Our View on a Cookieless World.

Get new articles directly in your inbox! Click here.

Get new articles directly in your inbox! Click here.

Marketers have been navigating their way through endless privacy changes over the past few years and it seems we are finally at a point where cookies will no longer be part of that journey. 



Gone are the days of being able to gather an abundance of 3rd party data through tracking cookies and using that data to fuel and refine acquisition and retargeting strategies. Consumers are more aware of their data and are far more knowledgeable about what it means to be tracked; through both websites and apps. 



So when we think of a cookieless landscape, what does that look like. Here’s what our team has to say. 



Andy, Founder of Revenue Growth Agency: 



The loss of audience signal data provided by cookies will force brands to think less in a performance marketing mindset and instead move towards a customer centric intent-based model.


What this translates to is brands spending more time analysing their 1st party customer data. It will become their gold mine. Getting to know your customers and the intricacies of their motivations and how they buy, will allow a clearer picture of what the vital future new customer acquisition strategy will need to look like. Meta and Google ads cookie provided data will no longer steer decisions to the same extent.


Armed with this, brands will return to the classic marketing funnel and think much more in terms of ‘awareness’ and ‘conversion’ channels using their brand story as the glue to engage valuable new customers, while entertaining existing. Ensuring they remain front of mind. To measure all this, ‘intent’ will become the biggest buzzword. Those brands that find a way to harness user intent and use it to target will share the spoils of growth.


Marketers have been navigating their way through endless privacy changes over the past few years and it seems we are finally at a point where cookies will no longer be part of that journey. 



Gone are the days of being able to gather an abundance of 3rd party data through tracking cookies and using that data to fuel and refine acquisition and retargeting strategies. Consumers are more aware of their data and are far more knowledgeable about what it means to be tracked; through both websites and apps. 



So when we think of a cookieless landscape, what does that look like. Here’s what our team has to say. 



Andy, Founder of Revenue Growth Agency: 



The loss of audience signal data provided by cookies will force brands to think less in a performance marketing mindset and instead move towards a customer centric intent-based model.


What this translates to is brands spending more time analysing their 1st party customer data. It will become their gold mine. Getting to know your customers and the intricacies of their motivations and how they buy, will allow a clearer picture of what the vital future new customer acquisition strategy will need to look like. Meta and Google ads cookie provided data will no longer steer decisions to the same extent.


Armed with this, brands will return to the classic marketing funnel and think much more in terms of ‘awareness’ and ‘conversion’ channels using their brand story as the glue to engage valuable new customers, while entertaining existing. Ensuring they remain front of mind. To measure all this, ‘intent’ will become the biggest buzzword. Those brands that find a way to harness user intent and use it to target will share the spoils of growth.


Struggling to acquire new customers at scale? Learn more about how we've helped brands just like yours. Click here.



Danielle, Agency Marketing Manager: 


I think I might be one of the only marketers excited about the lack of cookies. It means we really have to look towards creativity and messaging to acquire new customers rather than tight targeting parameters. We’re heading back towards branding power, storytelling and measuring success outside of last click ROAS and it opens a real opportunity for brands to be bold and creative and have fun. We should be looking at audience data, where they are spending their time, what pushes their buttons, seeking patterns and trends, making tactical assumptions and then letting the creative do the heavier lifting. 


And whilst I’m aware that it will of course be more difficult to report, marketers did it before the age of digital so we can do it now. Being cut free from the cookie reigns should excite marketers. And creative advertising should also excite consumers which is surely why we do what we do. 


David, Director of Client Growth Strategy: 


A cookieless world sounds frightening from the perspective of how we work today. Concretely, the bit that will be missing is the attribution of conversions to a channel / to a given campaign / to a given ad. But we will still have platform data that will be useful to assess campaigns, ads, messaging and creative. For example clicks to measure how much traffic a channel is sending to the site, CTR to measure the efficiency of an ad to catch attention and compel users to take action, VideoViewTime to measure how engaging a video is etc.


Marketers will have to work differently and probably slowly, adding one new element at the time and performing incremental tests and correlating on-platform kpis with on-site kpis to measure marketing performance. Not ideal and much more work for us but not impossible to deal with.


Looking for

Support?

If you or your brand are looking for support with a particular service or have a question about what you've just read, get in touch and we'll be happy to help!

Looking for

Support?

If you or your brand are looking for support with a particular service or have a question about what you've just read, get in touch and we'll be happy to help!