The days are numbered for 3rd party cookies.
There are plenty of wheels spinning at different regulatory levels and other legal maneuverings. Whether it comes at the hand of Apple ATT, Google’s Chrome, or the FTC/EU/CFSB/CCPA/LMMOQ, you will no longer be able to track and serve ads to anonymous web visitors sometime in the next year(-ish).
But does that mean you need to take action today? Won’t the ad networks find alternative approaches before then? Meta’s $10B revenue miss earlier this year says maybe not.
So what to do?
The first thing is to understand what your exposure is. Look at your customer journey/acquisition process. What parts require a 3rd party tracker, like the Facebook Pixel? What breaks if that is less/not effective at all? How much of your revenue or customer acquisition #’s this year will flow through that process?
Next, look at what alternative approaches you can begin to experiment with and implement NOW before everything breaks. Here are a few ideas to look at:
- Lead generation experiences exchange information for value (assessments, custom/personalized tools/advice, calculators, etc.)
- Server-side event tracking
- Customer engagement that drives log in
- Advanced identity resolution
- Integrating your martech stack silos
Finally, look for the upside. Organizations that have already lept into a 1st party data approach have seen significant increase in the effectiveness of their marketing:
- Increase in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), typically well into double digits
- Improved performance of look-alike audience creation
- Higher click-thru rates of direct email marketing
- Lower cost/time in manipulating data and optimizing campaigns
- Faster time to market for products with more focused testing and launch planning
This is one of those times when a looming deadline can be your competitive friend. Spending time to get your data “house” in order sooner will start paying off now and give you a huge advantage when many other alternatives will be caught flat-footed and see their digital pipeline crumble away. If you need advice or help taking those first steps reach out.