With Google planning to remove third-party cookies from Chrome by the end of 2024, marketers need to rethink their strategies. Reportedly, this shift means losing one of the best means for tracking user behavior.
Does it mean that you should start looking into cookieless retargeting methods to keep your brand in the minds of your target audience? Probably that is the wisest thing you can do right now. This shift is big, and adapting to it is pretty compulsory for keeping up with how digital marketing is changing.
What Are Cookies and Why Do They Matter So Much?
Cookies help make online ads more relevant by using the browsing history to show ads that might interest a given user. They’re especially important for retargeting, which targets ads to users who are close to making a purchase, using the advertiser’s own data.
Retargeting Without Cookies
Right now, identifying users across different websites is done with third-party cookies. These cookies let advertisers bid on ad spaces that target specific users. But as Google moves towards a cookieless system, this way of using third-party cookies for retargeting won’t be possible anymore.
Does it mean you need to find a way around it, using first-party cookies for doing the retargeting in a cookieless world?
The answer is yes.
An Easy Way to Adapt to Cookieless Retargeting
As third-party cookies are phased out, marketers need to find alternatives for retargeting without relying on these cookies. Using first-party data is one of the primary ways to adapt.
First-party cookies, which are directly stored by the website a user visits, can still track their behavior on that specific website. This means marketers can collect valuable data directly from their own websites and use it to retarget visitors effectively.
By focusing on gathering and making use of first-party data, online businesses can still engage deeply with their audience through personalized advertising, even in a cookieless world. This approach is more privacy-compliant and goes hand in hand with the new norms of internet privacy.
Two Cookieless Retargeting Ideas
IDEA #1: Contextual advertising. Contextual advertising targets ads based on the content your target audience is viewing rather than tracking their browsing history. For example, reading about running might show the ads for sports apparel. This method is privacy-friendly and uses your target audiences’ current activity to determine ad relevance.
IDEA #2: Aggregated data solutions. This approach uses combined anonymous data to understand broad user trends. For instance, analyzing aggregated music listening habits could help suggest new albums or concerts without tracking individual listeners. It’s a way to tailor ads accurately while respecting privacy.
Summing Cookieless Retargeting Up
As third-party cookies are slowly fading into oblivion, marketers must adapt to the new reality, meaning retargeting in a cookieless world. Luckily, retargeting can be done by strategies like contextual advertising, which uses the content context for ad relevance, and aggregated data solutions, which analyze anonymized trends. Good news? Both approaches are effective and respect privacy in advertising in a cookieless world.
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