Remember how painful iOS 14 was for performance marketers? An even more seismic shift is coming, and many marketers are still unprepared.
Yes, I’m talking about the imminent death of third-party cookies. If you’re reading this article, this is probably the 1,000th time you’ve heard it mentioned.
And that might be part of the problem: “the death of cookies” might now be one of those familiar phrases you pass by without realizing the depth of its ramifications.
If you’re a little unclear on what kind of havoc the “death of cookies” will wreak on your campaigns, stay with me for a few minutes as I go over:
What is changing from a technical perspective. What is changing from a marketing perspective. 4 real steps to take ASAP to start planning.
What is changing from a technical perspective
First of all, let’s be clear: we’re talking about the death of third-party cookies, not first-party cookies. You own your own cookies and the data they collect, which will not be affected by the Chrome update.
Third-party cookies, which pass data from your website to third parties (such as advertising platforms) on your site to paint a picture of the user and user behavior, are the ones that go away.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because that’s exactly what happened with iOS 14.
In this update, Apple’s introduction of “App Tracking Transparency” prevented companies from tracking user behavior through third-party apps. Suddenly, advertising platforms (especially Facebook) couldn’t help advertisers understand what users were doing after engaging with their ads.
Cookies, either own or third-party, are fragments of code saved by the browser or application on the user’s device. They contain user and session IDs, ad click IDs, timestamps, and features (eg, if you’re signed in to an app).
In short, they are (or were until recently) the most common way to identify and track users, and they’re about to disappear from Chrome (which is followed by Firefox and Safari in doing so).
If you’re using pixels, UTM parameters outside of your own environment, GTAG (ask your analytics team), or other browser-based and stored tracking, you’re in a world of transition.
What is changing from a marketing perspective
It might be easier to list what doesn’t change, but here’s a quick list of the biggest hits:
attribution is changing Many advertisers still rely on click-to-action and last-click attribution, and that data is about to be torpedoed. This could have a huge payoff if it forces advertisers to adopt more holistic measurement strategies that consider the entire user journey.
Performance monitoring is changing If you like the ability to see performance at the ad and/or keyword level, maintaining a certain level of visibility will require some updates to the most commonly adopted tracking settings today.
guidance is changing The use of pixels for retargeting efforts and the accuracy of platform audiences are likely to change. We will face huge challenges in understanding how to identify valuable users and create ads that are relevant to them.
Data collection is changing The more proprietary data we can collect and hold, the more control we have over our users’ understanding and engagement. If you don’t have a plan to collect and ingest more first-party data, you’ll be at a huge disadvantage.
Dig deeper: 7 paid media reporting tips when tracking is messed up
With all that in mind, we hope you now realize that the time to start planning was about a year ago, and if you’re behind the curve, you’d better read on.
Get the daily search newsletter marketers trust.
Business email address Subscribe
Processing…
Check the terms.
4 real preparation steps to do as soon as possible
I break it down for my clients into four buckets:
CRM Cleanup Data Collection Platform Tracking Solutions Server Side Hosting
1. Focus on CRM cleanup
At the very least, you should be able to reference your CRM data to understand your users’ point of entry and identify your most valuable users.
Make sure you have a plan to assess the cleanliness of your data, your reports and your dashboards and you can get things in good enough shape to trust what your own data is telling you. Work at
2. Adjust your data collection
Own data will become even more important as data from third-party sources erodes.
Make sure your ad campaigns, organic campaigns, property properties, etc. are fully maximized to collect your own data and have a plan to use it in your campaigns (email, SMS, retargeting, etc.) ).
3. Implement platform solutions
Get really comfortable with Google’s enhanced conversions, Meta and LinkedIn conversion APIs, and the nicknames you’ll see other platforms use. They help ensure that ad algorithms can track valuable actions both online and offline, which is essential to future-proofing your tracking efforts.
(Bonus points if you combine platform solutions with proprietary data to teach platform algorithms to find your best users by tracking offline conversions.)
4. Go to the server side
Analytics and data stored on servers you control (unlike browsers that can change their rules at any time) are a great hedge against cookie erosion.
Implement initiatives like server-side GTM and start investigating CDP (customer data platform) options like Segment and Tealium to take at least partial ownership of your data and analytics.
Winning strategies for a data-first, privacy-first future
If you need some good news after reading all that, I have a couple of things for you.
Cookie-based tracking had major inherent flaws. This change is an opportunity for the industry to reevaluate tracking, measurement and attribution methodologies. It is highly unlikely that the marketing industry will face anything so transformative in the near future. You may carry some battle scars from this transition, but if you can get through it with your job and your brand intact, you’ll be a better marketer for it. Ultimately, we’re all in the same boat, figuring it out together.
Dig Deeper: 3 Ways Search Marketers Can Prepare for the Big Cookie Crumble
