Why Google Rolling Back Its Plans To Deprecate Third-party Cookies Doesn’t Mean What You Think

The cookie is dead. And targeted personalized advertising will be buried with it. That’s what we’ve all been told, for years. Time of death? When Google finally deprecates third-party cookie tracking on the Chrome browser.

For years, digital marketers searched for targeting and measurement solutions for the inevitable demise of cookies, only for Google to seemingly rip the carpet out from under us with their announcement last month that they will no longer move forward with third-party cookie deprecation.

Cue digital marketers celebrating a win for the industry against regulation and big tech. Many pros were more than ready to move on from years of cookie-less solution testing.

Hold the confetti. Despite the announcement, third-party cookies are hardly revived, and reverting to digital marketing solutions that leverage them is a mistake.

What do marketing leaders need to know about the future of cookies?

1.       Despite appearances, Google’s announcement may hasten third-party cookie demise. The announcement indicated that instead of an outright ban, Google will  adopt an opt-in approach to cookies that may feel familiar to iPhone users who are used to being asked if they want to “Ask App not to Track” or “Allow” apps to track their web use. If the impact is similar on Chrome, this could cut cookies down to less than 30% of Chrome users and further reduce cookies to less than 20% of all internet users.

2.       As people’s lives have become increasingly more dependent on the internet, and most have moved from a single computer home to using a series of devices that follow them everywhere they go, consumers have collectively become hyper-sensitive to the collection, sale and use of their data for marketing purposes. As a result, it is increasingly risky for businesses to continue to rely on cookies lest they alienate potential customers with creepy marketing tactics or by running afoul of personal data regulations like GDPR in the EU or U.S. state-specific legislation like the CCPA (CA) or CDPA (VA).

3.       Even in the heyday of third-party cookies, targeting solutions based on web use data never achieved the high-ROI promised land we thought they would. Solutions that consider context, timing, location and locale to reach audiences at the right moment remain the best ways to get your message in front of the right people.

What does this mean for your digital marketing team?

1.       Publishers will likely further consolidate with well-established platforms, like Google and Amazon. What this will look like remains to be seen. The recent legal decision that Google’s search monopoly is unlawful and ongoing class action suit against Google for establishing a monopoly for small advertisers indicate that the walled gardens of Google, Facebook, Amazon and other major channels may become more fragmented. That said, we know the industry will increasingly rely on first-party data collected by those channels to accurately target and track advertising activity. This will mean more reliance on individual channels’ self-serve ad platforms and direct partnerships with publishers.

2.       Measurement of digital marketing efforts will continue to get murkier. It will be easy for marketers to fall back on vibes and vague hunches to make strategic decisions, or to rely on vanity metrics, like impressions and reach, that have little to no impact on their businesses’ bottom lines. Instead, marketers should take the time to set up as much tracking infrastructure as they can to get the most complete picture possible. This is unique to each business, but it could include details such as  unique landing pages with detailed utm tagging, custom event actions in Google Analytics, automated lead tagging in a CRM or sales platform.

3.       Maintaining positive relationships with prospective customers is paramount. Marketers should focus on tactics and materials that build trust with their audience instead of creeping them out. This can include targeting ads based on contextual relevance to the on-page content to reach users when they are in the right mindset, relying on engaging content on social media that encourages users to share with their networks and only using personal information if users have offered it up via web forms.

So not only is it a mistake to roll back the shift to cookie-less marketing, but the paradigm shift could also help rebuild trust between marketers and consumers. Businesses can make the most of these most recent changes with thoughtful approaches that put the consumers’ best interest first, no matter what.

If you want to learn more about how to prep your marketing for a post-cookie world, please reach out to inquiries@standingpartnership.com today.