So long Cookies. The web's getting a privacy makeover.

Let’s talk cookies, and not the full of energy aka calorific, chocolate-chip, mid-ride-cafe-stop kind, I mean the digital variety. Why, you ask? Because understanding the cookieless future is crucial for everyone - the transition away from third-party cookies is a significant milestone in the evolution of digital advertising... and that impacts a lot of us.

On January 4th 2024, Google removed third-party cookies for 1% of its Chrome users, marking the start of its plan to be a cookieless world by 2024. Although 1% doesn’t seem like a large amount, this will represent around 30 million users globally.

What are Cookies?

Cookies (on the net) are a tiny bits of information that are stored on your device. This text is unique to your device, and this allows you to be tracked.

There are three flavours 😉 First Party, Second Party and Third Party. The main 2 cookies are First Party and Third Party.

First Party Cookies: These are cookies you accept when you visit a site and this allows the website owner to collect data, remember language settings and make the user experience better.

Third Party Cookies: These are created by domains that are not the website. These are used for online advertisers to gather the data.

Google has been preparing in many different ways for the removal of cookies. So have we. Starting with the sunsetting of Universal Analytics, with the addition of GA4 being Google’s measurement option. One of the big changes with GA4 was its change to a cookieless tracking approach. To deal with this, GA4 uses tracking ID’s instead of third-party cookies and has also integrated machine learning to fill in any possible gaps it may miss.

What does this mean to us all?

The significance of a world without cookies means that your ID is no longer there to be tracked. We use these ID’s to track performance, categorise users and so much more. This means we could target ads based on your interests, sites visits and your journeys in the online world. With all this data gathered up we could make sure you are receiving relevant ads. So without the ID, the current 1% of users will now be targeted totally differently online.

Another struggle will be tracking and reporting performance; Google made the step in the right direction with GA4, however there are still so many platforms that use cookies to track performance.

How have we got ahead?

3rd party media and tech partners: We have understood how our media and tech partners have prepared for the change, to ensure they have future proofed their solutions and are capturing / tracking data using first party cookie. It’s important to understand which cookies are being used to collect data, to determine any limitations - importantly, we've also build up a bank of new tech partners, who have been born out of the opportunity that a cookieless future offered.

Gaining more first party data: As the cookie crumbled, we’ve also been working with our clients to build up their first party data, to support with future retargeting techniques. This has included enriching existing customer data, through a range of methods including surveying, competitons and lead campaigns with Meta, YouTube and TikTok, along with acquiring new first party data through collaborations with endemic media partners.

As mentioned, this is a significant milestone in the evolution of digital advertising, particularly as more brands in our space move towards direct to consumer models...

So, what next?

• Briefs should have first party data KPI's

• Time to get creative with things like contextual targeting and understanding your audience/s is vital

• Relationships with media owners directly is going to be key

• Accept that reporting will be patchy for some time

• Building and maintaining relationships with your customers AND non-customers on our database / social / in-store have never been more important and valuable.

We've been waiting for this day to come for a long time, we are well versed and prepared, if you want to chat more, don't know where to begin etc, drop me a note.