The Cookie Crumbles As Google Dumps Privacy Sandbox
Third-party cookies have been the hot topic for years in the advertising world. Cookies enable advertisers to track individual users across multiple unrelated websites.
In the light of increasing global pressure for better data privacy (driven by regulations like GDPR), Google responded with a widespread decision to phase out third-party cookies and replace this with a more private but complex technology, The Privacy Sandbox. This would have allowed advertisers to target users in large groups or cohorts, rather than tracing the activity of an individual.
What’s The Impact Of This Move
With the downfall of the Sandbox, clients and brands can continue to use existing tracking and tagging in place for targeting and conversion attribution across the web. Sandbox APIs came with additional software development effort that can now be re-called.
The Caveat: This is a just another delay. The fundamental forces pushing for change—tighter global privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc) and increasing user demand for privacy are still in effect. Third-party cookies are still blocked by default in other major browsers (Safari, Firefox), and they remain "on notice”.
What This Means for Irish Advertisers
While the pressure is off for the next quarter, complacency is the biggest strategic risk. We must treat this as an extension on a deadline; a grace period to get our house in order for sustainable measurement strategies. Here are some examples to employ in order to get ahead of the impending changes:
Accelerate first-party data growth:
This remains the primary focus as a future-proof strategy to create business-owned (1st party) database that helps turn anonymous site visits into identifiable, logged-in customers.
Diversify ad spend into contextual ads
Contextual Advertising is all about reaching the right user in a high attention environment through a privacy-safe method that taps into user-psychology. Spends can also be expanded to reach more people in cookie-less environments like Bing, Safari and Firefox.
Sources:
Marketers relieved to see Google ditch Privacy Sandbox
Google’s Privacy Sandbox is Officially Dead
A Cookieless Future: Preparing for the End of Third-Party Cookies
