Google has postponed the elimination of third-party cookies from their platform until 2024.
Back in 2020 marketing and data giant Google announced that the company would be fully eliminating the utilization of third-party cookies from the world’s most popular web browser, Google Chrome. This change deals a blow directly to businesses big and small, especially those with a social media component. The removal of third-party cookies as a data-gathering technique means that data gathering via cookies must now all be conducted either by a business itself or through second-party cookies in which two explicitly partnered businesses share customer information.
Why would Google eliminate Third-Party Cookies?:
Despite the reliance on third-party data by many advertisers, the world-wide movement for digital privacy has influenced data giants to pursue more private avenues for data collection. Consumers have long battled against the utilization of third-party cookies in order to better conserve their personal data from being shared to companies with which the consumer may have never associated with. With consumer privacy in mind, the European Union has enforced strict laws surrounding the discovery and distribution of consumer data in both 2016 and 2018. The United States has not been as strict in their legal enforcement against privacy breaches, but the EU’s changes to the Union’s laws have been enough to prompt immediate change.
While Google is still in the process of eliminating the use of third-party cookies, other popular browsers such as Firefox and Safari stopped the use of such cookies back in 2013.
How can we survive the loss of Third-Party Cookies?:
Thankfully the digital marketplace will long survive the loss of the utilization of third-party cookies; advertising always finds a way, but how can your business prepare for this loss of consumer data access?
Develop First-Party Cookies: It had become incredibly easy to rely upon third-party data in order to best reach audiences, but there are tools available that make cookie development simple for businesses large and small. We all, as consumers, leave a digital footprint whenever we visit a website which helps the businesses with which we engage personalize our advertising experience, the loss of the third-party cookie is not the loss of consumer data – You will just need to gather it yourself.
Prioritize your Customer Relationship Management Database: Otherwise known as CRM databases, these digital databases are first-party databases which a business manages and updates themselves. This data should be maintained in live-time across all facets of the business so that the marketing team may best understand all the available data about consumers, making advertising efforts more effective.
One effective way to keep your CRM well-polished is by maintaining a regular email marketing campaign, bolstered by a rewards-based sign-up for a company newsletter to keep consumers engaged.
Stop utilizing Cookies all together: There are resources available to you which help you gather consumer data without ever using a cookie. Such tools include M1 Data & Analytics’ SmartpiXL; developed to thrive, not just survive, in the world without third-party cookies. From the very beginning, M1 has worked to directly collect and maintain consumer data without invasive collection methods that would make a customer feel unsafe.
To learn more about tools like SmartpiXL, please contact M1 or take a look at our suite of services.
