Preparing for a Cookieless World: What Marketers Need to Know

When you visit a website, you may have seen third-party cookies with an option to accept or decline. Third-party cookies are created by other website domains different from the one the user is visiting. These are a small piece of data stored on users’ browsers. For marketers, third-party cookies are helpful to enable personalised experience and allow for precise targeting. However, with the rising concerns of consumer privacy and data, cookieless marketing is gaining significance. 

As the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, the shift towards a cookieless world is becoming the new normal.  Today, marketers need to deliver personalised experiences while maintaining consumer privacy. The data privacy in digital marketing is gaining popularity. 

Nonetheless, increasing issues surrounding user privacy, data security, along with new regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, are fostering  browsers to eliminate third-party cookies. You may have heard about Google third-party cookie phaseout, the last significant browser that relied exclusively on cookies, will be phasing it out. This represents a significant turning point in digital marketing. For years, third-party cookies were the backbone of digital marketing, and with data breaches and scandals, it has  made the consumer cognisant of how their data is collected and used. 

In this guide, we will understand the reasons why third-party cookies are phased out, explore the rise of privacy-first marketing, and highlight how to prepare for the cookieless marketing future. 

Third-Party Cookies: Uses and Risks You Need to Know 

Have you ever thought about the uses of third-party cookies and how they benefit marketers? Let’s understand why third-party cookies are used:

• For Precise Audience Targeting – Third-party cookies allow marketers to segment their audience based on past purchasing behaviour, needs, and preferences. This enables precise targeting and retargeting, ensuring the ad reaches the right audience at the right time. 
• To Provide Personalised Experience –  Markets can easily create tailored content or campaigns to deliver personalised customer experience, resulting in higher engagement. Third-party cookies track and monitor customer behaviour across multiple websites. Marketers can make data-driven decisions with valuable customer insights across websites. 
• For Effective Performance Tracking – Third-party cookies collect data on clicks, page views, and conversions. Cookies help marketers use this data to measure campaign effectiveness and optimise strategies.

As far as the marketers are concerned, third-party cookies are helpful to them, but what about consumers? Why is there a growing concern about third-party cookies? Let’s explore the risk associated with third-party cookies:

1. Emerging Privacy Concerns – Third-party cookies are a primary privacy risk, as they allow providers to closely monitor users’ behaviour across multiple sites, often without clear consent. Over time, providers can gather data about users’ behaviours, including what they view and purchase, and develop a detailed profile of each user. This data is continuously collected in the background, typically without users realising how much information is being collected. Study shows that third-party breaches is the cause of more than 33% of data breaches. 
2. Diminished Clarity on ‘Who is Collecting Data’ – Users can seldom determine the identity of the individuals collecting their data or the motivation behind it. Users are usually unaware of any actions that take place behind the scenes; there is typically little or no disclosure regarding how information is passed along or sold to another party, causing confusion and discomfort. Many users have expressed feeling alienated in the use, management, and protection of their individual data. Also, if there is inadequate reporting and transparency on what consumer data is worth to brands, consumers would otherwise have little ability to manage their own privacy.
3. Regulatory Related Risks – Today, businesses are being pressured to manage user data responsibly. Businesses that continue to track users via third-party cookies may put themselves in the position of acquiring information without clear consent or transparency; oftentimes, this may be in violation of regulations. 

All businesses could face serious consequences if they fail to manage the behaviour of cookies; if businesses do not abide by data regulations, they could face severe repercussions or fines, or even worse, face challenges to their reputation that could prove difficult to come back from. Beyond the legal and regulatory implications, businesses risk undermining consumer trust and the level of consumer comfort around a brand’s handling of sensitive information in the future. 

The Rise of Privacy-First Marketing 

Privacy-first marketing emphasises the responsible use of data to create personalised customer experiences. Rather than using ways that infringe on customer privacy through tracking, brands are turning to first-party data strategies, which is when customers voluntarily provide businesses with their information through their websites, mobile apps, surveys, and loyalty plans. This not only respects the user’s privacy but ultimately allows companies to establish deeper, trust-oriented relationships with the consumer. Research affirms that 94.1% of businesses believe you can achieve a balance between data collection for marketing while respecting customer privacy. 

Marketing with a privacy-first focus also fosters brand loyalty. Customers are more likely to connect with brands that are transparent about how they use data, respect their privacy, and genuinely consider their preferences in the process. Brands committed to a privacy-first ideology are also similarly situated in some of the most competitive marketplaces, as they are creating strong perceptions of trust and accountability. 

Reasons for the rise of privacy-first marketing 

• In recent years, the world of marketing has altered significantly. Many consumers now have a greater awareness of the collection, storage, and use of their personal information, leading businesses to restructure their marketing strategies. This marketing behaviour of surveilling customer behaviour, monitoring information, and gathering user data unchecked falls under the umbrella of ‘privacy-first marketing,’ which balances user privacy with customised and effective marketing campaigns.  
• Privacy-first marketing emphasises transparency, consent, and the ethical use of consumer data. Both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States have provided organisations with legal pressures to implement privacy-centred approaches. However, along with legal compliance, data privacy in digital marketing is continuing to gain traction due to changing consumer expectations. Research shows that more and more users will engage with brands that appear to respect their personal information, while the opposite (perceived intrusiveness) will lead to the loss of trust and brand loyalty. 
• A key principle of privacy-based marketing is data minimisation: gathering only the data that is needed for a specific purpose. This principle captures a clear transition away from older marketing practises that involved gathering mountains of data from users, often without their consent. With data minimisation, brands can lower risk and come closer to potentially more useful engagement with users. Marketers are focusing on a quality-over-quantity approach, dispensing with all third-party cookies and intrusive tracking technologies like pixels, and using first-party data strategies (data collected from their customers) and anonymised data insights.
• While personalisation is still a significant goal, privacy-based marketing gets to personalisation through different methods. Rather than relying on explicit, continual behavioural tracking measures, marketers are using aggregated insights with contextual targeting and preference-based data to personalise integration campaigns. For example, email campaigns can be personalised with engagement on a brand’s platform rather than data obtained from third-party data brokers. In this way, privacy-based marketing offers a way to personalise content in a relevant way without breaching privacy, meeting the user experience and ethical data use in balance.
• Technology is essential to enable privacy-first marketing. Marketers can now use new tools to securely store consumers’ consent data, and use consumers’ data for analysis, while keeping compliance and privacy front of mind.  Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning allow marketers to identify patterns in anonymised data that may be useful for predictive marketing, eliminating possible exposure of individual consumer data. Overall, privacy-first marketing continues to be effective in organisations with confidentiality in mind for the consumers’ data.
• Privacy-first marketing also promotes brand loyalty. Customers are more likely to engage with brands that are upfront with their practices, protect their information, and consider their preferences. Brands that adopt a privacy-first strategy are well-positioned in some of the most competitive markets, cultivating notions of trustworthiness and accountability.  

Ultimately, a move to an evolving privacy-first marketing perspective is unavoidable, and it is good. The momentum we see is a direct result of the evolution of regulation, consumer expectations, and technology. Brands with privacy as a backbone can have marketing strategies, continue to build trust, and have a productive relationship with consumers. In this unstable world of sensitive data, privacy-first marketing is not simply the law of the land anymore; it has become a competitive advantage that will propel us into the next generation of marketing.

Flourishing in a Cookieless World: Next Generation of Marketing

Digital marketing is about to undergo a major transition. Google is set to remove third-party cookies from Chrome, and it is time for marketers to begin thinking about a future marketing without cookies. This change will alter the long-standing ways of tracking users across sites to serve relevant targeted ads, and advertisers will begin to reconsider how to deploy their marketing dollars in a manner that is mindful of privacy. 

The Cookie-Free Transition

Did you know that third-party cookies have been the foundation of online advertising for several years? These cookies allow brands to track and report on online consumer activities and build rich consumer profiles for personalised advertising. Due to increasing consumer privacy concerns and data theft cases, we have started to see calls to default block third-party cookies. As it turns out, Google’s third-party cookie phaseout, the world’s most popular browser, is planning to block third-party cookies as well. This has ushered in a cookie-less world. 

1. Consider Investing in Collecting First-Party Data: Acquiring third-party data is becoming more and more challenging. As such, first-party data (i.e., data you gather directly from customers via your website, newsletter, loyalty programmes) is a valuable marketing resource. Use first-party data to learn about your users’ preferences, behaviours, and intent while still adhering to privacy legislation.
2. Contextual Advertising: Rather than tracking each user, contextual advertising targets the ad based on the content of the webpage. This strategy can keep advertisements relevant and user-engaged marketing without cookies.
3. Privacy-Focused Customer Engagement: Prompt users to opt in to sharing their data through newsletters, sign up for accounts, or loyalty programmes. Users appreciate transparency about data usage. Transparency helps build trust and provides marketers with permission to access actionable data.
4. Use AI and Predictive Analytics: AI can analyse aggregated and anonymised data to collect trends, establish audience segments, and personalise experiences, while maintaining a non-intrusive way to track user interests. Predictive analytics allow marketers to gain predictive insights into user intent within the established framework of privacy.
5. Adopt Alternative Tracking Technologies: There are technologies such as server-side tracking, clean rooms, and unified IDs that allow marketers to gather actionable insights with reduced privacy risk. Advertisers can utilise these types of technology to maintain proper campaign efficacy when facing new cookieless ecosystems.
6. Prioritise Brand Loyalty and Retention: Constraints on targeting will lead brands to invest in building relationships and quality content in order to spark organic engagement. Engaged, loyal customers are significantly more likely to engage and convert, thus minimising third-party targeting needs.

Final Take

The marketing without cookies is not a hindrance, but an opportunity for marketers to centre their practice around privacy, trust, and innovation with first-party data, contextual advertising, data insights from AI, and consumer engagement with transparency. Brands can now engage their consumer with a combination of safe, innovative, and effective practice with trust and transparency.

It is important to prepare for the shift away from third-party cookies. Analyse your analytics to determine what identifiers you are already collecting. These are identifiers that are going to help you make the transition away from third-party cookies and ensure you can still serve curated, valuable content to your audience.

Brands that are proactive about adapting to this transition will retain marketing efficiencies and a brand reputation and new loyalty, especially in a privacy-first world. Take your brand to the next level and get ready for the cookieless future with Brand Mender today.