Depletion of Third-Party Cookies – Due to increase in privacy measures, Google is phasing out third party cookies
What are cookies?
A cookie is a small piece of text sent to your browser by a website you visit. It helps the site remember information about your visit, which can make it easier to visit the site again and make the site more useful to you.
A brief history
The “Cookie” was born in 1994 and was first used by Netscape’s internet browser. The original intent of the “Cookie” was to store the current state of the browser on the local device rather than on a centralized server.
Today, it is used to identify and track users and their behaviors as they browse the internet. As the internet grew to include new technologies and devices such as mobile phones, new identifiers were created to continue to track users and their behaviors.
Online advertising has built a whole industry around user identification. The ability to track, target and segment users has been driven by IP addresses, cookies, and device IDs. Where these IDs are not accessible, algorithms and mathematic models are applied, using signals radiated by users online to speculate an individual’s identification. This is sometimes referred to as “Finger Printing” or “Identity Graph technology”.
What is happening to 3rd party cookies?
At the start of 2020, Google announced that it was removing third-party cookies from Chrome by 2022. It promised to use those two years to develop a private alternative that users and advertisers (including Google) would be happy with.
Although Firefox and Safari had already phased out the third-party cookie, Google’s post said that its changes will happen over the course of two years as the tech company works with advertisers to ensure that this pivot doesn’t destroy the online advertising business.
What marketers will be doing moving forward once Cookies get completely phased out
When third-party cookies are removed completely, advertisers will need to use different solutions for re-targeting campaigns and measuring attribution.
The trade desk open-source Unified ID 2.0, Neustar’s Fabrick ID and LiveRamp’s ATS aim to create shared cookieless identify solutions. This is done by collaborating with the industry partners to keep the internet open while maintaining privacy and keeping the interest of publishers and advertisers at heart.
One of the most important solutions is using 1st party data to find the information needed. Ad tech companies such as Xandr and The Trade Desk are in the process of developing ways of tracking users while maintaining a higher standard of privacy.
Xandr has shared its multi-faceted approach to identify solutions. The solution will facilitate high value transactions for buyers and sellers post 3rd party cookies.
This solution allows advertisers to work with first party data in a flexible way, including authenticated user data, contextual solutions, and technology to execute audience-based buying across screens.
Xandr’s solution will support browser provided frameworks and ad serving without personal data.
“Xandr’s end to end platform meets the needs of global client base as well as broader industry while maintaining higher respect for consumer privacy”, said by Ewa Maciukiewicz, Senior Director, Product Management, Xandr.
The removal of third-party cookies may also change the digital landscape. More brands are looking for contextual advertising and good management of first party cookies as an alternative. This could result in an increase in new ways of digital marketing.
Unified ID 2.0
Unified ID 2.0 is an approach gaining traction lately, with the support of larger exchanges, such as Xandr and The Trade Desk.
Unified ID 2.0 is a collective industry effort to create identifiers for users on the internet while maintaining user privacy. It will act as a new, improved version of cookie as an identifier.
A user will log into a website with their email address and an identifier is created based on an anonymized version of that email address. This identifier will regularly regenerate itself to ensure security.
If the user logs in through a supply partner that operates in Unified ID 2.0 they get the added benefit of being automatically logged in to any site that’s part of that supply network.
How are advertisers affected?
The post-cookie ecosystem is still uncertain. One certain thing is that advertisers, publishers, and users will all be affected.
Open-source digital frameworks such as Unified ID 2.0 are a result of broad collaboration among publishers, tech providers, and buyers. The willingness to adapt and develop a new solution to improve tracking and user privacy is a high priority for ad tech companies in 2022.
We are an agnostic advertising platform and are closely following updates from Google, The Trade Desk, Xandr, and other tech partners. We have the flexibility to choose the best solution for our client’s performance.
We see the creation of an alternative to cookies, where internet users can opt-in or out of sharing data and receiving ads, as a positive development.
The future programmatic ecosystem will be more flexible and Audience platforms will integrate with the highest performing alternative. With the multiple solutions available, we will act as a filter for advertisers to manage the transition.
Conclusion
The open internet will benefit by taking a step from third-party cookies.
Google’s announcement was not surprising, and there are platforms that continues the plan to adapt to a cookie-less internet.
With continuous testing of partly Google’s Privacy Sandbox and FloC solution, adtech providers are finding where further development is needed.
Brands and advertisers may be worried about how to manage the new solution. There are platforms has the capabilities to find the best solution for brands and act as the filter for brands.
Google’s announcement was big news, but not surprising. The entire adtech industry has been working together on creating a solution that will benefit brands, publishers and users.