The future of cookieless marketing

Seismic changes are on the horizon in 2023 for the world of digital marketing, driven by the end of third-party cookies.

As tracking technologies that rely on third-party cookies deprecate, marketers will face new challenges in targeting their paid ads to the right audience, and they’ll struggle to measure the performance of their marketing campaigns. 

What are third-party cookies?

Third-party cookies are generated and placed on a user’s device by a different website and not the one the user is visiting. They are used to identify a user across various websites and profile them to send highly personalised ads based on their online behaviour.

Why is the cookie crumbling now?

Privacy and the way we use data have been hot topics in the digital space for several years. Users currently have limited visibility into how their data is being processed and are targeted by brands without their knowledge.

At the start of 2020, Google announced it was removing third-party cookies from Chrome and promised to develop a private alternative that both users and advertisers would be happy with. Google has since rolled out Google Topics and Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) but has been careful to note that the technology is still in the early stages of testing.

What's the next step?

It’s time to go back to basics and employ a first-party data strategy and focus marketing efforts on consent-based advertising by obtaining users’ trust and consent before storing data. First-party data will become the new gold standard in 2023 and doubling down now to start collecting this data from your website and other interactions is important for the success of future marketing campaigns.

Final thoughts

The death of third-party cookies is bringing about drastic change to the industry, but this sort of shake up is not new to marketers. Yes, it is causing disruption, but there are alternative third-party solutions available. This is an opportunity to envision a new strategy that not only adheres to individuals’ privacy but also delivers a better experience for users.

To learn how Living can help you prepare and implement digital strategies for the cookieless future, please contact Duncan Shaw in New York, Greg Hobden in London or Gigi Yung in Hong Kong.