Preparing for the Phase-out of Advertising Cookies: 4 Alternatives You Need to Know About

Do you realize how third-party cookie deprecation can affect your advertising performance?

Do you realize how third-party cookie deprecation can affect your advertising performance?

    You could lose $10 billion in revenue because of the limited ad customization options you’d be left with.

    Google also suspects that publishers will deprive themselves of 50-70% of their profits if they don’t adopt an alternative approach to advertising data collection – and it totally makes sense. With Google Chrome expected to block third-party cookies after Firefox and Safari in 2023, it’ll soon become impossible to perform audience targeting and frequency capping for almost all users. 

    Your advertising strategy’s effectiveness will automatically decrease when you have nothing but non-personalized content to share with the audience. 

    If this doesn’t convince you to quit the wait-and-see approach and find alternative solutions, we don’t know what would. 

    Please understand that the time to develop advertising strategies without any help from third-party cookies is already here. With a proactive approach, you can turn the challenge into an opportunity to stand out in the crowded ad world.

    While many forward-thinking brands have already started testing the waters of alternative options, it’s still not too late for you to take the leap.    

     

    4 Best Alternatives to Advertising Cookies

     

    Marketers worldwide are looking into the following alternatives to ensure the cookieless landscape doesn’t render their business obsolete. 

    1. First-Party Cookies

    First-party cookies are a good alternative to third-party cookies because they are more private and secure. They’re set by the website users visit and can only be read by it. Simply put, users’ personal information is not shared with other websites.

    These cookies also don’t allow marketers to track user activities on other websites. You can use them to collect data for analytical purposes. 

    The good news is that you already have first-party data in multiple locations within your advertising database, so you won’t have to start from scratch. You just need to polish your skills to locate and capitalize on it.

    Start by breaking the data silos and unifying all the information onto one platform. Think of all the data stored within your POS, social media, and call center. A robust onboarding platform will help you build a well-connected infrastructure. Once done, you can augment resources using advanced analytics and data science.

    Next, a full-funnel approach will help you activate first-party data effectively and create segments for personalization. Aim to build a solid profile for each user to develop highly targeted advertising campaigns.  

     

    Helpful Tips:

     

    • Leverage AI tools like predictive audiences for an advanced personalization plan. 
    • Create value-packed content to promote recurring engagement on your website.
    • Offer free downloads and produce newsletters and gated articles to get more people to sign up. 
    • Make the most of “remember user” settings and boost the browser experience for visitors.    
    • Stay compliant with all privacy laws by telling your audience about tracking before using first-party cookies on your website.
    1. Topics

    Google Chrome has introduced this alternative to third-party cookies after facing disapproval for Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). 

    Topics intends to protect users’ privacy by analyzing their browsing history to determine their interests. Each website that implements Topics API will be assigned a category. As users move across the web, Google Chrome will record the categories they visit the most, like “Travel” or “Fashion and Beauty.”

    After a week, the browser will round up the top five categories on the user’s device and add a sixth one randomly before sharing the list with the websites usually visited. Marketers will use this data to create targeted ads. It will be deleted after three weeks to maintain user privacy. 

    Topics has been curated to exclude gender, race, and other sensitive categories from the targeted advertising landscape. Since it lends control to the browser, it allows users to see and control how their data is shared. They can remove topics they don’t like or disable the feature entirely.  

    It’s important to mention that Google announced the initial testing of Topics on Adsense from July 1, 2022. It intends to modify the program’s user control design and other technical aspects based on the trial learnings. 

    Many marketers are sceptical about the adoption and efficacy of Topics. They’re concerned about the potential challenges they’ll face with microtargeting because the data is stored for a limited period. Some also worry that Topics will push publishers with valuable inventory to opt out by delivering advertising on other platforms using their data.

    For now, we can’t say for sure how Topics will perform– only time will tell. But as a marketer in a cookieless world, you must look forward to the wide-scale rollout of this program. 

    1. Fingerprinting 

    Fingerprinting is another alternative to third-party cookies. In advertising, this technology will identify users using the technical characteristics of their browsers and devices. 

    So, when users navigate the web, the fingerprinting technology will collect information from the browser using third-party apps on their devices. This means the data collection process will be handled by a third party instead of the website or app a user interacts with. 

    The information gathered will then be shared to many websites and apps to allow user tracking across channels. This may include the operating system’s name, the browser’s language setting, the device’s IP address, time zone, and the web browser version being used.

    For advertisers, it’ll be fantastic to collect data on the users’ daily activities. However, many big corporations have already called out this tracking method since it takes away more control from the users than third-party cookies and involves non-consensual user tracking. Besides, many people are still unaware of this technology in advertising.  

    1. Universal Identifiers

    This solution involves taking the consent of users to create unique IDs for them that can be used on different websites. Marketers can use ID numbers to personalize their campaigns by buying matching ads. 

    While examples of universal identifiers are under development, you may have heard of the email address-based identifier called Unified ID 2.0. The IDs are designed to automatically regenerate and contain no sensitive information about users to ensure privacy. On top of this, users can modify the data-sharing settings based on their preferences.

    One-time sign-on and consent will be required to collect a user’s email address when they visit an app or website integrated with UID 2.0. As a publisher, you must be honest and transparent about the data exchange with the users. 

    While this seems like a good alternative to third-party cookies, let’s not ignore the fact that not all users are willing to give away their email addresses. 

     

    Approach the Cookieless Advertising Future Confidently with Napkyn

     

    Just because advertising cookies are about to become a thing of the past doesn’t mean you can’t strike the right balance with your marketing strategies and provide your audience with personalized experiences. 

    Brace yourself to uncover new ways to reach customers, deliver personalized messages, and measure audience interaction with third-party cookie alternatives.

    Get in touch with our experts to discuss how you can continue to thrive in the cookieless advertising landscape with modern data analytics solutions.

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