Having time to prepare for major changes is generally regarded as a good thing, both in life and the digital advertising industry. But when it comes to preparations for a privacy-first, post-cookie world, there’s been far too much talk about preparation and far too little action. This is hurting advertisers’ results today, not just in some theoretical future.
Part of the fault lies with Google’s continued delays in the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome. It’s easy, after all, to just keep doing what you’re doing if the tools are still available. But as we all know, third-party cookies’ utility continues to wane, despite being still technically supported. Furthermore, the process of reassembling a company’s ability to find and engage audiences once cookies turn off will not be an overnight process.
It doesn’t matter how many times Google punts on cookie deprecation. As an industry, we know where we need to go. If your data and tech partners are playing the “wait and see” game, that’s going to cost you dearly in the near future.
If you’re trying to assess your preparedness for a post-cookie world, here’s what you need to be considering:
Experience with privacy transitions
When evaluating partners that will work with you to overcome the challenges of new regulations and privacy policies, it’s worth understanding which ones have been in – and stayed in – the trenches before.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) back in 2018 is still the most significant and sweeping piece of consumer privacy legislation in terms of its effect on marketers. It represented a tremendous upheaval for companies in the region, and many data providers and platforms at the time chose to simply withdraw from Europe rather than pivot their models and practices to be compliant and continue supporting their clients.
Here at Eyeota, we didn’t flinch. We did what was necessary to ensure our customers continued to receive the support they needed within the region following GDPR. Thanks to this experience, we’ve never been more confident that our data and capabilities are able to adapt as needed to global and regional shifts moving forward. We continue to be recognized by industry-leading organizations like Neutronian and IAB when it comes to the quality and safety of our data.
Other providers, meanwhile, didn’t flinch. Instead, they did what was necessary to ensure customers continued to receive the support they needed within the region following GDPR. When selecting a partner for the cookieless era, marketers should seek out providers that have navigated similar shifts and have displayed an ability to adapt based on global and regional privacy changes.
Active testing with alternate IDs
Moving into a post-cookie landscape, most industry observers agree that the alternate identifiers that succeed will be the ones that can balance accuracy with reach. But even under the best circumstances, companies are going to have to be prepared to use multiple IDs if they want to achieve the scale they once saw with cookies.
Here’s where the failure to start testing early is going to bite a lot of industry players. The operational lift required to implement and test alternate IDs – including leading IDs like The Trade Desk’s UID2 and the ID5 ID – is substantial. Marketers need to work with data partners and platforms that began this work early and are positioning themselves to be ID-agnostic as we move into the post-cookie world.
Balancing deterministic and probabilistic approaches
As robust as the alternate ID landscape is shaping up to be, it’s only a partial solution. While the first-party-data-centric approaches that so many marketers are building right now will support deeper engagement with frequent spenders, they will do little to support growth. These tactics will need to be supplemented with quality third-party data resources to find new audiences. The right data partner should be not only supporting identity needs, but also using best practices in probabilistic targeting to broaden the reach of a brand to its most likely new customers.
At Eyeota, across all of the above areas, we’re eager to talk with brands and agencies about our post-cookie capabilities today – not just at some theoretical point in the future. We’re ready now, and we’re helping our clients ensure they are, too. If your data partners can’t say the same, then you need to start exploring your options.