Cookies Aren’t Going Anywhere, After All
In a newsflash that probably shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise to anyone, but somehow still managed to be just that, Google announced a third-party cookie u-turn. Read on to see what this means for advertisers.
While not going ahead with the removal of third-party cookies, Google is continuing its “privacy sandbox” initiatives that have already been rolled out and will give Chrome users more individual control over their privacy options. You can read more about the announcement in the Search Engine Journal article titled, “Google Abandons Third-Party Cookie Phaseout”
What does this mean for you and your digital marketing? A lot remains to be seen, but this reversal will likely be beneficial for advertisers more than anything else.
We’ve worked with our clients to apply recommended privacy-centric solutions in GA4 and Google Ads such as Enhanced Conversions and Consent Mode. These initiatives benefit users and advertisers by providing accurate event data for optimising your ad campaigns, and they need to remain in place as part of Google’s privacy-enhancing initiatives.
The impact of this change on the digital advertising landscape remains to be seen, so we still recommend applying what we’ve outlined below across your digital platforms to help ensure you’re following the best privacy and data management practices for your users.
What Are Third-Party Cookies And Why Does This Matter?
Third-party cookies are small data files stored on your browser by websites and ad networks that you haven’t interacted with – hence the name, “third-party”.
Imagine you’re browsing a recipe website. An ad network could place a third-party cookie on your browser while you’re there. This cookie tracks your browsing habits across different websites, allowing the ad network to build a profile of your interests. Advertisers can then use this information to help target their ads to you across the web.
Here’s Why Cookies Not Ending In Chrome Matters For Advertisers:
- It means the continuation of more precise targeting: Third-party cookies allow advertisers to build detailed profiles of your interests. Without them, it was going to be harder to target specific demographics or people who have shown interest in certain products or industries.
- Measurement benefits: Advertisers like to know if their ads are working. Third-party cookies help track actions on websites and apps such as clicks and conversions. Their continuation means it will be easier to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, therefore making it more straightforward for advertisers to optimise their spending.
- It still requires a shift in thinking and approach: Advertisers will need to adapt even with cookies remaining in play. This means shifting to focus on first-party data (information collected directly from users) and contextual targeting (placing ads relevant to the content of a webpage) a little more than we’ve had to, up until now.
Overall, the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome was a challenge to how advertisers have operated. Despite this change announced by Google, there are still valuable privacy-first changes that advertisers should adopt. Let’s take a look:
Preparing For A Privacy-Centric Future
1. Implement Server Side Tracking
Client-side and Server-side are two different ways of tracking user data on your website. Up until now, marketers have only needed to use an analytics platform (such as Google Analytics) to collect and collate data from websites. By implementing Server-side tracking, website data is also routed via your own website’s server. This means you have more control over what data is being tracked, and how to manage it – while protecting your users’ data.
Server-side tracking is something that you will probably need your web developer to help with. A quick overview to help with this covering the two major ad platforms is below:
- For Google – advertisers can use Tag Manager’s server-side option, however, there are some limitations with this for certain web platforms. Please check Google’s info and intro guide to using Tag Manager Server-Side Tracking here.
- For Meta – Meta has rolled out their Conversions API framework for the past 2 years, making this more of a focus for all ad account setups and event tracking. We have been applying this across all of our existing and new Meta advertisers, so if we’re currently managing your Meta Ads, you should be covered. Please let your account manager know if you have any queries about this. Click the link for a rundown about Conversions API in Meta Ads.
2. Cookie Consent & Consent Mode
Applying transparent data collection practices means those delightful and persistent pop-ups asking for user approval of cookies when browsing. For any websites aimed at the European market, Google’s Consent Mode framework implemented on your website is also a must.
While this applies to the EU and UK markets alone for now, it’s something to plan on implementing in the near future, as we’re likely to see similar online privacy legislation here in New Zealand and Australia at some point.
These initiatives help build trust with your audience and give them some control over how their data is collected and used by websites and advertisers.
3. Enhanced Conversions
Enhanced Conversions is a new feature that can improve the accuracy of an advertiser’s conversion measurement and unlock more effective ad bidding in Google Ads campaigns. It supplements the existing conversion tracking setups by sending anonymised first-party conversion data (Google calls this “hashed” data) from your website to Google in a privacy-safe way.
We have already begun to set up Enhanced Conversions in most of our client’s accounts for direct Google Ads goals – so if we’re currently managing your ad campaigns this is already done or on the way to being done for you. To learn more about Enhanced Conversions please check with your account manager or read Google’s overview on the Google Ads Help page.
4. Collect First-party Data
First-party data is data you own; like your own customer lists, app users, or website visitors added to your remarketing audiences. Collecting and utilising consented first-party data helps inform your ad targeting – ultimately making your advertising efforts more effective.
If available, we have most likely already been using your first-party data in your ad accounts to provide the best quality data to the ad platforms’ algorithms. We’ve done this by loading your remarketing audiences in from Google Analytics and by uploading anonymised customer lists provided by advertisers into Google Ads or Meta Ads to help inform audience signals.
Next Steps
With the move to improved user privacy, taking a proactive approach is key. Staying up to date with privacy-related changes, and being proactive to adopt privacy-centric changes on your ad platforms will help see you navigate future updates smoothly, ensuring your marketing strategies continue to deliver effective results.
Talk with our team if you have any questions about preparing for these changes and the privacy-first advertising road ahead.