The cookie is already gone. The budgets have moved. All the howls about Chrome’s road plan for deprecation are like the last troops remaining on the battlefield, clutching the flag of a fallen country. In short, it is over.
However, we cannot estimate the decline of cookies by looking at the bidstream. There is still a lot of cookie-based purchasing going on. The outdated user-sync systems are still playing pixel ping-pong against cookie-enabled browsers.
Mapping tables in SSPs, DSPs, DMPs, and other XXP systems are being updated with new users and renewed IDs. Everything is still going on, but it’s time to retire.
The true measures indicating that it is over are product releases, engineering spending, and marketing messaging. None of these indications indicate life in the third-party cookie. No one develops or sells technology based on a defunct feature.
Instead, expenditures are being directed into alternative IDs such as ID-5, UID2, Lotame, Audigent, and others. These signals are gaining appeal among media owners, SSPs, and DSPs, as the cookie’s future fades.
The Cookie’s Fall from Grace
Take a peek at Criteo. It developed its business on the third-party cookie. It was synonymous with “retargeting.” In 2020, it launched what is likely one of the most significant shifts away from 30-year-old cookie technology. The transition was not without challenges, but Criteo remains dedicated four years later.
Apple took the first move in 2012 by banning third-party cookies in Safari. Since then, the cookie has gradually been stigmatized as a symbol of the open web’s widespread lack of privacy.
In actuality, such permanent data breaches or “distributions” are significantly more destructive than following an anonymised identification and targeting it with suitable advertising material. However, the privacy and technology hype cycle cannot be broken while two ogres like Apple and Google are pounding one other over the head with it.
READ MORE: And Just Like That, Google Will Not Deprecate Cookies. What Happens Now?
Google added to the confusion by announcing that it will drop the cookie. Markets dislike uncertainty. Hundreds of firms began to gradually pivot. As each deadline neared, the pivots accelerated.
Today, no corporation is putting effort into the cookie. Uncertainty triumphed in accomplishing what explicit assertions could not. Our ecology has gone on.
Getting buy-in on intriguing alternatives
While the clamor concerning signal loss increased, so-called alternative IDs began to gain popularity.
Companies are monitoring discrete demand against each ID. They’re receiving bids. Not just a few test bids from boutique DSPs. These IDs have value in both the open market and PMPs. And they will continue to offer audience-based demand to publishers by leveraging the ID providers’ sales and marketing activities.
However, these alternative IDs will need to show themselves in other ways. Users must be able to choose whether or not they are monitored. They’ll need to grasp the value exchange going on.
READ MORE: Publishers Fear Ad Revenue Drop as First-Party Cookies Under Threat
We are still not effectively educating media consumers about the advantages of anonymised behavioral monitoring, which are normally provided for free in return for viewing better focused and hence more useful advertisements. Privacy advocates make decisions for individuals who do not grasp the options that are currently accessible to them. However, one might argue that media owners and advertisers have been doing the same thing.
Alternative IDs will also need to demonstrate value via collaborations. It cannot just be data onboarding and targeting for a few campaigns. identification frameworks will need to be integrated into the fabric of identification systems. Vendors cannot expect advertising to opt in for a charge. That will not attract the market to you. It must be both efficient and affordable.
There are certain fundamental legal standards that any ID supplier must follow, but there is also room to collaborate on codes of behavior and technology norms. The IAB Tech Lab has established the Data Deletion Request Framework to manage user requests. Incorporating thought leaders from identity providers into the working group is a solid start.
Finally, ID suppliers must become loud champions for user privacy inside the ecosystem and before privacy regulatory agencies. Missing this chance will lead us down the same path that the cookie is now on.
Similarly, we need ID providers in the room with platforms. Currently, this entails working with Google’s Privacy Sandbox team, Apple teams, and, if feasible, Samsung, Roku, and others. If there is a difficult talk to have, do it.
Now that we’ve broken free from the cookie’s chains, we should use the chance to contribute to the future of identity.
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