How the cookie crumbles
Google has changed the rules governing third-party cookies. What now?
Time is running out for small companies that have put third-party cookies at the centre of their marketing strategies. Google will cut off access to this information in the coming months, depriving many businesses of data they have been depending on for many years in order to acquire customers. That makes it essential to develop an alternative approach as soon as possible.
Third-party cookies are text files placed on internet users’ computers, typically through advertisements, allowing firms to track their browsing history and behaviour – and therefore target them with highly specific advertisements of their own. They’re distinct from firstparty cookies, often used to provide website users with a more frictionless experience on sites they have actively chosen to visit. Third-party cookies track back to advertisers with whom consumers may never have had contact before.
In fact, the death of thirdparty cookies has been a long time coming. The programmatic advertising industry has made search engines such as Google rich, but privacy campaigners and regulators have railed against the intrusive nature of a sales tactic that effectively mines consumers’ web activity without their knowledge in order to sell them more. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (G 016) served notice on the practice. Apple made it impossible for advertisers to use third-party cookies on its Safari browser as long ago as 2020. Now Google, the dominant force in search, is doing the same. It restricted access to third-party cookies at the start of 2024 for 1% of advertisers, as part of a trial of new arrangements. In the second half of 2024, the remaining 99% will lose access too.
What does that mean for small businesses who have been using third-party cookies as a cost-effective way to identify specific consumers likely to be interested in their products? Clearly, they need to find a new approach.
The good news is that there are other options. Most importantly, you now need to work harder to collect firstparty data. Every time someone visits your website or your app, say, you can collect more information from them, as long as you have their consent, with which to build out marketing activity. Think hard about the content and campaigns that will attract more visitors. Get to grips with the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques – Google and others provide free tools – to understand what pulls in visitors. You can also step up efforts to collect “zero-party data”. This is information that consumers give you voluntarily, when they complete a survey on your website, for example, or answer your sales assistants’ questions in person. Working out what persuades people to volunteer information in this way is valuable.
New technology also provides additional options for data collection. For example, many businesses are now using artificial-intelligencepowered chatbots to talk to customers or sales leads. Insight can be captured from these conversations. Ultimately, your goal is to replace the database of target customers you currently build with third-party cookies. Get it right and this can be a rewarding process, since you’ll be targeting people who are more receptive to your message.
However, it may take time to fine-tune this new approach. Monitor your marketing and advertising campaigns carefully to understand what is working
“Get to grips with basic search-engine optimisation tools”
well and what is falling short. And don’t leave it until Google switches off your access to third-party cookies to change tack.