Can you survive the death of the cookie?

Marketers have been talking about it for some time now, however, this year, the cookie will finally be taking its last breath. The news comes in the wake of Google’s recent decision to ban cookies on its browser, along with a slew of other new regulations such as GDPR and anti-privacy sentiments dominating the internet. The death of the cookie is bound to shake programmatic and to force marketers to find more viable alternatives to harvesting data. For some, this will finally mark the end of an irrelevant tool while for others it will bring about a whole lot of uncertainty for the future, especially for programmatic marketing.

“not using cookies could result in a 52% revenue drop”

Cookies are files that can track user activity and behavior on a specific website. They are widely used by advertisers to profile visitors into categories and gather information that will later inform their marketing strategies. Not only do cookies help marketers improve their online user experience, they also help them better understand their audience. Recent research shows that not using cookies could result in a 52% revenue drop. To make things worse, marketers will be losing out on third party data, conversion tracking and attributions, which will lead to a decrease in the quality of their marketing.

“more advanced alternatives”

However, advertisers have pointed out that the cookie is a rather weak tool and its death could pave the way for more advanced alternatives. Cookies have innate weaknesses, one being that they only track single browsers, not individuals. In addition, they do not target users based on their profiles but based on the behavior they’ve exhibited online. Another problem is that all the stored information gathered is then placed into an algorithm, which, often, classifies data into irrelevant and inaccurate categories.  Worst of all, cookies are not compatible with mobile devices. With the booming of the mobile market, it goes without saying that cookies are becoming increasingly more obsolete.

“marketers should embrace the death of the cookie”

Marketers should embrace the death of the cookie to start implementing more effective data-collection mechanisms. Some professionals have already started to look into more contextual advertising strategies, which would be tied in with what a visitor sees at a specific time. By distancing themselves from behavior-centric targeting, advertisers will be able to take advantage of a more in-the-moment targeting.

 AI and machine learning are also well on their way to offering better more human-like algorithm. For instance, Google is currently working on a ‘browser ID’, which allows advertisers to access everything a user does on and off. Although this may sound like an invasion of privacy, this unique identifier will allow for a more pleasant online user experience and help advertisers match their portfolio with audience data.

 Is your company prepared for the death of the cookie? Take a look at the agenda for Programmatic Pioneers Summit where you can join 200+ leading European brands to build a winning programmatic strategy.