The end of third-party cookies is creating quite a buzz in Agencies and Brands who deal with online advertising and marketing.

The Reason behind this:

Third Party Cookies have been a huge driving force for the commercial side of the internet, collecting data and helping digital ads reach their target audience successfully. Third party cookies were, and for some more time are, bits of information that companies in the AdTech sphere use to study the behavior of internet users. That tab popping up that asks a user to ‘accept cookies’, gives the AdTech companies insight into the location of the user, their demographics, their interests and a lot more. In fact if we look at the reason that Digital Ads have generated so much revenue over the last 2 decades, it is third-party cookies. This fine-grained information that third party cookies provided to the Digital Advertisers, and in turn the success of the ads due to this information: the quality of the leads and the conversion of those leads, is something that was beyond the reach of traditional print media. So, if the main factor behind the success of digital ads, the third-party cookies, are going to be banned from all bowsers by 2022, the buzz is definitely expected, of worry and of rethinking strategies for reaching the desired audience.

But why did the end of third-party cookies come about?

When third party cookies came into action to help the study the behavior of the user, it was meant to be a transparent process and explicit consent was a requirement from the user. But when there is a technology that basically lets you play God in the sphere of digital ads, at some point misusing it was going to become an issue as well.

The first problem that came about was that many sites were not being so transparent and they weren’t taking explicit consent from the users in order to track their location, demographics or online behavior. That’s invasion of privacy right there and that was the first red flag. But users still didn’t notice anything, until the concept of Re-Targeting audience came about. Over time, this aggressive re-targeting tactic, of showing people ads of products that they have already viewed and perhaps have decided not to purchase, was bound to wear their patience down. Majority of internet users are fed up with this and are using ad-blockers now to have a less frustrating internet surfing experience.

Now the situation is such that there is a considerable amount of protest from the Users and Privacy Advocates, so much so that the issue cannot be ignored any longer. And finally, this has landed us in times where by 2022, all browsers will have stopped supporting third-party cookies, so that the internet sphere can go back to functioning based on transparency and consent once again.

The Effect:

When this news came it sent the digital marketing companies into a tight spot and they had to come with something new that could replace third-party cookies. Many major companies have looked into many kinds of tools and technologies and unfortunately, there is still no consensus regarding anything that could replace third party cookies. Many options have been tried but with the same result; rather than achieving deepening connections with the users, it would only serve to amplify their feelings of frustration and distrust even more. Hence, as of now, all options that have been looked at… have been scratched.

The Cookie-less Reality

It took some time for everyone to put their panic over losing third-party cookies aside and also to accept the fact that there possibly is no substitute for it either. But once this panic subsided, the companies started looking at the situation from another angle. Third party cookies or not, digital ads would continue, so there had to be a way to adapt.

Brands and companies already have their first-party data and now is the best time to use that to provide a more personal, privacy-protected experience to their users. Software developers are also trying to come up with technology that can help companies with first-party data collection. Surveys and Research also shows that this is more preferred with the users and make them feel like they are being personally attended to by the Brand. It might be tough in the beginning and it might take time to get used to, but this is the way ahead. This is what is going to actually deepen relationships between the Users and the Brands.

How to make the most of this new Tactic:

Gaining the trust of the User on the other end is now paramount. Investing in giving the User a personalized experience and really paying attention to what they are looking for is priority number one, followed by choosing the right consent management tools to use. This is the only way that Agencies and Brands are going to make the most use of their first-party customer database. Another hurdle to overcome is that of giving the User a genuine feeling of interaction with the Brand on a one-on-one level. Technically though, this is not possible, so investments need to be made to develop advanced data platforms that give you the fullest picture possible of what the User is looking for, based on your existing first party data. At the end of the day, what the customers/users are looking for is that ‘human interaction’ feel. And the better the advanced first-party data platform, the more possibility there is that this can actually be achieved.

Elevating the ‘human-interaction’ factor is the only long term solution of earning the consumer’s trust and building a sense of brand loyalty in them in this fast approaching, completely third-party cookie -less digital future.