Why Prep for Cookieless Despite the Google Delay
Recently, Google announced a delay in phasing out third-party cookies, but make no mistake—the end of the traditional cookie lifecycle is inevitable. This shift prompts an urgent need for businesses and marketers to adapt to a cookieless world. In this blog, we'll delve into why embracing this change is crucial and how you can seamlessly transition to innovative and privacy-focused alternatives. Stay ahead of the curve as we guide you through the strategies to thrive in a future without cookies.
Digital Marketing Without Cookies
Third-party cookies, once crucial for tracking user behavior, have long faced scrutiny over privacy and security concerns. Many browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have already blocked or limited them. Google Chrome plans to eliminate third-party cookies by the third quarter of 2024.
Unfortunately, many healthcare marketers aren’t prepared.
Is Your Team Ready for Cookie Deprecation?
A 2023 global survey by IT market research firm IDC revealed something startling.
Approximately 60% of brand and agency executives believe user tracking will soon be obsolete. Yet 41% of those executives are unfamiliar or only moderately familiar with targeting methods beyond cookie-based identifiers.
How do marketers prepare for radical change, protect privacy, and continue to reach and engage their customers effectively? Identity solutions organizations, including Throtle, have been preparing for this evolution. We can help clients mitigate the impact of cookie deprecation.
Mitigate Cookie Loss: Conduct a Channel Audit
Before developing a cookieless strategy, healthcare marketers must conduct a strategic audit of their current campaigns. The audit includes evaluating the challenges and risks associated with different channels, as well as the role cookies have played.
Each step of the audit has multiple parts:
Step 1: Assess Channels
Developing a post-cookie digital marketing strategy begins by exploring the channels used in advertising. Start by segmenting channels according to risks.
Higher Risk Channels: Programmatic and Social Media
Programmatic advertising and social media have become more popular as marketers try to find a replacement for third-party cookies. They offer vast reach and dynamic targeting capabilities. Social media also offers transparency and control over ad placement, while programmatic advertising provides efficiency and scale.
Despite these advantages, they are fraught with potential problems. These disadvantages can undermine campaign effectiveness and brand integrity:
Fraudulent activity: Real-time bidding and automated processes increase the risk of activities such as fake clicks or impressions.
Privacy concerns: The continual evolution of new privacy and consent requirements enable a real threat of unintentional non-compliance from sharing restricted data or information.
Lack of transparency and brand risks: Marketers often lack visibility into where their ads appear because AI algorithms automate ad placement. As a result, ads may show up near content that goes against a brand’s values.
Lower-Risk Channels
Channels that tend to offer lower risks include:
Connected TV (CTV) allows precise targeting at the household level without reliance on cookies. It provides real-time data, allowing advertisers to adjust campaigns promptly. CTV platforms typically maintain strict content policies.
Digital Audio platforms support targeting based on user preferences and behavior. Digital audio generally has lower fraud rates compared to visual ads.
Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) ads are visible in public spaces and can reach targeted audiences in real time. They provide interactive experiences while minimizing risks associated with fraud, privacy breaches, and lack of transparency.
Step 2: Explore Channel Use
Once completing a deep dive into the channels used and categorizing them according to risks, the next step in the audit is to scrutinize the role cookies played in each.
Unpack the Onboarding Process
To fully understand how cookie deprecation impacts each channel and then mitigate any losses, it’s important to understand the onboarding process for each channel:
Review the ways you introduce new users or customers to each channel.
Verify which steps rely on third-party cookies for user tracking or personalization.
Determine what partners are involved.
The final part of reviewing the onboarding process is pinpointing where third-party cookies integrate into the channel’s process. Identify cookies’ roles in:
User identification
Ad targeting
Performance tracking
Review Benchmarks
Identify the current match-rate benchmarks for each channel and platform. Once you have determined matching rate, it’s time to assess reach, impressions and click-through rates. You’ll use this information to begin developing a cookieless strategy.
After the Audit: Model a Future Without Cookies
Upon thoroughly assessing the current cookie-focused marketing approach, consider advertising in a post-cookie world. Envisioning how channels will perform without third-party cookies can provide a glimpse of what lies ahead. These tasks provide additional relevant data:
Assess Match Rates Pre- and Post-Cookie
Remove third-party cookies from the identification process and reassess match rates. What is the difference with and without them? How does the change affect the marketing effectiveness?
Examine Cookie Impact on Other Metrics
Identify additional metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) by channel and platform. Determine the current benchmarks for each KPI:
Recalculate Metrics: Remove third-party cookies and recalculate all downstream metrics and KPIs using existing or adjusted benchmark rates.
Assess the difference: Analyze the differences with and without third-party cookies to understand the potential marketing impact.
Test Cookie Alternatives
After modeling metrics with and without cookies, it’s time to navigate the cookieless world with alternative identifiers. Alternatives to third-party cookies are becoming increasingly valuable and available.
To determine the impact of alternatives, follow the same steps as before. This time, replace third-party cookies with an alternative option and model the downstream impact across various metrics. Current alternatives include:
IP Addresses and Mobile Ad IDs (MAIDs) are traditional — and ubiquitous — digital identifiers. However, their future viability is uncertain. Privacy concerns and regulatory changes that impose restrictions on the use of personal data could restrict their usage.
ID5, UID2, ConnectID, and RampID are among the newer identity solutions. ID5 and UID2 (Unified ID 2.0) are creating neutral identifiers that can operate across the industry. Yahoo’s ConnectID and LiveRamp’s RampID offer company-specific solutions that leverage their data networks to provide cross-device and platform identification.
Other identifier solutions include Amazon’s ID++, Epsilon’s Core ID, LiveIntent’s nonID, Lotame’s Panorama ID, and Neustar’s Fabrick ID. Prebid’s SharedID is an open-source identifier.
Perfect a Cookieless Strategy
The transition to a cookieless future requires a reevaluation of current and potential digital advertising strategies.
By understanding the challenges associated with different approaches, healthcare marketers can adapt and thrive. It’s not just about mitigating risks; it’s about seizing the opportunity to innovate. Throtle can help make this happen.
As an interoperable identity partner, we navigate identity management across many platforms and systems. Our flexible approach enables collaboration in diverse data environments. We help clients manage identity through cookie deprecation and beyond.