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Since 2020, the end of third-party cookies has been on the horizon. For advertisers, this calls for finding new strategies and alternatives that will help them to acquire third-party data. While cookies are for the convenience of all parties involved, third-party cookies are notorious for raising privacy concerns amongst consumers.

They help with cross-site tracking, allowing advertisers like Facebook and Google to track user activity around the web. Advertisers then use this information to build profiles and expose potential customers to targeted advertising. Third-party cookies are a more advanced user analytics set up to help advertisers reach their target audiences across the internet.

What is Changing with 3rd Party Cookies?

In June 2021, Google announced its plan to phase out third-party cookies by 2023. Instead, there will be a new tracking technology to replace them. Many advertisers have been hoping that Google would choose to keep on with third-party cookies. However, the company has shown no inclination towards backing down from the upcoming end of 3rd party cookies.

By this time next year, advertisers will not be able to track customers using 3rd party cookies. This tracking technology has become unpopular amongst the public in the past years due to privacy concerns.

Google Chrome is one of the most used browsers in the advertising industry. Google’s ability to serve users with personalized ads and reach target audiences may be limited after the end of cookies. Marketers may be the most affected by this change, as 3rd party cookies have been their most reliable tracking technology.

Incidentally, Google is not the first company to remove third-party cookies due to privacy concerns. Apple and Mozilla Firefox have eliminated third-party cookies. Apple is requiring user permission for tracking activity on Safari and Mozilla Firefox starting the phase-out in 2019. Google users can choose to download extensions that help to block third-party cookies from their browsers.

3rd Party Cookie Replacements

Google has been working on possible replacements for 3rd party cookies since 2020. The first attempt at a new system was called Federal Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). However, experts have noted that this could not keep advertisers from serving invasive ads. In addition, the system didn’t keep advertisers from serving intrusive ads on a one-to-one basis according to users.

After FLoC, a new system called Topics has also not satisfied the data and privacy experts. Unless Google and other ad-servers abandon all behavioral-based advertising, there will still be discrimination cases. As a result, this will defeat the fight for privacy, as both systems are still subject to data and privacy concerns.

What Does This Mean for Advertisers?

Third-Party Cookies are essential in tracking website activity, and it aids digital advertising in serving targeted social media ads. In addition, cookies, according to David Farkas, founder, and CEO of The Upper Ranks, help to establish, access and maintain user profiles. He says profiles and target marketing cannot be conducted without customer data.

For Advertisers, the phase-out of third-party cookies, as announced by Google, means finding new strategies and alternatives to retrieve third-party data. The announcement left many advertisers worried that it would be impossible to track data anymore. However, Goggle’s decision does not symbolize the lack of options for advertisers and marketers.

The phase-out only means advertisers have been challenged to adjust their strategies directly using customer-provided data. According to David Farkas, acquiring first-party consumer data is the most straightforward approach to discovering an organization’s target audience, brand engagement, purchase process, and the best policy.

What Can Advertisers Do to Combat Changes?

While advertisers can opt to use first-party cookies as one alternative to third-party cookies, there are other tracking technologies they can explore that do not rely on user data. Some of these tracking technologies include; contextual targeting and device fingerprints. It is time for every advertiser to start rebuilding their marketing measurement framework to be ready for the 2023 evolution that will see 3rd party cookies retire. Here are some of the solutions that may replace your 3rd party cookies.

Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing is also known as contextual targeting. In this approach, consumers receive ads matching the content they view instead of ads that match their private data. In addition, this approach does not require information from users, thus making it trustworthy and a great way to combat the changes that will come with the phase-out of 3rd party cookies.

Contextual ads match a website’s content through keywords and topics. For instance, a user reading technology-related information is likely to see an advertisement for new technology, like the most recent electric vehicle brand, on the same page.

Contextual analytics often rely on natural language processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help advertisers create more targeted ads for their audience, and they make it possible to boost video ad performance. Michael Schwalb, general manager of partnerships and data at JW Player, claims that natural language processing and AI make it possible to analyze video content and identify people, objects, languages, and themes.

It ultimately offers advertisers the capability to buy user intent at a scalable subcategory level that is not achievable by third-party cookies.

Device Fingerprints

Device fingerprints can emulate third-party cookies. However, they use a server-side database instead of the user’s machine storing the data. “A device fingerprint starts working as soon as a user visits a website, and the tracker — usually JavaScript code — collects device information,” says Philip Pasma, president of Asterisk Marketing.

Google Topics

Another alternative for advertisers to combat the changes brought about by the end of 3rd party cookies. Google Topics, while still in an underdeveloped stage, is a great alternative. Through Topics API, it groups users anonymously according to their interests based on the websites recently visited (typically within the past 3 weeks).

It lets advertisers continue to share ads directly to their target audiences as a replacement for Federal Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which was Google’s first replacement for third-party cookies, although it never reached the launching stage.

The End of 3rd Party Cookies 2023