The End of Third-Party Cookies: What Should You Do?

This is quite the gamechanger since Google accounts for 66 % of the global market share.

If you are relying on revenue from ads (and the fact that you're reading the article means you probably are), this will – for sure – affect your bottom-line.

How you should react to the cookie phase-out

The clock is ticking and by 2024, Google’s will initiate the gradual phase-out of third-party cookies.

So, what should you do?

In this blogpost, you get three concrete actions to take today.
This way you will be armed, prepared, and able to survive the fast-approaching death of third-party tracking.

NB! If you need a quick breakdown of the different types of cookies, head down to the end of this blogpost for more details.

First of, don't panic...

If you are already panicked by the idea of all your cookie-fueled marketing strategies disappearing into thin air, take a deep breath.

This is not the end of cookies, or advertisement altogether.

But it is a phasing out of cookies handled by third parties – and with that, also the end of a not-so-private advertising strategy, where users have no idea what data is being used by whom. For most of us, that change is wanted and welcome!

First-party cookies, used only on your own channels, are still safe.

These are the ones Google (and other browsers) want to promote to meet users’ increasing demands for more privacy online. In fact, Google called first-party relationships vital for online businesses in the future.

So, this is where you want to be heading; towards data you gain across paid and owned channels, towards creating relationships with your visitors and customers, so the customer considers the exchange of data to be transparent and fair.

A Customer Data Platform is the optimal tool for this. But more on that later!

When third party cookies are gone, tracking of users’ behavior across digital platforms will change.

To help you prepare for a third-party cookie free world, here are three actions you can take today:

1. Recognize the phase-out as an opportunity

Rather than seeing this as a final stop, you should look at this as an opportunity.

Join the game, embrace the opportunities within a persistent first data and consider how your business can become more privacy friendly. Talk to your trusted partners or advisors about how they are handling third-party cookies to plan for a different future. Maybe your website needs to be updated or you need new marketing strategies – now is the time to act.

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It is important to keep in mind that third-party cookies are incredibly short-lived (either they qare instantly blocked or they die within a month). This makes it impossible to recognize a returning customer, and thereby even harder to predict behavior or personalize content for future visits.

First-party-cookies, however, can be stored indefinitely (if you have good reason for it) and thereby provide you with the opportunities to dive deep into your customer data, connect behavior across products, audiences, channels and platforms. If you know how.

2. Start collecting data today

“What’s the rush?” You might be thinking.

The phase-out has been postponed quite a few times, and who is to say that it won't be postponed again?

Though that is true, the fact is that the longer you wait before you start collecting first-party data, the more ROI you risk losing to any competitor who has a stronger first-party data setup than you do.

It can take years to build a solid base of customer data (e-mail, phone number and customers ID’s) and it requires a solid effort from your marketing team that need to know, how to exchange value for customer data.

So, while your competitors have used the last year to stock up on e-mail addresses, create member clubs, loyalty programs or other campaigns to attract leads and data consent, you waited around to see if everything stayed the same.

Start today and consider the collecting phase necessary for when “winter is coming”.

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Customers need to understand why they are giving marketers their data. It builds relationships and encourages trust as they know this permission also benefits their experience on your site, through personalization of content.

3. Consider a Customer Data Platform

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) enables marketers and advertisers to unify first-party customer data across identities, platforms, and channels – both offline and online. These are necessary in a future, where third-party cookies are banned.

While a CDP can make use of third-party cookies, it is made to make the most of persistent customer data, like behavioral data, buy data, e-mail addresses etc. In other words, a CDP relies on a relationship between a business and its customers, as data is the fuel that keeps the engine running.

Clicks in e-mails, time spent on product pages, interaction with customer support, purchases made in shops, profile data and other types of information from across your business are merged into the platform to understand behavior and personalize experiences. This allows a more qualified tracking, and as a result a more accurate communication to customers.

Guess what? A CDP even allows you to calculate the future value of your customers through CLV!