Imagine browsing an apparel website. Then, after a while, browsing another website whose dealings are in jewellery. What was searched a few minutes back, is seen as ads in the present website that is being browsed.
But, all this is going to change.
Starting January 4, search engine giant Google will roll out the Tracking Protection Tool to one percent of Chrome users which would restrict third-party cookies by default.
In 2020, technology company Apple blocked the usage of third-party cookies, and in September 2021, with the update of iOS 14, it became compulsory for apps to request permission in order to track users.
It is not just Google and Apple. Mozilla Firefox and Safari, which represented 23 percent of browsing activity (according to a 2021 report), are other platforms that did away with the cookie in 2013. They introduced Intelligent Tracking Prevention in place whose speciality involved in blocking third-party cookies by default and limiting certain first-party cookies.
Third-party cookies, which are placed on the device of the user by a different website, have been an inseparable part of the web for nearly 30 years, as put by Google.
Nearly 83 percent of marketers depended on data collected by third-party cookies, highlights Statista in a report. Further, 51 percent revealed that third-party cookies made up a majority of the data in their companies, the report says.
With Google doing away with third-party cookies by the end of 2024, how are brands or marketers prepared for a cookieless world?
What will be its effects? How prepared are brands?
As per Rajat Abbi, vice president – global marketing, chief marketing officer, Schneider Electric Greater India, operating without cookies will initially pose challenges when it comes to targeting and personalisation. This is because the absence of third-party cookies would make it difficult to tailor ads precisely to user interests.
Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer – marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki concurs with Abbi. Apart from personalisation, the absence of third-party cookies would affect use cases like re-targeting, customer loyalty, enriched profile and audience discovery, which is used in programmatic ad delivery. This would impact the measurement of the ad dollar spent, he adds.
However, Gowthaman Ragothaman, founding chief executive officer of Aqilliz, mentions that, though third-party cookies’ elimination would affect the OpenWeb, first-party cookies are still around.
He says, “Hyper-personalisation (using AI and real-time data) strategies can continue with first-party trackers as it is being done right now with nearly 80 percent of brand investments.”
For Cleartrip’s Kunal Dubey, chief marketing officer, they would look to outsource martech and data science ventures to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to consult them in order to leverage the possibilities.
In the case of Maruti Suzuki, the brand would follow suit and is exploring partners in Martech who will drive better personalisation, respect customer preferences and supplement first-party data.
Schneider Electric will adhere to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and meet the requirements for handling personal data as defined by the law.
In August, the Lok Sabha passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. As per PRS Legislative Research, data fiduciaries will maintain the accuracy of data, keep data secure, and delete data once the purpose has been met.
Steps to tackle in a cookieless world: First-party data and contextual targeting
The brand marketers and the expert that Storyboard18 connected with stressed on the importance of first-party data, and reliance on it. Seventy-three percent of Indian organisations used a blend of first-party and third-party data for marketing activities, states Ernst & Young in a 2022 report.
When one visits the official website of Mondelez, they are bound to come across, “we and third parties cookies are used for facilitating your navigation, personalising content, tailoring advertising to your interests, and measuring site usage.”
When in 2022 Storyboard18 connected with Anil Viswanathan, former vice president – marketing, Mondelez India, he had said, “We have set up a consumer digital organisation where the team is concentrating on our owned media platforms. Through this, we are collecting our own first-party data. It is also about engaging with consumers on an ongoing basis, gathering data and making it smarter along the way.”
According to Abbi, the absence of third-party cookies would impact the ROIs and ROAs of marketers. But exploring methods such as utilising first-party data, employing contextual targeting, and adopting privacy-centric technologies would provide immense potential for innovation. These techniques would enable the effective implementation of personalised advertising.
Another alternative to third-party cookies is dependence on walled gardens. As per Medium, a walled garden is a closed ecosystem in which all the operations are controlled by an ecosystem operator. And, some of the biggest known walled gardens are Google’s Ad Data Hub, Meta’s Facebook Advanced Analytics and Amazon Marketing Cloud.
Ragothaman reveals that brands are comfortable partnering with all the walled gardens, which account for nearly 80 percent of digital advertising today. However, his worry is that each of the walled gardens is now forced to have its own APIs (Application Program Interface) for interest based advertising, re-marketing and measurement respectively.
In his view, the performance marketing team should take on the additional responsibility of sharpening the saw on attribution (analytical science of determining which marketing tactics are contributing to sales or conversions, states a website) results and redeploying monies.
For Cleartrip’s Dubey, along with first-party data (the data collected based on the interaction with our brand), they would also rely on zero-party data (declared by the user and used with his/her consent).
Ragothaman advises brands to build their own first-party data strategy. With the advent of digitisation, every brand should behave like a “direct to consumer” brand with a direct relationship with the consumer, instead of being dependent on walled gardens as intermediaries. “This is particularly important as the internet matures from Web2 to the world of Web3,” he adds.
Abbi agrees with Ragothaman. Along with Srivastava, they stressed on the importance of contextual targeting. Abbi says, “Contextual targeting involves placing ads based on the context of the content rather than relying on user data, ensuring relevance, and maintaining user engagement without the crutch of cookies.”
Srivastava adds to this. “Contextual targeting evaluates placements based on: Categories – What is the genre?; Sentiment – Is it negative or positive?; Emotions – What emotions are being conveyed?” he explains.
However, Ragothaman is of the opinion that contextual advertising must be the “stop-gap” arrangement, not a long-term strategy.