What the world waited for so long, seems to have become a reality. From January 4, Google began testing Tracking Protection, a new feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default. “We’ll roll this out to one percent of Chrome users globally, a key milestone in our Privacy Sandbox initiative to phase out third-party cookies for everyone in the second half of 2024, subject to addressing any remaining competition concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority,” Anthony Chavez, VP, Privacy Sandbox, Google, said. One percent of Chrome users account for about 30 million people on the Internet. As advertisers and marketers readies for a new world sans third-party cookies, it is believed that there is a need to create a multi-pronged strategy. “While its current impact remains limited to one percent of Chrome users, businesses understand the necessity of proactive adaptation. To this end, they should implement a multi-pronged strategy to ensure business continuity and audience engagement in the coming years,” Laura Quigley, SVP-APAC, Integral Ad Science, said.
Google Chrome held 64.73% share of the browser market in CY23, as per data from Statcounter – a global market research company. Second in line is Apple’s Safari at 18.56% share of the market, followed by Edge at 4.97% and Firefox at 3.36%. At the fag end of the line is Opera at 2.86% and Samsung Internet at 2.59%.
Do or die moment!
Industry experts call this moment one of the most critical ones, stating that brands face a pivotal moment – adapt or be left behind. A strategic overhaul of existing technology stacks is essential to thrive in this evolving terrain. This requires addressing immediate challenges while building future-proof foundations for advertising success. Some of the steps that stakeholders are expected to take include prioritising first-party data. This means that in the cookie-less era, brands must cultivate rich first-party data gardens. Employing advanced analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) tools helps glean valuable insights from existing customer interactions, enabling personalised experiences and targeted advertising. “ It is important to note that consumers don’t just sit on one channel. A key part of advertisers spending their budget effectively is about understanding where their audiences are across the open Internet while unifying that data to gain transparency into performance. CTV, OTT, music and audio streaming, mobile apps and online gaming are just some of the fast-growing channels on the open internet,” Tejinder Gill, general manager, The Trade Desk, added.
Industry solutions like Unified ID 2.0 are understood to be helping marketers drive holistic, omnichannel campaigns that reach consumers in a privacy-conscious way across the open internet. With Unified ID 2.0, brands can start with authenticated first-party data and enrich that with third-party data to find the right relevant audience. Marketers believe that the end of third-party cookies presents an opportunity for brands to innovate their data and targeting practices. This is not a death knell, but rather a calling to cultivate more genuine and transparent relationships with customers. “Brands that have started building rich customer intelligence will thrive with targeted campaigns being constructed using robust CRM insights. Contextual targeting fuelled by browsing behaviour and website content adds relevance without intrusiveness and Google’s Privacy Sandbox offers privacy-preserving APIs ready to be explored and implemented. In sum, the key ingredient must be transparency and clear communication regarding data practices and respect for user choices which will build essential trust,” Vanda Ferrao, CMO, WOW Skin Science, explained.
Industry experts believe that brands further need to embrace contextual targeting. Moving beyond user IDs, contextual targeting solutions leverage the semantic meaning of content to deliver relevant ads. “Investing in contextual targeting unlocks new avenues for reaching engaged audiences without compromising privacy,” Quigley added.
During a 2022 survey carried out among business managers and above who were familiar with their company’s customer experience, marketing tech, or customer data strategies from various countries across the globe – 54% stated their brands used exclusively first-party data to personalise customer experiences because the data is higher quality than other data including first and second-party data, while 39% said first-party data was easier to manage because their brand owned it, as per market research firm Statista.
The age of privacy!
To be sure, the cookie-less future demands a tweaked revenue playbook. It is believed that by prioritising first-party data, embracing contextual targeting, and fostering direct-to-consumer relationships, brands can defend revenue and unlock new avenues for growth in a privacy-focused market. “The industry’s hush-hush cookie prep involves two main moves – futureproofing and data fortresses. On the first front, it’s all about investing in identity solutions like Privacy Sandbox, exploring contextual targeting, and getting cosy with first-party data co-ops. As for fortresses, think consent management platforms, data clean rooms, and robust governance policies – all wrapped in transparency for user trust,” Bhavik Mehta, founder and CEO, Thinkin’ Birds Communications.
Meanwhile, as Chrome’s deprecation of third-party cookies begins, Google Ads and Display and Video 360 have been experimenting with interest-based audience solutions. This includes affinity, in-market, custom audiences and demographic segments on Google’s display network, using a combination of privacy-preserving signals. In the first quarter of 2023, Google’s ads platforms experimented to understand how its Interest-based audience (IBA) solutions perform when they rely on a combination of privacy-preserving signals. These signals included contextual information, the Topics API from the Privacy Sandbox and first-party identifiers such as Publisher Provided IDs. Its research did not compare the performance of third-party cookies to the Topics API alone, but rather a broader suite of signals available in a privacy-first world. “We learned that interest-based audience solutions with privacy-preserving signals showed promise compared to third-party cookies. The experiment showed that when using interest-based audience (IBA) solutions with privacy-preserving signals on the display network, Google Display Ads advertiser spending on IBA — as a proxy for scale reached — decreased by 2-7% compared to third-party-cookie-based results. For conversions per dollar, as a proxy for return on investment, the decrease was 1-3%.1 Finally, we also observed that click-through rates remained within 90% of the status quo.2 And we observed similar performance for Display and Video 360,” Dan Taylor, VP – Global Ads, Google, explained.
To be sure, industry experts believe that agility, adaptability and a commitment to privacy will be the cornerstones of success in this new era. And to achieve this, it is believed that forward-looking marketers are approaching the next era of digital advertising by bolstering their first-party data. Needless to say, first-party data can enhance a marketing strategy, increase effective targeting, reduce wasted spend and improve the consumer experience — with access to more relevant ads, without sacrificing privacy. “Fundamentally, it’s going to be about doing more with less data. Brands would need an integrated playbook where content interaction insights can be used to guide audience identification and content distribution in the most optimised manner,” Aman Gupta, head of marketing, Farmley, said.
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