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The digital landscape has reached a critical juncture where Google is phasing out third-party cookies for a small Chrome user (Firefox and Safari browsers already did away with cookies). Unfortunately, 63% of marketers are unprepared for a cookie-less future.
But as Barbara Kingsolver says,
“The changes we fear most might be our salvation.”
Likewise, the cookieless conundrum doesn’t signal the end of personalization. Instead, marketers need to see this as an opportunity to use alternative cookieless marketing strategies to thrive in this new market.
Zero-party data is the new king of alternative cookieless marketing strategies. Unlike first-party data, zero-party data comprises data consumers willingly and actively share with you, including their preferences or personal context. It’s one way for the customer to say, “This is what I need, and here’s how I want you to fulfill my desires.”
Modern businesses operate in an era governed by stringent privacy laws such as the GDPR and CCPA; consequently, maintaining privacy is non-negotiable. Using zero-party data involves demonstrating a brand’s commitment to protecting user data and complying with regulatory requirements.
Zero-party also complements a business’s personalization efforts because users engage with content corresponding to their preferences. This allows brands to create hyper-personalized marketing drives, ultimately driving up sales numbers and increasing connection bonds with audiences.
First-party data is audience data signals derived directly from customer interactions with a brand’s digital channels. In a cookieless future, first-party data will become the foundation for future marketing strategies.
Here is an interesting fact regarding first-party data: Brands that use first-party data realize a 2.9-times increase in revenue growth and a 1.5-times increase in cost savings.
Despite these staggering numbers, you’d think that marketers would be quick to tap into this first-party data goldmine. However, transitioning isn’t always easy, given that most organizations lack complex direct-to-consumer platforms to harvest customer data.
Marketers must reimagine their digital advertising techniques to engage with their digital audiences and obtain large-scale first-party data. Here’s how to go about winning with data;
Include meaningful ads in digital ads to mine valuable first-party data when customers click to find more information.
Provide interactive brand experiences to get purchase-intent insights from customers at scale.
Increase efforts to acquire zero-party data, which can be used as a rich source of data that signifies customer interests, preferences, motivations, and behaviors.
Without third-party data, you’ll need to find alternative targeting methods. Contextual advertising is a marketing technique that generates highly tailored ad campaigns guided by users’ online content.
Vikas Kaushik, CEO at TechAhead, says that contextual marketing analyzes different content types in real-time, including speech, text, geolocation, and images. Because this type of marketing doesn’t use cookies, it protects user privacy while ensuring the adverts match the audience's interests.
According to a recent Harris Poll, 65% of those interviewed said they would purchase from an ad relevant to their page. 35% said they preferred having ads presented to them based on their browsing data from the past month. This data tells us that consumers are generally uncomfortable with ads that infringe upon their privacy.
As a cookieless future becomes part of our new reality, brands must focus on building trust with their customers without sacrificing personalization, data privacy, and compliance. At the same time, marketing teams should continuously educate themselves on the latest cookieless marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition.
