The age of using third-party cookies in marketing may be coming to an end with Adobe's new platform
CONSUMERS have always been bothered by invasive digital marketing behaviours, such as aggressive marketing, and irrelevant targeting and cookies — a data tracker installed in web browsers to collect data about the user — which has been helping brands identify consumer personal profiles.
At the Adobe Summit 2021 earlier this year, the software company unveiled the next generation of its Real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP), the only enterprise application to deliver personalised customer experiences in a world without third-party cookies.
However, according to Adobe, the concept of cookies will not completely disappear.
First-party cookies can continue to be leveraged by website owners, while third-party cookies will no longer be supported by major web browsers.
Adobe's Real-Time CDP will help brands activate known and unknown customer data to manage their entire customer profile and journey seamlessly in one system, without the need for third-party cookies.
Adobe's director of product operations and strategy Asa Whillock, in his blog post titled "Three marketing predictions for a cookieless world", said without third-party cookies, marketing would need to evolve to focus on first-party data collected with user consent.
THE IMPLICATIONS
Whillock said that the cookie-less world would bring with it several implications for the marketing industry and digital experience as a whole.
According to him, cookies first got a bad rap when third-party cookies "...used by a domain and usually a company not associated with a particular site that is being browsed, started tracking user behaviour across websites".
However, as much as it was useful for measuring the impact of an "impression", many consumers felt it was intrusive when the item that they looked at began following them across the web.
Citing a report by market research company eMarketer, it was estimated that about 82 per cent of web ads relied on cookies, and over 77 per cent of websites had at least one or more tracking cookies.
"But the truth is that third-party cookies were never all that great at driving accurate targeting or measurement for marketers.
"In fact, according to comScore, 55 per cent of cookie-based measurement has been overstated, and 35 per cent of cookie-based demographic targeting is inaccurate.
"This data shows that third-party cookies are inefficient — they neither appear to be helping brands succeed in providing personalised experiences, nor do they give a unified view of customer activity.
EMPTYING THE COOKIE JAR
In his blog, Whillock also writes that in a cookieless future, there will be more informed and privacy-conscious consumers.
He lists three shifts that consumers may expect to see from brands and beyond.
The first is that there will be greater emphasis by brands on building consumer trust.
"People are more knowledgeable when it comes to the information they are sharing across the web, and with whom.
"That is why it is important for brands to be transparent about their consumer data practices in clear, concise and straightforward language.
"Apple is already starting, with an ad that speaks to how the iPhone protects its owner's privacy," said Whillock.
Next on the list is first-party data and identity will take on heightened importance.
He said marketers had been struggling with identity since the dawn of the web, and it was not getting any easier now that Apple and Mozilla had decided to block third-party cookies.
Whillock added that companies that had already put a focus on consumer trust had restructured to use first-party data strategies, and had started forming business alliances or data partnerships internally and externally.
"Companies across industries will partner up to share audiences with explicit permission from their customers.
"The next trend: companies working closely together, brand to brand, to exchange resolved first-party audiences (with consumer consent, of course) in a secure, neutral environment," he said.
The third shift is real-time personalisation, which will be king, where a renaissance in delivering highly relevant and personalised experiences in real-time is expected.
"Real-time personalisation is not a new idea in marketing by any means, as marketers have deployed an array of data management tools and technologies over the years to cultivate it.
"A basic example of real-time personalisation for a telco company: showing a customer the Android phone and accessories on your website's homepage, since the person clicked on your Android ad yesterday on Facebook.
"The time is now to achieve true real-time personalisation. The deduction of third-party cookies means brands can no longer rely on re-categorising prospects.
"Instead, brands that do the hard work of bringing their data and intelligence to meet the new customer moment will be rewarded with greater loyalty from a rich pool of delighted customers," concluded Whillock.