The Empty Cookie Jar.
A scary, scary world, without the multi flavoured cookies, that the jars are usually full of.
The major drawback of traditional media advertising was that it lacked precision. Brands had to cast a wide net by broadcasting a plethora of messages with the hope of reaching the target customers. The internet brought about a dramatic transformation in advertising through the introduction of third party cookies that enabled marketers to track user’s browsing behavior, build detailed customer profiles, deliver personalized experiences, and drive campaign effectiveness. However, the burgeoning concerns over data privacy and the growing enforcement of privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, has prompted major web browsers to phase out third-party cookies that have long been the backbone of online advertising.
As the digital marketing landscape pivots towards a cookieless world, marketers must adapt their strategies for reaching audiences effectively. This blog will explore a few practical approaches for navigating this major disruption.
Strategies for the Cookieless World.
Go back to basics.
Combine Zero-party data — information about preferences and needs that a customer voluntarily shares with the enterprise through surveys, feedback forms, sweepstakes, et al, perhaps, in exchange of incentives, with First party data — transaction information and browsing history collected directly from the customers through their visits to website, app, and other touchpoints, in order to develop a more holistic understanding of customers. This comprehensive information enables marketers to create campaigns that are personalized and privacy-compliant.
A major coffeehouse chain that we know of, uses its loyalty program to gather customer data, including purchase history, preferences, and location. This valuable data provides them the ability to send personalized offers and recommendations to its customers through its mobile app which enhances the overall customer experience and drives loyalty.
Contextual Advertising.
It is a targeted approach in which ads are displayed based on the context of the content that is being viewed by the user. Instead of relying on user-specific data like browsing history or personal information, contextual advertising looks at the keywords, images or themes of the web page in real time to determine which ads to show. Advancements in technology have vastly improved the accuracy of categorizing contexts and matching adverts accordingly.
A major sports apparel and footwear brand that we know of, works closely with publishers to display ads in the context of sports-related content. When a user reads an article that contains tips on running, the brand’s ad promoting their latest running shoes is shown alongside the content, which drives up the likelihood of engagement.
Establish Consortia.
Build partnerships with data providers, upstream and downstream companies and other players in the value chain in order to gain access to complementary datasets, which can help fill the gap created by the absence of third-party cookies. Consider the example of collaboration between Healthcare App, Pharmaceutical firm, and Health Insurance Provider.
The healthcare app captures data on users’ health metrics such as exercise habits and dietary preferences. The pharmaceutical firm collects information on medication usage and prescription history. The health insurance provider shares anonymized claims data related to medical treatments and healthcare utilization. By exchanging and analyzing this data, the three partners can identify trends in patient health, adherence to medication, and healthcare costs. They can then collaborate on targeted health promotion campaigns, personalized treatment recommendations, and insurance plan optimizations to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare expenses.
Interest based Targeting.
This innovative approach pioneered by Google called Topics, as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative, replaces the controversial Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) approach. Topics categorizes users’ browsing interests into nearly 300 broad topics like Formula 1 Racing or Rom-Coms. When visiting a participating website, the browser shares the user’s top few topics from the past few weeks for ad targeting. Google claims Topics offers more privacy and transparency than FLoC and cookies.
After extending the cookie deprecation deadlines quite a few times, in order to develop a viable replacement, in Q1 of 2024, Google finally started disabling cookies for 1% of Chrome users. It also initiated testing of the Privacy Sandbox initiative and its effectiveness and reception remain to be seen among advertisers, regulators, and other stakeholders. Given Google’s dominant position in this arena, its solution suite will significantly impact the future of ad targeting.
Conclusion.
There exists a strong imperative for marketers to stay flexible and responsive to emerging solutions in order to capture value effectively. The transition will also necessitate a change in measurement analytics to evaluate the impact of campaigns accurately. At Acies, we are closely monitoring the evolution of this space and are developing appropriate methodologies to support our clients’ needs. To discuss the topic in greater detail and work with us, contact us at reachout@aciesglobal.com