In January 2020 Google made the seismic announcement that it would automatically deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome within two years. The digital marketing sector found itself scrambling to prepare fora new world of cookieless advertising. Fast forward five years and after numerous delays and missed deadlines, Google finally pulled the plug on its plans for cookie deprecation. Having completed a full U-Turn, the company has gone on record to say that third-party cookies are here to stay. However, given all that’s happened in adtech and digital marketing over the past five years, and recognising that third-party cookies are already deprecated in Safari, calling time on the concept of advertising without cookies would be very rash indeed.
Digital advertising without cookies – five years of innovation
It may not have been its intention, but when Google announced its plans for cookie deprecation in 2020 it fired a starting gun on adtech innovation. For advertisers, third-party cookies gave them the opportunity to launch highly personalised and targeted campaigns at scale. For publishers, the technology enabled them to enrich their inventory and command a premium from advertisers. The huge loss of advertising signals that cookie deprecation threatened was unconscionable. An alternative needed to be found. The hunt for cookieless advertising technologies was on.
In the years since, the adtech market has launched a wide variety of alternatives to third-party cookies. These alternatives include new approaches to contextual advertising, data cleanrooms, and Google’s own Privacy Sandbox.
There has also been an explosion of new advertising identifiers that aim to address the root cause of Google’s decision to deprecate cookies: the need to preserve data privacy.
In the wake of global privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and PIPL to name but a few, publishers and advertisers must first secure consent from data owners (i.e. web users) before collecting and processing their personal data for advertising purposes. The days when cookies could freely track people around the internet are over. For an identifier to be able to fuel cookieless future advertising it must be privacy-by-design.
Telco-verified IDs – enabling digital advertising without cookies
Telco-verified IDs are a good example of the privacy-first identifiers pioneered following Google’s first deprecation announcement. Telco-verified IDs are built on consented first-party intelligence from telco networks, empowering telcos, publishers, brands and marketers to create a new generation of first-party IDs that fuel personalised digital content and improve user experiences.
Telco-verified IDs enable identity resolution for brands and publishers to recognise returning visitors without needing to use their personal data or having knowledge of their true identities. They also underpin effective audience addressability at scale, enabling publishers to increase yield and brands to deepen customer relationships through consented, first-party-data-derived audiences at scale. Finally, telco-verified IDs enable brands to activate audience segments and reach the right audiences, in the right places, and at the right time. Importantly, they do so while respecting user privacy.
The future of cookieless digital advertising
The key question now facing marketers and publishers alike is what role third-party cookies should play in the adtech mix now that they’re no longer being deprecated. The answer to this question is clear. Third-party cookies are a legacy solution that are no longer fit for purpose. Regardless of what Google does or doesn’t do with the technology, brands and publishers will increasingly turn to technologies that are better suited to their needs.
From a privacy-compliance angle, advertising without third-party cookies is preferable. With third-party cookies there’s always a danger that even if someone gives consent for their personal data to be used for advertising, that data can propagate across the advertising ecosystem in ways they’re unaware of and often without additional consent. Alternatives such as telco-verified IDs, on the other hand, are transient IDs. They disappear after being used for the consented advertising activity and do not persist in the advertising ecosystem. For brands and publishers looking to guarantee compliance that’s a clear win.
Cookieless ads are also beneficial from a performance perspective. Figures from 2023 found that 70% of consumers block cookies online. Given recent publicity around Google’s controls for managing cookies in Chrome, it’s possible that the figure today is even higher. This has a profound impact on the benefit of third-party cookies for advertising. As more people opt out of tracking cookies, marketers lose access to granular user data, making it harder to personalise ads. Meanwhile, publishers struggle to build the addressable audiences they need to command a premium for their inventory.
Digital advertising without cookies
Cookieless digital advertising is a no-brainer. Not only does it deliver against compliance requirements, but it also provides higher-quality data for programmatic advertising. Telco-verified IDs, for example, deliver large-scale audiences across digital properties that are 100% matched at source. Third-party cookies may be here to stay for the time being, but the direction of travel is clear. Soon, cookies will be consigned to the past, while a new privacy-first programmatic ecosystem takes shape.
