Phasing out 3rd party cookies has a significant impact on advertisers and requires them to adapt their strategies to continue operating effectively in the changing digital landscape.
STROOM gathered some frequently asked questions from customers and associates and had Robin Sparnaaij, Campaign Director at STROOM, answer them.
What are cookies?
There are different types of cookies. 1st party cookies are cookies set by the website the user is visiting. They are used to collect information about the user's behavior on that particular website, such as preferences, logged-in status, and so on.
Basically, there is no such thing as 2nd party cookies, but it is actually referred to as 2nd party data. When a party collects 1st party data and then shares it with other parties, this is referred to as 2nd party data.
3rd party cookies are cookies set by an external party, not directly associated with the website the user is visiting. These cookies are used to track user behavior across websites, allowing advertisers and other (third) parties to collect data for purposes such as ad targeting, measuring ad effectiveness and building user profiles. These cookies can collect a wide range of data, such as browsing behavior, interests and demographic information.
What's going on and what does this mean for advertisers?
For several years now, 3rd party cookies have been blocked by various parties, such as Apple and Firefox. Google indicated a couple of years ago that it would also go along with this, but have not yet realized this to date. This was expected to be fully implemented as of Q3 in 2024, but it recently came out that it will not take place until 2025 due to multiple challenges and increased oversight from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Blocking/phasing out the 3rd party cookies reduces the ability of large parties such as Meta and Google to track individuals on the Internet and store less data from these users. These parties use this data to resell to advertisers and agencies, allowing targeting of specific audiences with specific needs. This phasing out has many consequences: campaigns, for example, will be set up differently and data for these parties can only be enriched within the relevant platform, leaving less data available to create personas/user profiles. Target group segmentation is thus more difficult, making it less possible to specifically address certain target groups.
Measuring campaign effectiveness also becomes different, so one may have to start driving on other KPIs, such as engagement within a platform. This in turn has an impact on The different phases of the campaigns.
What will change and what will stay the same?
The retargeting of website traffic and the attribution of(view-through) conversions, in particular, will be shaken up. Simply put, these are conversions that occur after people have seen an ad, not clicked on it and then make a conversion through another channel.
This means that due to privacy regulations, such as the elimination of 3-party cookies, advertisers will have to rethink their approach to retargeting and conversion attribution. They must adapt to new methods and technologies to track user behavior and measure ad effectiveness without relying on traditional methods such as cookies.
In addition, it is more difficult to place Internet users in targeting lists due to the absence/deletion of cookies that normally track this. Several solutions are being pushed forward from Google, namely the protected audience api, optimized targeting and PAIR.
An explanation of how this works, this can be done in several ways. With the Protected Audience API, the browser checks which site one was on and then adds one to a so-called interest group. For example, if one is on travelwebsite.co.uk, then he or she is placed in the group travel websites. Incidentally, this is similar to the method currently used, but this will now be stored within the browser.
Through Optimized Targeting, (Rolled out by Google some time ago), the system uses algorithms to look for people outside of a selected target audience, but who may still be of interest to the relevant advertiser based on campaign objectives.
With the PAIR solution, customer lists are used, which contain email addresses of people who have left their email address on the site in question. These lists are sent to so-called Clean Rooms of publishers, such as DPG Media, Mediahuis, etc. Here, email addresses of people with an account are also sent from the publisher side. Within this Clean Room it is checked where there is a match between the email addresses. Targeted ads can then be shown to these people.
Are there things advertisers can or even should do to prepare for the cookie-free era?
Since Google is the main source for many parties to assess campaign results, it is important to place a Google Tag on all pages of the website along with a Conversion Linker tag. This allows Google to find out where clicks are coming from and link this to conversions (if any).
This can be hardcoded (implementing the code directly into the page source), but the easiest way to do it is through Google Tag Manager.
With the disappearance of 3rd party cookies, the use of first party data is becoming increasingly important. First party data is data that an advertiser/company itself collects from visitors and customers, such as email addresses that people leave behind when subscribing to a newsletter, but also data that people provide when making a purchase. For advertisers it becomes increasingly important to supplement and enrich this first party data, so that it can be used to show relevant ads to (potential) customers. Think for example of the previously mentioned PAIR solution.
However, to supplement first-party data with advertisers, the question from the customer's point of view, "what's in it for me?" must be taken into account. It is important to offer an incentive to the customer in order to persuade him/her to leave his/her data more quickly. Think of a discount code for the next purchase or relevant recommendations/news in the mail every week through a newsletter.
If an advertiser already has a lot of first-party data, then using a Customer Data Platform (CDP) can be very valuable. A CDP involves plugging in different platforms/systems, storing, enriching and activating first party data. With this, a personalized experience can be offered in the form of mailings, advertisements and website. However, it is time intensive to set up, but also very important with an eye on the future.
What do we do at STROOM to achieve the best results for our advertisers even without 3rd party cookies?
Within STROOM we make use of the solutions provided by parties such as Google, think of implementing Google Tags for customers but also we make use of the powerful tools provided by our partners offered, such as Optimized Targeting.
In addition, we are increasingly directing advertisers to collect first-party data, which should naturally lead to better results.
Advanced Consent Mode was also recently rolled out by Google. This affects the available data within the platforms, such as Google Analytics and Google Ads. We have guided advertisers in this, together with developers from the advertisers.
What impact does the elimination of 3rd party cookies have on the measurement of campaign results?
The disappearance of 3rd party cookies makes it more difficult to assign conversions to individuals and thus attribute them to the various channels. That is why it is important to have Advanced Consent Mode, the Conversion Linker and the Google Tag implemented, so that data can still be modeled and a good estimate can be made of how effective channels have been in the customer journey.
Measuring campaign reach and the frequency of how often people see an ad becomes more difficult. Google says it has solutions to this by using other identifiers (technology that allows a system to recognize a user, such as passing along a number code), but it remains to be seen how effective this actually is. In the case of iPhone users, by the way, this was already restricted for several years with the rollout of iOS 14. This system update included technology that caused identifiers to be blocked.
Conclusion
The demise of 3rd party cookies requires advertisers to adjust their strategies, but also offers new opportunities. With solutions such as the Protected Audience API and the use of first-party data, advertisers can still run effective campaigns. At STROOM , we remain committed to helping our clients navigate these changes and achieve the best results in the digital landscape, even without 3rd party cookies.