A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand, so goes the saying. Far removed from the world of feel-good cookies, marketers have to prepare for the new cookie-less world. Leading analyst Gartner identifies 3 steps for digital marketers to come to terms with consent-based advertising.
Gartner noted “Ad data and third-party processing will decline in breadth, availability, and quality. In addition, ad targeting, buying, and optimization processes will be disrupted and constrained by the cookie-less world, especially for performance-oriented campaigns and custom audiences.
Current ad measurement, attribution, and optimization practices will become peripheral or irrelevant, as cookie data gaps undermine attribution and optimization, incrementality testing, and app-to-web tracking.
Third-party cookie data, which fueled two decades of media and data-driven performance advertising, comes to an end. Are the marketing leaders prepared to handle the coming disruption?
Gartner Inc
Google has announced that its Chrome browser will de-support third-party cookies by early 2022, a development that is projected to have significant consequences for marketing leaders responsible for advertising.
This is in large part due to Google’s control of search, its central status in display advertising, and its growing dominance of ad-supported streaming TV”.
Also read: Gartner Marketing Data Analytics Survey reveals the unimpressive state of Analytics
“In any post-cookie scenario, marketers should expect substantial and sustained disruption to digital advertising to last through the first half of 2023, or longer
Eric Schmitt, Gartner Analyst
To best prepare for the changes associated with a cookies-less world, Gartner recommended marketing leaders should consider the following steps:
- Prepare for Sustained Disruption: Develop a strategy to navigate the overlapping, cascading effects of identity and privacy changes from Google and Apple – through at least 1H23. Plan to make substantial shifts in the media mix, by retiring, reinventing, or redirecting cookie-related media spend.
- Rethink Ad Measurement Practices: To gear up for an era of advertising experimentation, reset measurement baselines, invest in market research, and lock in key resources — from agency staff to publisher-direct deals.
- Adapt to a Walled Garden World: Get comfortable with “walled garden world” scenarios that entail increased allocations to Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Expect to manage an increasing number of direct media buys with platforms and publishers — and run less cross-publisher programmatic display.
