Google had announced plans to kill third-party cookies in 2024. This is something rival browsers Firefox and Safari have already done. And it looked like Chrome, with a 70% market share, had sounded the death knell for 3P cookies. Marketers everywhere were sweating bullets.

And then, Google changed their mind. In a blog announcing the decision, Anthony Chavez, VP of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, wrote, “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

So, it looks like 3P cookies are here to stay. But everything else is changing.

Every year, privacy regulations are getting stricter in favor of the consumer. And internet users are getting more and more finicky about sharing their data. If Google takes the same route as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), it means that users will be prompted to allow/disallow the use of their data for third-party tracking. Current opt-in rates for ATT is less than 40% on average, globally and the same behavior can be expected from Chrome users too. 

That means marketers cannot—should not—sit back and relax. Let’s look at what you can do instead.

Marketing in a post-cookies world

1. Build richer 0P and 1P data

Even if 3P cookies are around, zero-party and first-party data are all-important because they give a far more accurate picture of your customers. The catch is that money can buy third-party data—but you have to earn the trust of your customers to get zero-party and first-party data. 

Use authentication, surveys, lead magnets, quizzes, social media interaction, and anything else you can think of, to personalize your user experience and gather information about their preferences and behavior. Tough, but not impossible, and certainly necessary. Here are some practical ways to build out your first-party data strategy:

1. Invest in zero-party data: This is data that customers proactively and intentionally share with you, such as through surveys, polls, and direct feedback. It gives you the most reliable and valuable insights about your audience and is platinum standard in terms of user consent.
2. Fine-tune your email marketing: Your email list is a goldmine of first-party data. Use welcome campaigns, preference centers, and segmentation to gather more detailed profile information on your subscribers and send them the most relevant offers and communications.
3. Run loyalty and membership programs: Incentivize customers to create accounts and share details about their interests, purchases, and behaviors in exchange for personalized experiences and benefits.
4. Optimize your website for data capture: Ensure your site has clear calls-to-action, valuable gated content, and simple, intuitive user signup flows to encourage visitors to share their information. Leverage interactive elements like quizzes and surveys to collect data.
5. Integrate offline and online data: Combine first-party data from your digital touchpoints with offline customer information from point-of-sale, customer service, and other sources to get a holistic picture of your target audience.

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2. Share your data through second party partnerships

First-party data is great for keeping the customers you have, but it won’t help you find new ones. Ergo, second-party data. Get into data sharing arrangements with adjacent businesses that are relevant to your target audience. 

Way back in 2013, home furnishing chain Pottery Barn partnered with paint retailer Sherwin-Williams to share data and create paint palettes that match Pottery Barn’s furnishings. A clear win for both brands and the customer. 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Southeast Asia and India (IAB) has a great article on what to consider when evaluating data partners. Read it here.

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3. Re-adopt contextual advertising

This time-tested strategy, which predates cookie-driven ads, is simple—advertise to customers based not on their preferences, but on the nature of the content they’re engaging with. Context-based ads do not need user details at all, which means they won't cross swords with privacy laws. 

A good example of this is how Xiaomi used Spotify’s contextual advertising to launch the Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G in 2022. Listeners would be exposed to different ads depending on the content of their playlist. For instance, someone listening to a Night/Sleep playlist towards the end of day would hear an ad extolling the Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G’s ultra night mode camera and adaptive overnight charging.

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Tools rush in: The tech trying to replace 3P cookies

Alternative solutions for marketers are flooding the market, with every solution purporting to be the advertising elixir for the new world. Here are just a few of the tools and tech on offer.

Privacy Sandbox: Chrome’s own answer to cookies, Sandbox offers privacy-preserving APIs for web browsers that enable targeted advertising and measurement without infringing individual user data.

‍ID-based solutions: These solutions use hashed email addresses, encrypted identifiers, or universal IDs to track and target users across devices without relying on third-party cookies. Solution providers in this space include The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, LiveIntent, ZeoTap etc. Here is a good read about questions to ask while choosing an ID-based solution.

‍AI solutions: Machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics can help marketers analyze data and predict user behavior in the absence of cookies. Some big players in this field are Adobe, IBM Watson Marketing, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Hubspot, Pixis and so on. 

Will all of these solutions together serve to replace cookies fully? Not quite. 

Cookie-based marketing is a numbers game. Without 3P cookies, you may not be able to reach as many customers as before. But on the plus side, you now have the opportunity to focus on the fundamentals: customer engagement, experience, and loyalty. 

As MarTech veteran Kristjan Mar Hauksson puts it, “We have been a bit spoiled with the amount of data we have been able to get over the past years… Before cookies and advanced tracking technologies, marketers and advertising relied on various tools and strategies to measure campaign success. Though these may seem antiquated now, they continue to be highly effective. Communicating directly with the customer is essential; beyond ICPs and Personas, the attribution has been dehumanized. Ultimately, the essence of marketing remains understanding the customer and this is unchanged.”

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