Everyone in the online advertising industry talks about the “Google Bomb,” third-party cookies going away over the last few years. The initial first step was announced to be completed by the end of 2022 which aligned with Apple’s IDFA changes. Google’s retirement of cookie’s has been continually pushed back, but on Jan 4, 2024, 1% of users cookies were deprecated and this marks another big step forward.
What will happen for marketing and advertising in the future?
There’s a lot of chaos surrounding this topic, but there is no need to panic. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) and other players in the programmatic industry have been developing comprehensive and privacy-compliant technology for years. These changes in the industry do not come as a surprise.
TheTradeDesk puts it best, “The deprecation of third-party cookies, increasing consumer privacy regulation, and recent restrictions to Apple’s IDFA are presenting industry leaders with an opportunity to upgrade identity technology in a way that preserves the value exchange of the internet (free content in exchange for relevant advertising) while increasing user privacy and control.”
The TradeDesk initiative is called Unified ID 2.0 – it’s a partnership between major industry players such as publishers, demand-side platforms, data providers, and supply-side platforms, among others, uniting to find a better way to make identity on the open internet a better experience for all.
Change is scary, and marketers feel uneasy that what they have been so reliant on for many years (third-party cookies + Apple’s IDFA technology) will be gone or changed very soon. Surveyed, marketers believe that audience targeting/remarketing will be “very negatively” impacted by ios14/cookie changes (74% report very or somewhat negative). Of all areas surveyed, marketers were most pessimistic about this area’s impacts due to the changes.
At Above The Fold, we want our customers and everyone in the industry to remain optimistic. With change comes innovation. Programmatic marketing’s retargeting approach uses a unique and effective technique to site retarget that is unaffected by these cookie changes. The deprecation of 3rd party cookies will have very little, if any, impact on our capability to site/CRM retarget. We will still also have the ability to target very defined consumers based on location retail stores, ski resorts, any location, events, etc.). We are actively integrating third parties such as LiveRamp IdentityLink, which is commonly seen as an immediate protection to the loss of cookies and IDFA.
There will likely be some changes coming down the pipeline, but we don’t want marketers to feel that this is “the end” or some kind of doomsday for the marketing industry. Jeff Green of TheTradeDesk is a great person to follow during all of this change. He keeps a level head, presents the facts, and is at the forefront of the Unified 2.0 project.
“That is the beauty of the open internet. It is an open market where competition inspires creativity, innovation, progress, and efficiency. And when companies compete, consumers win.” Read more on the importance of Unified ID 2.0 from Trade Desk’s CEO Jeff Green.
As privacy and identity continue to change, the digital ad industry is making it a priority to provide marketers with the knowledge and insight to help prepare a plan towards a better future.
If you have questions about 3rd party cookie depreciation or removal, please reach out to us. We’d love to discuss this or any other programmatic advertising topic with you. Our goal is to help you learn more about the industry.