How To Prepare For The Removal Of Third-Party Cookie Tracking
Online privacy has been a big concern for both consumers and regulators in recent years. Google announced that they will be fully removing all third-party cookies from Chrome later this year. Cookies are what tracks and collects user behavior data, and are a large part of an advertising targeting strategy. The absence of third-party cookies will cause targeting to be less accurate. Remarketing is also a huge component of a good ad strategy and will also be affected by this change. Remarketing is showing ads to shoppers who have visited your website based on their history, interests, and behavior. Fortunately, there are some alternative ways marketers can replace this data to continue targeting ads to relevant shoppers.
Alternative Audience Targeting Options
First, advertisers can target shoppers based on interests with “Topics.” This is Google’s solution to the removal of cookie targeting. This lets you reach a broad range of websites, channels, and videos related to a specific topic.
Gather your first-party data. This is the information your website collects via a form fill or any type of online submission on your website. This also includes data from users who click, read, or buy something on your website. Be sure to collect anything you may need, including email, phone numbers, shopping history, address, or whatever else you may need to target various groups of people with your ads.
The use of search intelligence can help you target correctly without relying on Google’s platform data. There are platforms that show you observed data directly from search engines to help you design your Google Ads campaigns.
There are alternative customization experiences you can test in your accounts. You will not be able to target based on audience behavior or identity, but you can try targeting with time and location-based messaging. For example, you can use different messaging and images for NY clients vs FL clients.
Replace Third-Party Cookie Targeting Ahead Of Time
The removal of third-party cookies will be a big change for the advertising industry. It is hard to predict the full outcome of this change, but there are steps you can take to prepare. Make sure your website is currently collecting consumer data, where possible, and try to use custom messaging based on the information you are able to collect. Combine this with contextual targeting to create a new strategy for your clients.
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