We mentioned briefly in our last blog (Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – everything you need to know) that the use of third party cookies is going away. Here, we want to explain exactly what that means for your business and what you can do instead.
What are third party cookies?
Third party cookies are pieces of code that allow websites to track users across the web and collect information, in order to provide them with a better user experience. They are also used by platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Google to target audiences with relevant ads and to re-market products to them that they’ve already viewed.
Why are third party cookies going away?
While cookies have been great for marketers in terms of targeting, companies like Google are now no longer supporting tracking from third party cookies on their ad networks, as audiences are requesting more privacy. The Firefox and Safari web browsers have actually blocked third party cookies since 2013, but if you’re wondering why it’s really coming to an end now, it’s because Google Chrome (used by over 65% of people as a web browser) is no longer supporting this type of data tracking.
Online advertising and digital marketing without third party cookies
Without third party cookies, online advertising certainly becomes less personalised to new audiences, but the good news is there are things you can do to continue to target the right people for your business.
- Produce quality digital marketing content – Firstly and very importantly, businesses must produce quality digital content that offers true value to their audience (we talk about this is our art of SEO copywriting blog). If you are able to put yourself in your audiences’ shoes, understand their pain points and share content that they love, then you will be offering ‘personalised content’ that your audience will want to come back to, without the invasion of their privacy
- Collect first party data – If you haven’t already, start collecting first party data. This is data that comes from your own sign up forms, newsletters, surveys and email sign ups etc. and is owned by your business. It can be used again and again without the need to rely on data being collected by other platforms
- Leverage Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – GA4, the new version of Google Analytics is a powerful way to collect data about your audiences. The new version provides much more data than the older Universal Analytics and allows businesses to gain detailed insights into user behaviour on both their website and app in one place. You can read more about it here in our blog
- Add GA4 audiences to your online advertising campaigns – create audiences in GA4 such as those who visited certain pages of your website, but did not make a purchase and re-target them with your products or services
- Try interest based online advertising – How is Google Ads getting around not being able use third party cookies to target users? They created the Google Privacy Sandbox which allows websites to access user information without invading their privacy, as the information stays anonymous. It enables businesses to target people through Google Ads based on their interests. You can target people by interests on Facebook too, meaning that if you own a surf shop and you target men and women between 25 and 35 and choose surfing as an interest, they are highly likely to be interested in your brand
- Know your demographics – You can still target people by demographics on Facebook Ads for example, as Facebook asks their users for this information, therefore it’s first party data that is owned by Facebook
- Target by location – you may know that you can target people by location on Facebook, but did you know that you can go deeper than that? You can target people who are travelling in a location (great if you own a shop and you know most of your business comes from tourists). You can also choose options including people who live in that location or people who were recently in that location.
As you can see, luckily we don’t need to know every step that a user takes on the web to be able to target them. We hope you found this blog useful and if you would like help with your online advertising then please get in touch with us at Q Social Media.
