The future of digital media in a cookieless world

Over the last few years, industry experts and consumer advocates have raised concerns that third-party cookies violate users’ privacy. Certain privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA were put into place to ensure consumers’ personal data are tracked only with their permission and with full transparency. However, Google does not think those laws are enough. In 2023, Google will stop supporting third-party cookies in its Chrome browser altogether. With Chrome being the leading web browser in the world, advertisers will have to learn how to leverage first-party data from their own customer base or consumer information from reliable sources.

What are cookies?
To understand what a cookieless world will be like, you first need to understand what digital cookies mean. First of all, they are not a delicious snack that you can eat – although that would be nice! A cookie is a small text file created by a website which is automatically placed on a user’s computer or mobile device by the user’s web browser. That cookie enables a particular website to capture and store certain user data, such as their browsing activity. Cookies were developed to enhance users’ web experience as well as help advertisers understand what consumers do while online.

Today, most websites allow “third-party” cookies which are cookies placed by an advertiser from another company. These third-party cookies track a visitor’s behavior, collect certain user data and are often used to serve targeted ads throughout a user’s digital journey. 

Advertisers greatly depend on third-party cookies to help serve targeted ads. With the elimination of third-party cookies on Chrome, it may look like doomsday for advertisers. But all hope is not lost. Advertisers will still be able to serve relevant ads to their ideal audience through alternative targeting methods.

The benefits of first-party cookies
In this third-party cookieless world, advertisers will still be able to use first-party consumer data from their website visitors and their own customer information. With information gathered by their own cookies, advertisers can create relevant ad campaigns that attract those who have already shown interest in their product or service.

Verified targeting
Verified targeting works by allowing consumers to give digital brands permission to use their data. The main difference between verified targeting and targeting through third-party cookies is that consumers need to provide explicit permission to collect data about them through the use of cookies. A major hurdle of this opt-in process is that third-party cookie data collected cannot be used by advertisers to target these consumers on other websites. However, digital ad experts have recently developed “Unified ID” technology which will allow the sharing of the same user ID among multiple websites. Using this technology, a consumer could be targeted by the same advertiser along their digital journey.

Contextual targeting
Contextual targeting can also be an effective alternative for digital advertisers. It allows advertising for a product or service that is related to the content on a webpage a user is visiting without collecting any personal user information. Contextual targeting allows digital marketers to place their ads alongside relevant content for their product or service.

Obviously, contextual targeting is not a replacement for cookies. However, this method allows digital advertisers to target consumer based on their interests without requiring user data.

The conclusion is that although third party cookies are going to be phased out soon, websites can still collect information about their visitors, but in a more anonymous way and with the full consent of that site visitor. Also, advertisers will continue to be able to target people throughout their digital journey by leveraging the methods above, and these advertisers can get almost the exact ROI on advertising as they can with the current cookie-based targeting standard.