Google’s cookie delay may offer breathing room but should be used with caution, say marketers

By Seb Joseph

Google may have given third-party cookies a lifeline; regulators have not. Marketers following people across sites using those cookies still aren’t privacy safe. So while the ad industry’s outpouring of relief following Google’s reprieve for cookies is understandable, it changes little. Third-party cookies are slowly but surely being replaced by a mixture of solutions, from first-party cookies to cohorts. The extended timeline won’t change this.

“Audi isn’t deterred by the message from Google,” said Kasper Skou, CEO and co-founder of Semasio — the ad tech firm the automotive advertiser hired to help test alternatives to the third-party cookie in Denmark. “The marketers there are encouraged by the results of tests done there and want to do more of them, more often in Denmark.“

The first campaign saw Audi’s marketers, who worked alongside execs from PHD Media Denmark, use media consumption and demographic data to separate the buyers who were most likely to make a purchase to those who weren’t. The breakout informed the advertiser’s targeting strategy, which used user-level data from Audi’s CRM database alongside contextual page-level data. The approach generated 70% of total conversions, per Semasio.

In a sense, Denmark has become a fertile testing ground for Audi. First, there’s a high population of iPhone users who are blocked by default on their devices from being tracked by third-party cookies. Second, it has s stricter interpretation of European privacy laws.

“A lot of the marketers we’re talking to about Google’s announcement see it as an extension of a testing period for alternatives to third-party cookies,” said Dana Busick, associate director at buying agency Media Kitchen. “I think we’ll see testing budgets increase.”

The reality many marketers suspected Google would delay its cookie cull. After all, Google had been hesitant to provide specific dates or recommend specific actions for a long time. It was the length of delay (two years) that caught marketers out. And yet, there are many like Audi and Nestle that are pushing forward with their plans regardless of the extra time. Few of those marketers want to scramble once again a year and a half from now like they were before the reprieve. Moreover, too much time and money have gone into understanding what advertising bereft of third-party cookies means for those marketers to turn back now, according to the nine ad execs who spoke to Digiday for this article.

“These conservative, ‘wait and see’ measures may be good for Google’s long tail of smaller and mid-sized brands that have less investment and maturity in future-proofing their identities, targeting, and custom audience solutions,” said one senior agency source at a global media agency network who declined to comment on the record about initial discussions they have had with clients. “But I’m sure the largest brands are now ready and want to further assert market dominance with their more progressive ad tech innovations.”

Sure, marketers may slow testing cookieless solutions …read more

Source:: Digiday