The Death of Third-Party Cookies: Everything a Marketer Needs to Know in 2022 for Effective Digital Advertising

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data stored on a user's computer. When the user visits a website, the browser sends these cookies back to the website, identifying the user.

Third-party content providers use third-party cookies for advertising purposes. They can also be used for tracking purposes and personalization.

The use of third-party cookies is controversial because they can be used to track users' browsing habits over time and across different websites, which may violate privacy laws in some countries.

The Recent Google’s Update on Third-Party Cookies

Google announced that it would stop using third-party cookies in the future. This means that if a user visits a website, Google will not be able to track their browsing history on other websites.

This is a huge step for Google, as it has been against third-party cookies for years. The company has been very vocal about the issue and has been pushing for regulation for a long time.

Many people are wondering how the new Google policies will affect third-party cookies. The most likely scenario is that Google will block third-party cookies in 2022.

Many companies use third-party cookies to track their customers' browsing habits. This data is then used for targeted advertising and more personalized content on various websites.

People who don't want to be tracked may start using browsers like Firefox, which gives an option to disable third-party cookies by default.

Brands use cookies to track website visitors to improve user experience. They collect data that helps advertisers to target ads to the right audiences. Advertisers also use them to learn what their visitors are checking-out online when they aren't on their websites.

But with Google's efforts to eradicate the third-party cookie on chrome browsers in 2022 can dramatically change the way advertisers use cookies and Google's ad tracking tools.

Google confirmed that they wouldn't be building or integrating other forms of identifiers to track individuals browsing the web has sent shockwaves to many.

This change could immensely impact some areas of advertising and marketing, but other tactics still stay the same, so we need not panic about this change.

Companies and individuals who relied heavily on third-party data for accurate audience targeting strategies could suffer.

To help you navigate through a world where third-party cookies do not exist, here are five things to keep in mind about the latest cookie phaseout:

5 Things to Know About Google's Eradication of Third-Party Cookies:

Not all the cookies are getting banned.

Google is only planning to remove the third-party cookie from its browser.

Don't think that all your cookie-based marketing strategies will get obsolete. The first-party cookie that helps you track basic data about your own website's visitors is still there.

In fact, in Google's 2021 announcement, the tech giant called first-party relationships "vital." That means any first-party data that you get from your website visitors on all the browsers remains as it is.

What are First Party Cookies and Third-Party Cookies?

First-Party Cookies: A first-party cookie is set by the user's website. This type of cookie can be used to track visitors across multiple pages of a site, or even across multiple sites. Google uses first-party cookies to personalize ads on websites. Google uses this data to target ads for its customers and offers them more relevant content.

First Party Cookies are the cookies that are set by the website being visited.

Third-Party Cookies: Third-party cookies are codes placed on a website visitor's computer after a different website than your own generates them. Third-party cookies are set by a website other than the one being visited.

When someone visits your websites, and of others, the third-party cookie tracks this information and sends it to the third-party who created the cookie.

Third-Party Cookie data allows you to learn about the visitor's overall online behavior, Like the websites they frequently visit, purchase habits, interests they show on websites. Then with all this data gathered, you can create a retargeting list and send them ads based on their past activity on your website. With all these details, you can build robust strategies.

The Difference:

The difference between these two cookies is that first-party cookies can be read and written only by that website. In contrast, third-party cookies can be read and written to by both the first-party site and any other third-party sites that a person has visited.

Platforms that function on third-party data will take a huge hit

Marketers are not just concerned about the data they use to collect with the help of third-party data but also about the reasoning that google gave behind this phaseout. Even though you will be able to leverage Google ads powered by first-party cookies and the Privacy Sandbox tools, some ad platforms will take a huge hit as Chrome will not support them.

In a joint statement, the Association of National Advertising and the American Association of Advertising Agencies called the tech giant out for disrupting healthy competition in the advertising space.

"Google's decision to block third-party cookies in Chrome could have major competitive impacts for digital businesses, consumer services, and technological innovation," the statement said. "It would threaten to substantially disrupt much of the infrastructure of today's Internet without providing any viable alternative, and it may choke off the economic oxygen from advertising that startups and emerging companies need to survive."

Google is not trying to stop tracking users entirely.

Google will not invest in tech that tracks people at an individual level, but it will still be investing in alternatives.

In a report published on Monday, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would not use its artificial intelligence technology to create new tools that could track people at an individual level.

"We will not design or deploy technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights," he wrote.

Instead, Google will focus on "solutions that provide transparency and respect user privacy".

Google is a company that is known for its innovation and creativity. It has been working on a new type of advertising called FloC, which stands for "free-floating" ads. This means that ads are not placed on a specific site but will float around the web as users browse. This type of advertising aims to give the customer an ad that they are more likely to click on. Along with Google's Privacy Sandbox development, the company has already seen successful advertising results from FloC, a technology first introduced in 2016.

Google's Privacy Sandbox development was first introduced in 2016, and it allows for increased privacy between advertisers and their customers by separating all data collected from each other. This means that advertisers can't find out what you're

There is still a room for innovation in advertising

Even though there are concerns regarding this move, it is highly appreciable that Google and other browsers have taken a stand for user privacy. As privacy laws continue to get stringent, this can be perceived as a great opportunity to look at other less-vulnerable advertising alternatives. As a marketer with an innovative mindset, you should always be asking yourself questions like, "Are we too reliant on this technology?" or "What happens if and when our strategy gets regulated?" Innovative marketers will be able to develop more clever alternatives and ads that identify with the masses -- aside from just hyper-targeted content or annoying pop-ups.

Another area that could be innovated is leveraging and using data. As noted above, data management platforms are now looking to create alternative tools that help advertisers track data in a way that makes the most out of the third-party cookie. While these options might differ from your third-party cookie solutions or require some new strategizing, they would still allow you to target and learn about relevant audiences without getting intrusive.

Conclusion:

At this point, marketers, advertisers, data engineers alike are actively looking for solutions to determine what will happen next.

And, because the third-party cookie was already discontinued by Safari and Firefox ad blocking, it likely was definitely not a vital advertising tool anyway.

Now the best thing to do as a marketer is to educate yourself with news related to third-party cookies and other privacy-related governance and regulations.

Additionally, you could also revive older strategies, like contextual advertising. While third-party data allowed you to place ads directly in front of people who matched specific user profiles, contextual advertising allows you to circulate PPC ads on websites that rank for similar keywords as your ad. This way, if you're selling sports apparel, your PPC ad could show up on sports-oriented websites.

Finally, to make your brand future-proof governance or monopoly-related policies, discuss even the most basic strategies that you can use to reach your audiences without cookies, hyper-targeted ads, or mass amounts of data.

This will help you be less vulnerable to technology.