How to Navigate the 2024 Shift from Third Party Cookies

The latest update for 2024 indicates that Google Chrome’s web browser will begin using tracking prevention features. Google will randomly select 1% of users who will not use Third Party Cookies for tracking usage and measuring advertising effectiveness. We predict that this initial step will not affect marketing in the short term, but this doesn’t mean advertisers will be entirely unaffected. So, how should we prepare for a cookie-less world, and what readiness should we have for the data that will disappear once Third Party Cookies are phased out?

For the aforementioned 1%, it will only affect 63.6% of Google Chrome users worldwide (data from Statista), meaning your business might not be impacted at all. This 1% doesn’t necessarily represent all your brand’s customer groups, including some who may already be using ad-blocking software, thus not noticing this change much.

We will start to see the impact from the third quarter of 2024, when Third Party Cookies will be completely phased out in the Chrome Browser. However, there are still many types of advertisements unaffected, such as Social Platforms that use First Party or Logged-In Data for tracking users, and many advertisers have developed new solutions, such as CAPI, Server-Side Tracking, to measure effectiveness using First Party Data instead.

Programmatic advertising will be most affected, but marketers who have been using this type of advertising haven’t relied on Cookies since Apple released iOS 14, meaning they can still benefit from existing solutions without requiring users to be Logged-In.

How Digital Marketers Can Prepare for a World Without Cookies

1. Try to obtain consent from your target groups
As First Party Data becomes increasingly essential, ensure your system is suitable enough for customers to consent to data collection. If unsure, you can consult us here to make First Party Data use more effective. Your team should create innovative and appealing solutions to encourage customers to share their data, such as surveys, product search features, or polls that require users to provide an email or phone number for increased web engagement. You can build long-term relationships by obtaining First Party Data from customers through Loyalty Programs, Promotions, or VIP Experiences.

2. Create your own Data Pipeline
You can build a robust Data Infrastructure with website-wide tracking to ensure comprehensive data collection across all channels. Once the infrastructure is in place, use First Party Data for user tracking and effectiveness measurement by sending this data to marketing platforms to match with each advertisement type. These Data Pipelines might include CAPI, Enhanced Conversions, Offline Conversions, and GTM server-side tracking.

3. Experiment with new tools to aid data collection
There are many new technologies designed to help marketers overcome new challenges. Now is your chance to test these tools to find solutions that fit your brand before Cookies disappear in the third quarter.

• Key tools to try include Google Ads Data Manager:
  Recently launched, it’s a way to transfer First Party Data into Google’s system, which you can test by connecting some of your data sources to see if this integration benefits your team.

• Google’s Privacy Sandbox:
  A toolkit Google is developing to consolidate products like PAIR for user tracking and Topics API for Programmatic advertising interest tracking. Your team can try these solutions to compare with audiences created by Third Party Cookies.
  
  Therefore, maintaining relationships with Partners that provide Third Party Cookies data is crucial as it helps you access target group data without relying on user tracking mechanisms, instead using alternatives like Universal IDs, Contextual Signals, IFA IDs, which are precise and efficient in reaching target audiences.

4. Use more privacy-protecting solutions, such as Incrementality Testing and Media Mix Modeling, which allow brands not to rely on Cookies and be more accurate compared to Attribution.

Examples include leveraging Household-Level Graphs to enhance data collection efficiency that might be lost, as well as using Brand Lift to appropriately track Brand Sentiment because, in this era, consumers use various platforms, from mobile apps to Connected TV (CTV), without depending on Cookies.

Furthermore, Data Clean Rooms can be used to measure the Customer Journey while users are Logged-In, allowing for the collection of useful deep insights for your marketing, such as Time to Conversion, Frequency Capping, Reach Overlap, and more on platforms that allow brands to match First Party Data with clicks