How to Prepare for the Cookie-less Future. How will this affect your business and your audience? And what should you be doing to get ready for the cookie-less future?
As a lead generator, you are likely aware of the importance of third-party cookies for your business. A third-party cookie is a cookie that is stored on a user's device, computer, cell phone or tablet, by a website that belongs to a different domain than the one the user is visiting.
Third-party cookies are mainly used for online advertising. They enable you to track and target users across various websites, and to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns. For instance, if a user searches for Life Insurance, they might see Life Insurance ads on several websites, especially social media websites such as Facebook. This is because the first website placed a third-party cookie on their browser, and the other websites used that cookie to show them relevant ads.
The end of third-party cookies will pose several challenges for online marketers. Finding quality prospects will become harder, because third-party cookies help identify potential leads based on their browsing history and interests. Without them, marketers will have to rely more on first-party data or alternative methods to track users across websites. Re-engaging customers will also be difficult, because third-party cookies enable retargeting, which is the practice of showing ads to users who have previously visited a website or expressed interest in a product or service. Without them, marketers will have to find other ways to re-engage customers, such as email marketing, loyalty programs, or contextual advertising. Measuring the effectiveness of campaigns will be another challenge, because third-party cookies help measure the performance of online advertising and marketing campaigns, such as click-through rates, conversions, and return on investment. These are some of the most significant challenges that online marketers will face in a cookieless future, and they will have to adapt and innovate to overcome them.
Although there is no reliable source to know the percentage of Facebook ad traffic that comes from Google Chrome, it is the most popular web browser in the world, with a market share of 64.47% as of January 2022. Pair this with around 98.3% of Facebook’s daily active users accessing the platform via mobile devices, it means that most of the Facebook ad traffic comes from mobile browsers, such as Chrome and Safari.
If you want to know how to check the percentage of your own traffic that comes from Chrome browser, you can use Google Analytics to do that. Here are the steps:
• Log in to your Google Analytics account and select the website you want to analyse.
• Go to Audience > Technology > Browser & OS.
• You will see a table that shows the number of sessions, bounce rate, pages per session, and average session duration for each browser and operating system.
• You can use the search box to filter the results by browser name, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• You can also use the pie chart icon to see the percentage of sessions by browser.
So, what does this mean for you as a lead generator? How will this affect your business and your audience? And what should you be doing to get ready for the cookie-less future? In this blog post, we will answer these questions and give you some tips on how to adjust and succeed in the new privacy landscape.
Google plans to replace third-party cookies with a set of alternative solutions that aim to protect users' privacy while still enabling relevant and effective advertising. These solutions are based on the idea of anonymizing and aggregating user data, rather than tracking individual users across the web. Some of the most promising solutions include:
Google claims that these solutions can offer similar or better performance than third-party cookies, while respecting users' privacy choices. Google is currently testing and experimenting with these solutions, and plans to phase out support for third-party cookies when they are ready and widely adopted.
The demise of third-party cookies poses a significant challenge for lead generators, as they will lose access to data and insights about their audiences. They will have to adapt to the new privacy landscape and find alternative ways to reach and engage their potential customers. Some of the possible impacts and implications are:
Reduced reach and relevance: Without third-party cookies, you won't know much about your potential customers and how to show them the right ads and offers.
🚩Impact: This may reduce your sales and revenue, as you may not be able to reach and attract the right customers for your business.
✅Solution: You may want to improve your own website and content, and make them more relevant and engaging for your customers. You may also want to use other ways to target your customers, such as keywords, location, or device type. You will likely need to reconsider the positioning of your Ad copy, ensuring that the Hook and Promise is on point specific to the audience that you are targeting.
Increased complexity and uncertainty: Without third-party cookies, you will have to deal with many different tools and platforms, each with their own rules and limits, as well as keeping up with the changes and updates of the new tools.
🚩Impact: This may increase your costs and time, as you may have to spend more resources and effort to manage and optimise your campaigns and strategies.
✅Solution: You may want to simplify and streamline your processes and systems, and use only the tools and platforms that work best for your business. You may also want to monitor and measure your performance and results, and adjust your plans accordingly.
More opportunities and innovation: You will have to focus more on building and using your own data and customer relationships, by offering valuable content, services, and incentives that make your customers want to share their information and preferences with you.
🚩Impact: This may increase your value and reputation, as you may be able to offer better and more personalised experiences for your customers.
✅Solution: You may want to create and implement a clear and effective data strategy, and collect and use your data in a smart and ethical way. You may also want to partner and communicate with other businesses and platforms that share your vision and values, and create win-win situations for both parties.
We have mixed feelings about Google's decision, which affects how we track and target potential customers across the web. Some of us are optimistic about the change, and see it as a chance to improve and innovate our retargeting strategies, using solutions like the conversion API, lead magnets, and first-party data collection methods. Some of us are more sceptical and worried about how the cookie-less future will affect our business performance and revenue. We think that good advertising should not be too personal, and that context-based targeting and storytelling are better and more ethical ways to reach and engage our audience.
The cookie-less future may seem daunting and challenging for lead generators, who have relied on third-party cookies for a long time to track and target their audiences. However, it is also an opportunity and a catalyst for innovation and improvement, as lead generators will have to adapt and embrace the new privacy landscape and the new solutions offered by Google and other platforms. By building and leveraging their own first-party data and customer relationships, collaborating with other trusted partners, and exploring and experimenting with the new solutions, lead generators can still reach and engage their potential customers in relevant and effective ways, while respecting their privacy and user experience. The cookie-less future is not the end of lead generation, but the beginning of a new era.
In order to gather information on this topic, we used the following sources; read more on the matter here:
https://developers.google.com/privacy-sandbox/blog/cookie-countdown-2024jan
https://www.adweek.com/media/google-chromes-cookie-phase-out-everything-you-need-to-know/
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/third-party-cookie
https://cookie-script.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-third-party-cookies.html