Jean-Philippe
CEO & Co-founder
In May 2023, Google announced a plan to pave the way for a cookie-free ecosystem (source). This news is crucial to understand as it will impact all businesses using these third-party cookies, restricting the use of certain tools and diminishing cross-site data between sites and platforms.
Source : Google
No need to panic
Google initiated its tests with 1% of users since January 5th, and they will continue until the middle of Q3 2024, reaching 100% by that time. Google’s decision to test a cookie-free policy with a limited percentage of users reflects a broader industry trend focused on privacy-respecting practices, which is fundamentally a good thing. The goal is to strike a balance between personalized advertising and user privacy. As the California-based company takes steps to reduce its reliance on third-party cookies, it signals the need for all companies to adapt to strategies for an evolving digital landscape.
How to prepare?
This is often the question that arises with changes. What do we think at Rablab? It’s evident that it requires adjustment but not at the expense of the performance of our advertising efforts. Here are several aspects to focus on to prepare and also ethically use your user data:
Transition to first-party data :
With the decreasing reliability of third-party cookies, you must pay increased attention to the collection and use of first-party data. This involves prioritizing channels where you retain user data, such as newsletters and user databases (CRM).
How are Android and iOS affected?
It’s essential to understand that this change only affects the web aspect of the Google environment. Since Chrome is significant and monopolistic, understanding the impacts of such changes primarily affects data sharing. Similar to the changes with iOS 14.5 in April 2021, the loss of data may be felt with a delay when all users transition to the new privacy sandbox.
Conduct an audit of your third-party cookie usage :
In this comprehensive article, there are 5 elements to consider towards Google’s phase-out of its Privacy Sandbox. Starting with an audit is often the right method to assess our current usage and receive appropriate recommendations. If you need advice, contact a member of our team for an audit!
Source : Google
These changes are not entirely new, but it’s essential to prepare to review your advertising ecosystem in the long term due to changes in cross-site tracking. As experienced with Facebook, the changes introduced with iOS 14.5 took several months before having noticeable impacts on audiences. Once again, we’ll need to improve how we manage private data and optimize our ecosystem to be more ethical and comply with new standards!