How do you prepare for the end of the Chrome cookie?
We already know that Chrome third-party files will be blocked. Google announced this news in January 2020 and stood by its decision. However, the final date for their withdrawal has been postponed, and 2023 is now considered realistic. This is an enormous challenge for companies and marketers who will have to radically change their strategies. At present, it seems most sensible to increase their activities in the area of first-party cookies.
Cookies are small text files stored by a website in your browser. They relate to information about a particular user. Their main purpose is to personalise the user’s experience on a website. Based on the data collected, content can be more easily and effectively tailored to internet users’ preferences, increasing the effectiveness of companies’ marketing activities. At the same time, cookies make it possible to track and record a user’s every move.
Data is automatically recorded on the products they browse, the time they read an article, the contents of their basket and the overall time they spend on the website. This way, the data obtained has become a valuable currency to support companies’ marketing activities.
We can divide cookies into several categories, including consideration of their origin. One of these is third-party cookies. These are information that is not stored by the website directly visited by the user but by other websites that cooperate with it. They create a user profile based on their previous search history and online behaviour. These cookies are primarily used for advertising and analytical activities.
Cookies are extremely important for personalising advertising content, identifying consumers and tailoring relevant messages to their profile to most effectively persuade the user to take a specific action. In terms of retargeting, these are advertising activities based on data collected by the advertiser.
These are adverts displayed to recipients who have already had contact with a brand or its specific product but have not made a transaction. They also target those users who are interested in a similar offer to the one offered by the company but have not yet had the opportunity to discover it.
The ability to identify users of other sites is closely linked to third-party cookies, i.e., data from other sites. In this case, third-party cookies, which will soon be in short supply, are needed for retargeting to be able to participate in auctions, bidding and display advertising.
However, first-party cookies, i.e., direct cookies saved by the visited website, will still be in play. These are used to collect and remember data about users and their settings. In 2023, only third-party cookies will be phased out; first-party cookies can still be used freely.
This means that those companies which have so far conducted their advertising activities based on their own user data will have an advantage. Therefore, it is a good idea to start changing your strategy now, focusing on analysing your users’ behaviour and creating segments of their interests.
Businesses are likely to seek new solutions and support from companies specialising in creating and delivering tools to analyse user data and create personalised advertising and customer journey scenarios, RTBHouse being one of them. It has introduced TURTLEDOVE at the product level, allowing, among other things, relevant product recommendations to be displayed, and performance-based TURTLEDOVE to extend the capabilities of the bidding function.
There is not much time left before the final blocking of third-party cookies, so some companies have already started to shift in this direction. This does not mean the end of effective targeting, but the strategy needs to change, taking a slightly different approach.