A Cookieless World
By Natalia Tanner
What exactly is a cookie?
A cookie is a piece of data from a website that is stored within a web browser that the website can retrieve at a later time. Cookies are used to tell the server that users have returned to a particular website.
History of cookies
The cookie was created in 1994 by Low Montulli to create a more seamless experience for people in the commercial side of online transactions. The term itself was derived from an earlier programming term, “magic cookie”, which was a packet of data programs that kept data unchanged even after being sent and received several times.
Cookies role in the Marketing scene
A tracking cookies is a small string of text that gets added to the user’s web browser when they visit certain websites. The data that the cookie collects from the browser is stored on the websites the user visits. Third-party cookie technology is used to facilitate various functions for online advertisers, these include e
- Activating retargeting ads- more on that later
- Storing data (the items you’ve added to your shopping cart on an e-commerce site)
- Retaining data previously entered into forms (used for autocomplete functions, like name, address, phone, etc.)
- Saving user preferences
- Authentication: Cookies communicate the user’s account details and long-in status to account-protected servers- which sites you are logging into and using
cookie monster gif
How does online advertising work?
We live and breathe consumer/audience targeting every day. As a media targeting company, making sure our clients fully understand the process is key to their success. It helps them make informed decisions about their plans and campaigns and be able to communicate their goals clearly.
What do Cookies Store?
Note that most cookies don’t contain any personal information like your name, email address, or phone number. Some of the data cookies collect includes your
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
- Behavior on your website or on search engines
Advertisers use cookies to keep track of which ads you’ve been served (more specifically which ads your browser had been exposed to)
Googles announcement towards a cookieless world
Google recently announced its integration towards a cookieless world and being that it was the only web browser left to acquire this policy, marketers, advertisers, and publishers need to look into another way of tracking and tracing customers. The main purpose of this policy was in order to create a more private, transparent, and trustworthy internet for all using it. This can pose a huge problem for marketers and advertisers due to the main purpose that cookies were created.
Cookieless world the future of advertising
The truth is, they’ve actually been living in one already- kind of. Third-party cookies have already been phased out of Safari and Firefox browsers. Google announced its plans to make third-party cookies obsolete on Chrome browsers by 2022.
How to prepare for the end of third-party cookies
The end of third-party cookies is offset by the rise in other types of privacy-focused tracking.
- Prepare for sustained disruption: Develop a strategy to navigate the overlapping, cascading effects of identity and privacy changes from Google and Apple. Planning to make substantial shifts in the media mix by retiring, reinventing, or redirecting cookie-related media spending.
- Rethink ad measurement practices: Cookie obsolesce will compound existing challenges of digital ad measurement, including transparency and interoperability standards and attribution accuracy, reset measurement baselines, invest in market research, and lock in key resources, from the agency staff to publisher-direct deals.
- Adapt to a walled garden world- get comfortable with walled garden world scenarios and prioritize investments in media, technology, and data capabilities accordingly. Be ready to increase allocations to Google, Facebook and Amazon. Expect to manage an increasing number of direct media buys with platforms and publishers- and less cross-publisher programmatic display.
How will going cookieless affect consumers?
As already mentioned before, the biggest benefit is improved consumer data privacy. Apart from that consumers can also expect less aggressive marketing or less personalized marketing when they are interacting with brands. Overall, the relationship between the users and brands will transform from a third party to the first-party point of contact. This is not something new, it is already a common thing, this first-party interaction will help brands of all sizes build improved relationships with their customers and deliver great customer experiences that will in the long run improve the brand’s consumer relationship, providing them with a more private and interpersonal relationship in between them.
