As we are near to the cookieless world, digital advertising experts are looking for possibilities to reach their potential customers as they did in the cookie world. Already, many tech giants are actively working to find alternatives for a cookieless world. But, it’s not quite easy at all.
Browsers decided to stop supporting third party cookies but still they support first party cookies.
Experts provide alternative suggestions for third party cookieless advertising. In this article, we will see the possible alternatives for cookieless advertising. But, as of now none of them aren’t 100% alternative to the cookieless advertising.
As a 10+ year digital marketing specialist, I have many questions about third party cookieless advertising. So, I wrote this article to clear all my doubts. Hope, you also have these questions in your mind while thinking about cookieless advertising. If so, let’s start.
Cookieless World : What Are The Alternatives Available?
Table Of Contents:
- What are cookies? How does it work?
- How do browsers distinguish first party and third party cookies?
- First Party Cookie vs Third Party Cookie
- Which browsers deprecated the third party cookies?
- Why do browsers stop supporting third party cookies?
- What we can’t do without third party cookies?
- Cookieless World : What Are The Alternatives Available For Digital Advertising?
- Conclusion
What are cookies? How does it work?
Cookies are simple text files that are created by the server of the website you visit. This simple text file contains various information defined by the server of the website.
For example, when you visit a mirror.com for the first time and you log in using your Gmail account. When you go to the same mirror.com website the next day, you no need to sign in again and it is automatically signed in. How?
Another example, on some websites we choose our preferences correctly. In that case, our preferences are remembered by the website whenever we revisit the website. How?
All are done using cookies. Website servers indicate the browser to save the required information as cookies in the user’s device to provide a better browser experience.
When the user again tries to access the same website later, the browser checks the device storage and sends if any cookie information is already stored. If not, that user is considered a new user. That’s why whenever we cleared our cookies our login info was removed and preferences were removed.
How do browsers distinguish first party and third party cookies?
This looks like a very basic question around third party cookies. But, some of you have this question in your mind. Because all the pixels or trackers fire on a website similarly. Then, how do browsers identify and block third party cookies alone? It’s very simple.
Let’s consider, you access a website ‘srimarketingstrategy.com ‘ for example. Any tracker that starts with srimarketingstrategy.com is considered as a first party cookie. Remaining trackers that do not start with srimarketingstrategy.com are considered as third party pixels.
When a browser stops supporting third party cookies, all the third party trackers will not be allowed to track user information.
Types Of Cookies : First Party Cookie vs Third Party Cookie
In the online world, there are two types of cookies available. Both cookies have their own features.
- First Party Cookie
- Third Party Cookie
| First Party Cookie | Third Party Cookie | |
| Origin | First Party Cookies are owned by the website and setup by the website you visit. The main domain of the tracker is the same as the website domain. | Third Party Cookies are set by other companies or platforms other than the website you visit. The main domain of the tracker is different from the website domain. |
| Purpose | Used to save user’s credentials for future sign in. Also, used to save users preferences to provide a better browsing experience. | Primarily used to track user’s online behaviors such as interests, browsing habits. Sometimes, used to provide additional features like monitoring the performance, social media sharing assistance etc. |
| Privacy Level | Privacy concern about the first party cookie is low. Because, the same website only collecting user data and they won’t track users across multiple websites. | Third party cookies are subject to privacy concerns. Because they may sell the users online behavior data to other parties to show online advertisements. |
Here, you see the exact differences between first party cookie and the third party cookie. Most third party providers contracted with large amounts of publishers to track the users online behaviors and interests. They sell users data to the required companies. In particular, they sell the users data to the digital advertising companies. Using these data, advertising companies identify the users interest and show ads related to their interests.
Which browsers deprecated the third party cookies?
The following browsers already stopped supporting third party cookies to support user’s privacy concerns.
- Mozilla FireFox
- Safari
- Brave
- Opera [Still supports cookies, but takes serious actions to save user’s privacy]
Google Chrome shares around 63.50% of the global browser market share and it still supports third party cookies. Already, Google announced it plans to stop third party cookies by 2022 and it extended to 2024.
As per Google’s announcement, in early 2024 google plans to disable third party cookies for 1% of its users and move them into privacy sandbox. Google plans to deprecate third party cookies for all users in the second half of 2024. If the privacy sandbox works as they expected then they will deprecate the third party cookies from Google Chrome.
Why do browsers stop supporting third party cookies?
It’s a common question for all. Few valid reasons are available to justify the third party cookies deprecation.
1. Privacy Concerns
Third party cookies tracking capability is so powerful. Third party providers collect user’s data from various websites, apps and other resources and make clear user profiles. After you search some products on amazon or flipkart or anywhere online, within the next one or two minutes you may see the ads related to your search. When the common man sees ads related to their search, they think and question privacy. This is the very starting point of privacy concerns over third party cookies.
2. Security Risk
Using third party cookies, unknown persons can attack your computer and able to collect your credential information.
3. Privacy Regulations
Browsers should align with privacy regulations introduced the countries. For example, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are required user concent for collect their data and share with others. By allowing third party cookies, browsers it’s very difficult to comply with these regulations. That’s why they are ready to deprecate third party cookies.
4. To build trust
By taking steps like this to improve the users privacy, browsers build trust. It also helps to increase the global market share.
What we can’t do without third party cookies?
All experts in the digital advertising industry deeply worrying about third party cookie deprecation. Because, their entire business is in trouble in cookieless world. Here, we will see what marketers can’t do without third party cookies.
1. Behavioral Targeting
Using third party cookies, advertisers can target users based on users interest and browsing history. Without third party cookies, it is very difficult to target users. Instead, advertisers can target based on the content available in the website.
2.Retargeting
Many businesses actively collect users data from their websites and apps. Then retarget them to show the related advertisements. But, without third party cookies the advertising platforms can’t track users data from the businesses websites or apps. So, can’t do retargeting more efficiently.
3. Data Collection
Many third party data providers actively work to collect users data from different websites, apps and various resources. After major browsers phased out third party cookies, these data providers can’t track users data more accurately as they did before. So, advertisers can’t run their ad campaigns more effectively.
Cookieless World : What Are The Possibilities Available For Digital Advertising?
At the end of 2024, the major browser Google Chrome will be stopped supporting third party cookies. Already, demand side platforms, data providers, tech giants working on many projects to target a user on a cookieless world. So, their ultimate aim is to find a technology that helps to track the users without affecting their privacy in a cookieless world.
Many of us only know about google’s Privacy Sandbox. But, other companies are also actively working to find an alternative solution for Cookieless Advertising. Here, I have named a few technologies for your reference.
1. FLoC
The expansion for FLoC is “Federated Learning of Cohorts”. This is proposed by Google. Instead of tracking individual users, this technology creates groups users with similar interests. So, advertisers can select the groups [cohorts] to deliver their ads.
2. SPARROW
The expansion for SPARROW is “Secure Private Advertising Remotely Run On Web Server”. By this technology, the user’s data moved to web server with users privacy concern. It processes the data on the server. So, the need to track user’s data on user devices will reduce. It allows the advertisers to use the processed data to use their ad campaigns to target interest based users.
3. TRUTLEDOVE
The expansion of TRUTLEDOVE is “Two Uncorrelated Requests, Then Locally-Executed Decision On Victory”. This technology is also proposed by Google. This technology propose on- device processing for users data. So, without expose the users sensitive information advertisers can make the bidding decisions.
4. TAM
The expansion of TAM is “Authenticated Traffic Measurement”. This tech is proposed by IAB Tech Lab. It works to improve the accuracy of tracking without affecting the users privacy. It introduces a way for granting users consent to transfer their data.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual Advertising is the most proposed alternative solution for the cookiless world of advertising. Even though, if we are using any above technologies or new technologies to identify the users interest, it’s not 100% accurate as in the cookie world. Instead, advertisers can use contextual targeting and show their ads based on the content.
Social Media Advertising
Almost all social media platforms use their first party data for advertising. Those data always accurate and efficient. So, marketers can move their budget to social media advertising in order to target their users more effectively.
Cookieless Solutions
Many demand side platforms collaborated with other tech companies to support the advertisers on cookieless world of advertising. You can choose the best demand side platform to advertise more effectively.
Conclusion
Even if we like it or not, the ad industry will get into the cookieless world. In this article, I have covered all information related to “Cookieless Advertising”. So, it helps to understand about the third party cookies, first party cookies, usage of third party cookies, what we can’t do without third party cookies, alternative technologies that support cookieless advertising and so on. You can share your opinion on this article in the comment section.
