The internet has redefined how we as a society interact, operate, and connect to one another. If last year has taught us anything, it is that the internet and online platforms have become integral in how we operate everyday life and have changed the way we use the internet. While technologies like Google and Amazon have made online actions easier than ever, everything comes at a cost. In a previous blog, we explored how Apple’s new iOS 14 changes will be affecting the experience for both users and businesses. This month, we are diving into the larger conversation about how major digital giants are redefining the future digital landscape amidst a “cookie-less” internet. Read more on what cookies are, why they matter, how they will affect businesses and advertisers, and more.
What Are Cookies and Why They Matter
According to the Federal Trade Commission, internet cookies are the information that is saved by your web browsers and used to recognize your device in the future. In Layman’s terms, cookies are tools that help websites track activity to better understand you as a user. While there are many benefits to internet cookies, there are also some drawbacks that have sparked concerns, policy changes, and legislation.
Pros:
For Consumers – more customized user experience and increased convenience
With the added knowledge collected from cookies about the consumer’s buying habits, search history, and user activity, websites are better able to identify and suggest content and products that similar users found relevant. Additionally, cookies allow websites to save information such as passwords and usernames to streamline user convenience.
For Businesses – more accurate understanding of consumer habits
Brands have long used cookies to track their website’s visitors to better understand their audience and fulfill their needs. Whether it be what content your favorite websites release to the most popular pieces of merchandise on an online store, this information collected by cookies gives businesses and advertisers greater insight into knowing the consensus of their audience.
Cons:
For Consumers – an infringement on user privacy
Many concerns about cookies surround data collection and whether or not the user knows their data is being collected. Additionally, consumers have mixed emotions around how their data is being managed, commoditized, and sold.
For Businesses – increased risk of losing customer trust
With this change in consumer sentiment, companies must align themselves with consumer shifts to avoid losing their audience’s trust. According to ClickZ’s article analyzing a study conducted by Publicis Sapient, they found that while consumers had a positive view of technology, they had a negative view on data collection.
What is Changing and How This Affects Businesses and Advertisers
Many of the new national and international policies and legislation combatting excessive data collection center around gaining users’ consent to be tracked and promote an “opt-in” choice. In order for businesses, especially large online platforms, to continue building consumer trust, it is in their best interest to comply with these shifts toward more transparent online interactions.
With the implementation of this newly added “opt-in” choice on platforms such as Google and Facebook, it is likely that there will be a decline in raw information gained from consenting cookie tracking. As user information will become less available from third-party browser cookies, companies and marketing professionals will need to adapt and pivot their efforts in collecting, understanding, and reaching out to their audiences.
What Steps You Can Take
So where does this leave businesses and advertisers? Don’t fret. Sure there are concerns about how this will changing the industry, but businesses and marketers are no stranger to having to pivot and adapt.
Firstly, companies and marketers should both optimize themselves for when major platforms shift their sites. For example, with Apple’s iOS changes, here are 4 steps to prepare your Facebook advertising account for what’s to come. (Note these precautionary measures may not apply to everyone and vary between sites and businesses.) In addition to getting their interfaces ready for the shift, it is key that companies utilize the current cookie information they have access to before it disappears.
Here are 5 points to keep in mind when adjusting to the cookies-less future according to Advertising Week 360:
- Audit your existing data
- Prepare a plan for first-party data
- Strengthen marketplace partnerships
- Understand your audience contextually
- Leverage cookieless signals such as probabilistic data
Of this list, it is important to emphasize the increasing importance of first-party and CRM data. In this new age of data collection, the strongest data a company can use to understand their audience is the rich data they are able to collect themselves from their consenting users. Businesses and marketers will be tasked with creating new offerings and strategies to get the enthusiastic consent of their audiences. With a growing hub of first-party data, businesses and marketers will be able to explore more authentic and tailored targeting and retargeting strategies.
While this transition will be a major shift in how users, brands, and marketers operate online, keep in mind that this will become a worthwhile investment into a greater online experience overall. Though this does mean brands and marketers will have to strategize new ways to identify, target, and reach audiences, this change holds many opportunities to innovate along this unpaved road. All in all, the post-cookie digital landscape is wide open to new tools and strategies that engage in the user-business data exchange while improving trust and transparency along the way.
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