser in the world, will own the process for grouping a user’s data into topics, which mirrors cohorts. There will be options to change settings in Chrome so that you are not placed in a cohort but this will require the user to take action and may not be intuitive to find.

Now the billion-dollar question: how will marketers reach these users? Answer: Same as before, we will use Google Ads but based on contextual topics and signals vs any third party cookies.

So how will businesses ensure they are reaching the right user? If you are a business owner or run marketing for one, you will want to use the time you have to collect as much first-party data as you can. You know the saying ‘Content is King?’ Well first-party data is now king.

With all these privacy concerns and legislation, there may be concerns that people will be less open to signing up. It is a fair thought, but when asked, ‘83% of consumers are willing to share their data to enable a personalized experience’ (Omnichannel guide, Feedonomics 2022). These are probably not the same people that have downloaded an ad blocker but ad blockers have been around a while and ads still survived.

For those who truly understand ads, a more personalized experience just makes sense. Personalization is a best practice for email, the same applies here. If I am a vegetarian, I really don’t care to see your steakhouse ads. It's a bit insulting actually. 

First and Third Party Cookie Examples

Let’s take some scenarios on how personalized marketing before and after acquiring first-party data looks. Enter our personas: 

• Becky is the epitome of an online only shopper. She never goes into stores and prefers to find a good bargain regardless of the brand. She is 35 yrs old and works remotely for a large shoe retailer in procurement. She is often at her computer and doesn't have time to cook long meals but wants to eat better. 
• Sam is an in-store shopper by choice but very brand loyal. They are 22 yrs old and working on their medical degree. Sam also orders out often and wishes there was a more cost-effective way to eat well.

In the current third-party cookie world, Brand X is looking to acquire new user sales for their home delivery food service. Historically, they would rely heavily on search ads to reach their target demo of 21-30 yrs olds, but have also invested some in Facebook ads. Brand X was able to find Becky via a Facebook ad that clicked her to their website. On the site she was cookie’d with a third party cookie and served a display ad days later on the Google display network. She remembered that that site looked like a great option to find healthy meals and decides to click the ad. 

Likewise, Sam uses social media and recalled a TikTok ad showing a meal system for meal prep delivered to your door. They can’t remember the exact name so they Google ‘meal delivery service’ and see an ad for Brand X which wasn’t the company they saw on TikTok but they liked the ad. They click the ad and read for a few minutes but then get a phone call & close the browser on their mobile phone. The next day, Sam is visiting one of their frequented sites on their desktop computer and is served an ad for Brand X. Clearly, they were targeted and cross-device tracked based on their browser cookie.

In both examples above, neither Sam nor Becky had to do anything other than click ads or visit websites to show their user intent. However, in the cookie-less future when browsers remove those cookies, that display ad Becky got may not have been served. Becky is technically outside of their target age demographic and targeting ads based on demographic info such as age would exclude her. For Sam, that ad served while reading news on their desktop would not have occurred. 

When 3rd party cookies are removed, the best way to reach Becky may be to have a Facebook ad based on lookalike audiences and serve her an incentive to give her email or cell number for an immediate promo code, remember she loves a bargain! Then Brand X will have her consent to send her emails or other SMS marketing.

The way to reach Sam in the future will likely be via TikTok ads showing one of the people they follow eating Brand X’s delicious meals. Remember Sam is brand loyal so it may take more to get them to trial something new. The TikTok influencer may have a special promo code that Sam can use on the website. Once Sam visits the site from a TikTok ad, it would benefit Brand X to serve them an offer for a free trial if they sign up for email marketing. Sam may cancel the subscription after but at least they are consenting now and Sam may forget to cancel altogether.

As you can see in the last example, there will be no ad following Sam around just for visiting the website from TikTok. TikTok will know where Sam’s interests may be, but those stay within the walls of TikTok. It wll be the job of TikTok ads to convert Sam. And since Sam mostly shops in store, they would not be easy to target from online shopping behaviors. If Brand X is only doing search ads, its targeting is likely to come up short on the most relevant clues to reach Becky and Sam.

Taking it a step further, if you have 1st party data, you likely have names that can be used to serve a personalized offer via email or website experience. Becky or Sam would pay attention to something that is calling them by name. There is no shortage of ways to get personalized with your marketing using 1st party data.

Put Succinctly 

As a marketer, now is the time to act and try to get as much first-party data as you can. You will still have options to target users, but nothing will beat the specificity you will have by collecting first-party data. Get users to actively sign-up or give you their information: emails, cell for SMS texts, birthdates, interests. Any info you can get straight from the user will help your CRM assign them correctly and build CRM lists you can use in your marketing.

As a consumer, feel better knowing the powers that be are trying to protect your data (for better or worse) and sign-up for some email lists to get a promo code and better ads from your favorite brands.