Google’s Shift and the Rise of First-Party Data Strategies
The Gist
- Google maintains persistence. Google’s plan to deprecate third-party cookies is postponed, but not abandoned, keeping Privacy Sandbox active.
- A positive impact. The looming threat of the cookiepocalypse has motivated brands to enhance their first-party data strategies, yielding better customer experiences and efficiency.
- Data reliance. Consumers and brands continue to prefer and benefit from first-party data, which offers more personalized and relevant digital experiences.
There has been a lot going on in the news cycle of late, but one thing you surely caught was Google’s announcement that it is abandoning its plans to fully deprecate third-party cookies, though the company claims to remain committed to its Privacy Sandbox project that has been exploring alternatives to using cookies to track users to enable digital advertising. The headlines, however have been spelling it out pretty clearly: Google has abandoned its plan to kill the cookie.
We’ve been talking about the looming “cookiepocalypse” for what feels like decades but has been at least a couple of years now, and with this announcement that milestone all but vanished. That said, what should brands do in the wake of this announcement? Are all the investments in first-party data strategies, customer data platforms (CDPs) and similar initiatives in vain?
Let’s explore what this big announcement means for brands, and take a couple doses of realism about how this news affects us all.
A Dose of Realism: We Weren’t Really Ready for the Cookiepocalypse
While the news from Google is disappointing on several levels, it is not shocking. After all, as of May of this year, Adobe found that three-quarters of marketers across the globe still heavily rely on third-party cookies. Plainly put: we weren’t even ready for the cookiepocalypse, should it have arrived at any of the dates it was originally proposed to occur.
Despite the lack of preparation, this environment where first-party data has been emphasized saw the rise of several important pieces of technology and helped the CDP market come into maturity — with Gartner releasing its very first Magic Quadrant for CDPs earlier this year. This is a good thing for brands as well as consumers, as we’ll explore in the next section.
Related Article: What Is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?
No Going Back
All that said, there is too much evidence to indicate that not only does greater reliance on first-party data respect consumer data privacy, it also just simply works better. Customers get better experiences, and brands waste less dollars. A BCG and Google (yes, Google) study shows that brands using first-party data achieved up to a nearly three times higher revenue uplift.
So, even though the cookiepocalypse isn’t occurring, its looming threat had a positive effect on the industry. Without a deadline — even if Google moved it back several times — many brands would not have been nearly as motivated to start moving in the direction of building out a first-party data strategy. This means that those brands would be even further behind when it comes to having personalization and customer journey orchestration capabilities.
Another dose of realism: third party cookies aren’t going anywhere, probably ever.
While there is an effort made in the Google announcement to keep the Privacy Sandbox alive, this feels all too much like the first of a series of announcements in which the eventual message is that third-party cookies are here to stay.
A potential course for privacy is now in the hands of government regulators and policies specific to contexts and industries, such as those related to healthcare, which in the United States falls under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. It is quite likely that similar regulations may pop up for specific use cases which further protect consumers.
Related Article: First-Party Data: Key Benefits and Challenges for Marketers
Customers Want More
That said, customers are not going to want to give up the gains they’ve made in the past few years. Sure, we still get lots of ads and offers as consumers, but the quality and relevance is increasing, and this is due to greater reliance on first-party data. Plus, nearly 80% of consumers would rather get more ads than have to pay for access to websites and apps, so advertising is at worst a necessary evil that the vast majority of the population prefers to the alternative.
Beyond advertising, however, the digital customer experience has been transformed by a greater adoption of first-party data across the enterprise. As this continues to expand beyond digital to be truly omnichannel, the brands that have made and continue to make investments in first-party data will be glad they took some motivation to the now-canceled cookiepocalypse.
Have there been some dramatic headlines and proclamations about Google’s announcement over the past few days? Absolutely. But neither is this something to take lightly. While third-party cookies may continue to drive large portions of digital advertising, the need for brands to adopt a first-party data strategy is greater than ever. Not necessarily for advertising, but for all of the other marketing that brands need to do, and to make all of that marketing more personalized and relevant for increasingly sophisticated and advertising-weary consumers.
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