You must have heard that the third-party cookies are going away? Well, you heard it correct.

Many browsers began eliminating third-party cookies in 2017 regarding the growing consumer demand for privacy.

And, soon, many others will follow.

So, what about digital marketing that heavily relied on the data and activity collected by third-party cookies? It seriously questions whether the third-party cookie is still relevant.

Whether you choose to believe it or not, the third-party cookie is still here and rampantly used, but not as much as before.

As a digital marketer, you should take advantage of these until they last, not without preparing for the future.

Why is Third-Party Cookie Going Away?

Third-party cookies had to go away because the consumers were raising the privacy issue of their data.

Not only does a website adds trackers to remember your activity, but it also allows third-party sites to access your data.

Here is an example of a third-party tracking script:

<script src="https://someservice.com/js/livechat.js"></script>

When the page is loaded, it says, "go to someservice.com and get this live chat JavaScript file."

As the script runs, it installs cookies in your browser by someservice.com domain, a random website you never even visited.

Many consumers were quite vocal about stopping it when this came to light. The concern got severe in the latter 2010s that Safari and Firefox browsers decided to remove it altogether.

Google even announced that it will stop using third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2023.

Hence, the cookie culture will likely end in the next few years.

Third-party cookies are basic code snippets that attach to your brewers and register your actions on the website(s).

However, Chrome has not already ruled it out, making it still relevant to digital marketers.

Google Ads and AdSense, the two large advertising firms, have attested that third-party cookies are helpful to consumers as they create advertisements that are in line with individual interests.

Hence, until Chrome completely rules it out, you can still take advantage of third-party cookies.

The loss of third-party cookies could mean paid-for advertising will potentially decline in terms of effectiveness.

Moreover, marketers would need to find different ways to get consumer data to continue using the TPP technique (Targeting, Personalizing, and Placement).

Aftermath of Third Party Cookies

Without third-party cookies, the advertisers will fail to get their hands on consumer data retrieved from their internet activities.

When they cannot identify their users, they will bid less on keywords, run fewer ads, and gain even lesser revenue from marketing.

A Google study found publishers could lose 50-70% of their revenue with eCPMs (an estimate of the income you receive for every thousand ad impressions.) 2-3 times lower.

Recent IAB research found that publishers could lose up to $10 billion in ad revenue when deprecated third-party cookies.

Moreover, they will likely lose 50-70% of their revenue without a new approach to audience data.

How to Overcome the End of Third-Party Cookie?

Cookie-script explains that once third-party cookies disappear, there’s the likelihood that online advertisements will revert to contextual advertisements or find other ways to track users.

However, consent will become the key to obtaining user data per the world's primary data protection laws.

You may find many websites already rolling out pop-ups that explicitly ask for your permission to allow cookies.

What are the best alternatives to third-party cookies?

With third-party cookies out of the game, you should focus on alternative technologies that may help with marketing based on user activity.

1. Identity solutions

Identity solutions refer to personal data such as email, phone, log in, etc. collected from the users when they submit their information on the website,

However, this system's challenge would require thousands of publishers and advertisers to collect and share user data systemically.

You can seek service from ID solution enterprises that provide a one-stop solution to access user data collected from various sources.

2. Google’s Privacy Sandbox

Google's privacy sandbox is Google's solution to replace third-party cookies with APIs that collect various data.

The solution relies on APIs like FLoC, Sparrow, Turtledove, Fledge, Dovekey, and Topics.

The data assimilated may include

• The prevention of spam, fraud, and DoS
• Conversions
• Ad targeting
• Attribution
• Federated logins

However, the API is still in development yet open for reviews and feedback from the companies willing to use the service.

3. First-party data

Like third-party cookies, the first-party data collects user information from their website.

However, unlike third-party cookies relying on some random site to collect data, the first party website itself will gather the required information.

The data may include IDs (email, phone), preferences, shopping habits, expenses, etc.

4. Publisher Provided Identifiers (PPIDs)

A PPID is an identifier assigned to a logged-in user by a publisher and developed by Google.

It enables advertisers to run personalized ad campaigns by building a custom audience.

5. Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising refers to running ads based on analyzing a web page's content, keyword, and phrases.

Advertisers will run ads based on the type of webpage the user visited. For example, if they visit a football site, the advertisers will bid to have their ads placed next to the relevant soccer content.

However, it does not rely on personal data, user activity, or other user-related information.

6. Data Pools or Data Clean Rooms

A Data pool is a repository for storing large amounts of user data.

Advertisers need to access the data pool to acquire relevant user data to run their ad campaigns.

7. User Identity Graphs

User Identity Graphs combines Personally Identifiable Information (PII) like an email address with non-PII like first-party cookie and publisher IDs.

It enables same and cross-channel or cross-platform tracking and targeting.

However, it may be challenging to ensure the user data safety; hence, you must rely on a reliable solution provider.

Conclusion

Third-party cookies will phase out soon. However, you have many alternatives to gain insights about your user so that you can run targeted ad campaigns.

You would need to diversify your approach and apply different alternatives that work best for you.

Do not let third-party cookies' death be the end of your marketing career.

Get in touch with Searchable Design LLC., the best digital marketing agency in the US, to learn more.