With third-party cookies sticking around, find out what smart marketers are doing now
Just as we were bracing ourselves for a cookie-less future, Google threw us a curveball when it announced that it will no longer deprecate third-party cookies. The unexpected announcement came 4 years after Google initially announced it planned to phase out third-party cookies. The latest announcement was met with mixed reactions following multiple delays driven by scrutiny and criticism from industry stakeholders and government regulators. Many marketers are now asking what this means for the future of digital marketing and how brands should adapt to this update. Let’s delve into what you need to know.
The big questions
So, what does this change mean?
The details are still limited, so it is unclear what exactly this means for advertisers. However, marketers can focus on what’s not changing:
- Privacy Sandbox is not going away. Unfortunately, the technology is still facing technical hiccups. While Google is no longer phasing out cookies, it continues to offer Privacy Sandbox as its privacy-preserving technology. Privacy Sandbox continues to face growing pains, with Criteo recently sharing issues they’ve faced during their testing period.
- Users will still need to opt-in to cookies. Google’s new approach allows users to make an informed choice for web browsing. So, while Google is no longer deprecating cookies, the industry shift towards prioritizing user privacy remains. Essentially, cookies are now dying a slower death rather than a fast one.
What are the right priorities for marketers now?
While some may view Google’s decision not to deprecate cookies as a reprieve, we see it as an opportunity to continue to shift towards more personalized marketing. Marketers should continue to prioritize alternatives to third-party cookies, such as:
- Collect & embrace first-party data: Focus on getting to know your customers by
interacting with them directly and gathering information through owned channels you control. - Explore contextual advertising: Instead of targeting ads based on personal information about users, place ads that match the content of the web page they are currently viewing.
- Focus on SEO: The ability to capture organic traffic through SEO is more important than ever. Improve your SEO strategy and use it to gather useful data. Some key steps to success in SEO are:
- Choose your potential customers: Identify who you want to target as your future customers. Being specific about your customers will help tailor the content to meet their search intent.
- Find the right keywords: Discover which words and phrases your potential customers will likely search for. Keywords that have high search volumes are hard to rank for, so don’t be afraid to target lower-volume keywords. Keyword research tools such as SEMRush or Moz can help aid your keyword research.
- Focus on quality over quantity in your content: Make sure your content meets the needs of your target audience with relevant information. Win over visitors, and Google, when your content highlights that you have expertise, are an authority and are trustworthy.
- Use privacy-safe technologies: Look into methods like federated learning, where the model learns from data spread out on different devices or servers, and differential privacy to study data while keeping people’s privacy protected.
- Work together on standards: Team up with others in your industry to create common rules, share the best way of doing things and solve shared problems.
- Promote clear & honest practices: Support advertising methods that are open, fair, and focus on protecting user privacy and data.
The big picture
While Google’s decision to keep third-party cookies around, at least for now, may feel like a breather, the broader shift toward privacy-first marketing remains. Now is the time to explore new strategies and embrace alternative tactics like first-party data, contextual tactics and privacy-safe technologies. By staying proactive and adaptable, marketers can ensure they are well-prepared for any future changes in the digital landscape.
If you need help with your digital marketing strategy, SEO or content development, we can help! Download our Discovery Map to help you refine your strategy and then drop us a note to learn how we can help you meet your goals.