Google has announced it won’t allow third-party cookies in chrome by the end of 2023. Scary, right?

For years, cookies were one of the best ways for marketers to understand their audience. But now Google is getting ready to change things up, and cookies might be disappearing soon like your favorite avengers in Infinity war. With other regulations and companies also working further to protect the privacy of individuals, cookies increasingly look like a misfit in the contemporary marketing landscape. So, what would measurement look like without cookies? 

Here are some recent developments in the Marketing Technology Landscape that have made it clear that the organizations should start removing dependence on cookies from their marketing technology stack:

1 – EU’s privacy regulations (GDPR)
2 – California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
3 – Google’s removal of the DoubleClick ID (now the Google ID) from its log files
4 – Chrome will no longer allow third-party cookies (beginning in 2023)
5 – Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP 2.2)

Cookies can be a help but…

Since the early days of digital marketing, cookies have been one of the best friends for marketers. Identifying visitors, tracking user behavior, and measuring marketing campaigns were done with precision and ease.

Sadly, third-party cookies might become unreliable soon, and the recent update from Google will hasten that process.

Recently, advertisers see 32% of devices rejecting cookies. That’s 1/3 of all traffic! When you advertise on the web, a single user who rejects cookies can confuse your reporting by appearing as multiple unique users. This can lead to inaccuracies in reach and frequency metrics. Reach can be overstated, and ad spend can be tough to optimize. Additionally, re-targeting can be a challenge!

To make things more confusing, most consumers and prospects today own multiple devices, and cross-device tracking is an important capability. Due to platforms using different sets of identifiers, cookies might not be able to distinguish individuals from shared devices like mobiles and laptops. This can also results in gaps while determining successful conversions.

What is needed for success?

Prospects want brands they love to know them better and provide better experiences. They want less frequent but relevant ads. For that you need-

1. A data management solution that can re-target the right user / prospect
2. The ability to combine data from multiple sources and cross-reference for better identity management

Most of the time, a Marketer’s data on Facebook stays on Facebook, and it is the same with Google and LinkedIn etc. Walled gardens like these tech-giants can be tough to connect, leading to a disconnected experience for prospects you are trying to target.

Sophisticated B2B organizations serve ads across a plethora of social channels- Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to name a few.If there is not a unified process to manage the data from these social targeting efforts, there is a risk of targeting the same people repeatedly across multiple platforms inefficiently. While re-targeting can be an effective strategy, Marketers should make sure they are effectively using all data available to make the right decision. You don’t want a user to see ads for things they just purchased- that would be a waste of resources!

What you need is a way to bring these walled-gardens together to serve your customers better.

Moving towards a cookie-less future- What can we do right now?

Data privacy regulations are prompting organizations to build up first-party data collection capabilities. Identity Resolution capabilities are a a must-have for any advertisers as it allows them to collect data from various user-touch points and channels. 

How can marketers use this opportunity?

When you use cookies, the user can opt-in and say “hey, I am okay with giving my information!”. But, sometimes users don’t opt in… Identity Resolution solves for this by taking data from multiple sources and combining it to identify the company and sometimes the contact. That way you can better understand the prospect, and deliver relevant and recent ads at the right time.

As the whole marketing landscape is experiencing a paradigm shift, let’s discuss alternative strategies that facilitate tracking and measurement in a cookie-less future.

Organizations can use tracking pixels to collect latitude, longitude, IP address, and other information. All these data points can be combined to attribute corporate identity to understand prospects based on their location and place of work. But here is the challenge- 

Sometimes we cannot figure out who the contact is without a cookie

So, what’s a viable solution?

Target Buyer Personas at the right locations-

What if you didn’t need to know the identity of individuals exposed to your ads? What might be more important, is identifying the interested location and business, and then attempting to drive engagement to multiple personas through a content download, signup, or any other engagement strategy.

Cookies do not help with targeting Buying Groups

Using a tracking pixel and Identity Resolution solution can help you figure out the place and device of users who are being targeted with ads. Based on that, you can target specific buyer personas at the right locations. 

The focus should be on engaging with all the right personas at the right location

Learn about your Buyer Personas, understand their interest, then deliver them relevant ads that matter. Most ad-targeting can be done on the location level, and then conversions can be tied to specific locations for tracking and optimization. 

Organizations need to do these two things to succeed in a cookie-less future

1 – Focus on resolving the identity of a company and location
2 – Understand their buyer personas for re-targeting without cookies

Once you get the right business location, then answer this question:

Who are the right decision-makers at an organization for your products or solutions?

How can Anteriad Help?

Shorten the sales cycle and close more deals faster

Identify individuals and active buying groups within accounts that matter. Intent lets marketers identify people and companies actively researching a purchase. Catch them early in their journey and deliver relevant content to shorten the sales cycle. When you find buyers while they are searching, you don’t have to create demand, you find it based on real, online behavior.

Engaging the ABM audience that buys

As the buyer becomes a buying committee, it’s powerful to know who belongs to the group. Research confirms that buying groups are getting larger, and sales cycles are getting longer. Shortening the sales cycle means engaging the right ABM audience through the right lens when they are in-market.

Want to learn more? Use Anteriad Data Solutions and Identity Resolution capabilities to get started