The new cookie-free digital advertising: tips and best practices

Successful marketing strategy even after the disappearance of third-party cookies

We've been talking about cookies a lot lately, but no way - the topic is hot, like a tray just out of the oven. But not filled with chocolate chip cookies, but with news and changes for your digital advertising strategy.

💡 We are currently witnessing a shift of focus on the internet towards increasing privacy and protection of users' personal data.

For those who worry that Big Brother is watching them, this sounds great. But for marketers around the world and at home, these changes are a source of new and emerging challenges.

The hot topic is what the impact of the changes will be on digital advertising.

Today we'll tell you how to adapt your advertising strategy to the new cookie-free world order. But first, a quick recap...

What are cookies and why are they important for your digital advertising?

They can be first-party - placed by the owner of the site and necessary for its proper functioning.

Or third-party - placed by third parties and used primarily for advertising purposes and to target users with campaigns that match their interests.

Why are third-party cookies disappearing?

Because of consumers' desire for their personal data to be more secure online, and some new international laws like GDPR that aim to do just that.

💡 Third-party cookies can become (and already are) dangerous weapons in the hands of data brokers.

These are companies that collect information about users on the internet and sell it to whoever pays for it, and targeted advertising is perhaps the most innocuous use of that data.

In addition to information about your interests, through third-party cookies, companies may collect other types of data about you - such as medical, financial and location-related data.

The large amount of data collected about a particular user can become an easily recognizable profile of that person. And that's not good, even if paranoia isn't chasing you.

The possibility of such abuse is precisely the reason why Google and their Safari & Firefox counterparts stopped using third-party cookies in their browsers.

Well, Google aren't there yet because of some obstacles, but it's expected to be a fact by early next year (2025).

But all is not lost. We can always rely on first-party data and the new ad targeting technologies that Google and Meta are developing.

What is first-party data + examples

Some examples are demographic data such as age, gender, location, interests, behavioral information such as products purchased or pages visited.

First-party data can be collected from many sources. Here are some examples:

• Questionnaires;
• your website;
• your app;
• reviews and feedback from customers;
• online communication with customers;
• lead generation campaigns (link);
• your social media accounts;
• email databases.

How to use first-party data to target and personalize your digital advertising?

First-party information is considered extremely valuable because it is the result of direct interaction and clearly stated consent that follows privacy laws.

👉 Through it you can:

• increase your brand awareness;
• re-engage lapsed customers;
• to find leeds;
• give added value to your customers;
• customize your content.

👉 This type of data will allow you to:

• offer your customers the products they are interested in;
• Send them emails that match their interests and customer journey by segmenting your audience and using automations (link);
• post the content your customers need on your social networks and blog.

Also learn about new digital advertising technologies that Google is developing

The Privacy Sandbox Initiative is Google's attempt to create technologies that hit two birds with one stone. Both protect users' online privacy and are useful digital advertising tools for businesses.

And after all, advertising on Google brings in a lot of revenue for the tech giant, so we had no doubt that the geniuses there would come up with something cool and innovative that also does the job.

Thanks to Privacy Sandbox and the technologies that are part of it, businesses will be able to continue to use personalized digital advertising in their marketing strategy. But without worrying about violating someone's privacy.

It could be said that this initiative gives freedom to all involved, although some regulators also have objections to it. But let's take a look behind the scenes and learn more about the technologies that are part of the Privacy Sandbox.

⭐️ Topics API

This is a technology that preserves the privacy of personal information, while at the same time allowing the display of advertisements relevant to users' interests.

The information about them comes from the history of the websites the user has visited. This is done as follows:

• Each site gets a topic tag from a pre-created list of popular topics like "sports" for example.
• Your browser collects information about the most common topics on the sites you visit.
• The list of topics is shared with the sites you visit to show you relevant ads without accessing the specific sites you visit.
• Each user has the option to see the list of themes in Chrome's settings that match the sites they visit and block some or disable the functionality entirely.

⭐️ Protected Audience API

Through the Protected Audience API, you can create shortlist audiences and run remarketing ads. The lack of third-party cookies means that third parties can't track user activity across sites.

In other words, users get all the benefits of personalised advertising, while their personal information remains protected.

⭐️ Attribution Reporting API

Through the Attribution Reporting API , advertisers can understand how their digital advertising is performing, which campaigns are most effective, and do the analytics they need.

And users' activity on the websites and apps they use is once again protected.

With this technology, you as advertisers see that a purchase has been made, but you don't have access to identifying information about consumers.

This happens thanks to methods such as encryption, latency, secure servers, and data aggregation and randomization.

⭐️ Shared Storage API

This is another option for displaying relevant advertising without access to personal information. Here, a website saves information about user activity on other sites, but user data remains hidden from advertisers.

Contextual advertising

Through this method, you can target audiences with ads that match the theme of a website.

What the context is can be established at the category or keyword level. Thanks to tools with natural language processing and image recognition, Google's algorithms can understand the context of a website and serve ads relevant to the topic.

This way the advertisement become effective because it is shown to an interested audience, you could even easily find new customers for your business with this method.

Meta Conversions API

For your Facebook advertising, there's also a solution that prevents you from eating third-party cookies.

It's called the Conversions API - a technology that makes a direct connection between marketing data from your server, website, app or CRM system and Meta.

Such data can be, for example, website events, which are based on user actions such as adding a product to the cart, completing an order, etc.

This provides data for personalisation, optimisation and analysis of ads so they can be shown to the right people.

Without the need for third-party cookies through the Conversions API, Meta can collect personal data such as IP addresses, phone numbers, emails and more. Users share this information with the site during a transaction, for example.

And Meta encourages businesses to share this data with them. These are used to link actions taken to the right users (at the associate ID level).

And then the information can be used to create audiences that are more likely to make certain conversions.

Best practices for successful digital advertising in a world without cookies

Invest in first-party data collection. This can be done through your website, app or CRM system. You can collect email addresses, preferences, products viewed, items forgotten in cart, and more. But be sure to ask for consent from your users.

Pay attention to the reports. Consider how changes to your marketing strategy will affect the digital advertising metrics you track.

Take advantage of AI tools that use machine learning algorithms and can help you analyze large amounts of first-party data and draw conclusions or make predictions that may not be obvious to the naked eye.

Create strong customer relationships. Personalize communication by investing in a loyalty program and creating engaging and useful content. Signing up for your newsletter and filling out a questionnaire are easy ways to get first-party data.

Include different marketing channels in your strategy. Don't rely on just one channel, because that can play you a bad joke. PPC ads, SEO, content marketing, social media, partnerships with influencers are all valuable tools you can use to reach your target audience.

Focus on the UX: The more pleasant and easy to use your website is, the more time users will spend on it and thus you will be able to collect more data about them.

Test and analyze. There's no way to know which strategy will work well for your business before you try.

It's not easy to navigate the ever-changing world of digital advertising. If a future without cookies scares you, relax. Our ADvantage team is always available to consult and build a comprehensive advertising strategy based on the latest techniques and technologies in digital marketing.