That's The Way The Cookie Crumbles

In 2020, Google announced that they will stop the use of third-party cookies by 2023.

The justification for this is that as many users have become concerned over the amount of data that is collected on them by third-parties, often without their consent and with no explanation as to what that data is being used for, the search engine has decided to halt third-party cookies in a bid to find a solution that offers more transparency towards users.

What Is A Third-Party Cookie?

A third-party cookie is a tracking code that is installed onto a web visitor’s computer after being created by another website that isn’t yours. So, when this user visits your website the third-party cookie tracks all their information and is then passed on to the third-party who created the cookie, in this case Google.

This information is useful to advertisers as they are able to understand their visitors’ online behaviours, such as what web pages they spent the most time on, which websites they frequently visit, what purchases they have made, and more. This information can then be used to create ads targeted towards past visitors or audiences that display smilar web profiles.

How Does A Third-Party Cookie Work?

Have you ever visited a website for a pair of shoes and you were about to add the item to your cart but didn’t? Or perhaps you had them in your shopping basket ready to check out when something distracted you, so, you left the website with the item still sitting in your cart? Then sometime later you hop onto Facebook only to come across an ad for that exact same pair of shoes? Alas, it’s not magic it’s simply the power of third-party cookies.

Does This Mean That Tracking Will End?

No, this doesn’t mean that tracking will cease to exist. Quite the opposite acutally. There are some alternatives available to track data in a similar way to third-party cookies.

Some of these are:

Google’s Privacy Sandbox – the search engine’s replacement for third-party cookies.
First-Party Data – the information a business collects from its own customers and, which it owns.
Contextual Targeting – targeted advertising based on matching ads to relevant sites within the Display Network using keywords.

What Does This Mean For Advertisers?

The phasing out of third-party cookies shouldn’t be a cause for alarm.

Instead, as the end of third-party cookies draws nearer, advertisers will now have to shift their focus towards first-party data collection through a CRM system and contextual targeting to ensure their ads still reach the right audience.

It’s important to understand that while third-party cookies provided many with the means to be able to target ads towards their website visitors, this is not the only way and going forward we will continue to see how this develops.

Need assistance when it comes to collecting your users’ data? If not, why not get in touch with us today to find out how we can help.