Google's cookie gambit: Will marketers bite?

“As a marketer, we can ‘sadly’ rejoice that things won’t change and challenges won’t be as much. But that is a wrong approach in the marketing profession,” a CMO from the BFSI sector recently told exchange4media.

While Google’s announcement about not deprecating third-party cookies does offer a temporary reprieve to advertisers heavily reliant on this tracking technology, industry experts suggest that the momentum behind alternative data strategies will not be halted.

Ashwin Padmanabhan, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, GroupM, has pointed out that for the past four years everybody has been planning for a cookie-less ecosystem. Both brands and agencies have invested significantly in first-party data. “We were trying to imagine a world without cookies which was only dependent on first-party data or zero-party data. Having cookies and having the freedom to play with the data that comes with cookies, will only enrich the way we activate audiences,” he said.

Despite the continued existence of third-party cookies, marketers are focused on developing robust first-party data platforms and refining contextual targeting techniques. According to industry experts, while the delay in cookie deprecation provides some breathing room, it doesn't change the long-term trajectory of the industry. “Privacy regulations are tightening, and consumers are becoming increasingly wary of intrusive tracking. Building a strong first-party data foundation remains crucial for delivering personalised and effective campaigns,” a digital marketer told e4m.

Ashwin Padmanabhan also added that brands and agencies were trying to build an alternate way to engage with audiences as a replacement for cookies. “It doesn’t mean that the way we have created now will become redundant. It is only going to add to the cookie world and enable us to do things better when both come together,” he said.

The shift towards privacy-centric advertising has been underway for several years, driven by factors such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework. Advertisers have been investing heavily in technologies and strategies to collect and leverage first-party data, which offers a more direct and compliant way to understand and engage with customers.

Contextual targeting, which focuses on delivering ads based on the content of a web page rather than user data, has also gained prominence. As third-party cookies became less reliable, marketers recognised the value of aligning their campaigns with relevant content to reach the right audience.

Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer and Head of Strategy at Bajaj Capital, pointed out that initially when the world was talking about the cookieless world coming in, the value of brand managers was set to get much higher, considering they would get to tell more stories, because cookieless world was all supposed to be about storytelling. But that aspiration might again slow down for a bit in the wake of cookies still being around.

Having said that, Khare added that spending on alternatives and building on first-party data is definitely not going to stop whatever might be the scenario in the big tech ecosystem. “Building on alternatives is always in the picture, because you never know what hits you suddenly. Contextual targeting is also very much going to continue from our side. We are and will be making a cohort of users and their behaviour and give context based ads,” he said.

Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO of ReBid had earlier shared with e4m that the agency had been approached by FMCG players for a plan to collect approximately 30 million first party data in the next 2 years. “They are willing to spend for the same, too,” he added.

Additionally, even Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media at Dabur had mentioned that a significant portion of the firm’s marketing budget was being allocated to creating its first-party data stack and that the company was collecting first-party data during its activations at events like Melas and through below-the-line (BTL) initiatives, with consent.

The experts add that this trend was very much likely to continue. First-party data strategies will continue to receive a chunk of marketing budgets allocated to them. A senior digital agency head says, “If brands were spending on alternatives just because third party cookies were going away, then I think they have got the game wrong and should rather stop. Every brand needs to understand that regardless of third party cookies being there or not, having a robust first party data strategy in place is of utmost importance, especially in an era where you never know what either of these big techs might throw at you on any random morning.”

Google is working on a new approach, a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. Ashish Tiwari, CMO, Home Credit says that as a marketer, one cannot just sit back and relax hearing this. “Because tomorrow when the new experiences go strong, I do not know how it will kind of turn out to be. So as a marketer, I would like to prepare my business to deal with any uncertainty. And whatever efforts we have been doing for the time to prepare for it, I think we'll continue on that,” he added.

Tiwari also clarified that this might not really mean that the brand is going to double up on all the alternative plans in place, but it definitely would not come to a halt either.

Highlighting the importance of having first party data he added, “I think irrespective of the cookie being there or not, it's the connection that you create with your consumer set, which is the only thing that you own. Platforms and environments and the operating conditions might keep changing, but this relationship which you create with your customers, with your prospects, that's what's going to take you further.”

While the full implications of Google's decision are yet to be understood, it is clear that the digital advertising landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Marketers who have embraced data-driven and privacy-compliant approaches are well-positioned to thrive in this evolving environment.