In 2020, Google made headlines by announcing its plan to stop using cookies – the digital breadcrumbs used by advertisers to track and reach consumers. In a seismic reversal, the search engine just announced that the plans have been scrapped. Digiday asked media agencies for their two cents, and reached out to our very own Senior Digital Specialist, Jason Alfred, for his. Read the complete article from Digiday here.
By Michael Bürgi and Antoinette Siu • July 29, 2024
With a week under their collective belts to absorb Google’s surprising, but not shocking news, that it’s doing an about-face on deprecating third-party cookies from its browsers, media agencies large and small are choosing to press ahead as if cookies are going away — especially since they kind of are anyway.
Media agencies’ main message to clients is to focus on generating quality, usable first-party data that’s compliant, because privacy issues are rendering cookies more and more useless.
A survey of several holding companies (including Dentsu, Omnicom, IPG and Stagwell) and independent media agencies reveals a variety of suggested ways forward as well as caution around Google’s Privacy Sandbox — many agencies suggest continuing to work with other alternatives in the identifier space.
“Privacy is now regarded as a fundamental right and organizations are moving swiftly to safeguard consumer personally identifiable information (PII), with limited or no movement of consumer data and capturing of consent,” said Rio Longacre, managing director of advertising and marketing transformation at consultancy Slalom. “Google’s announcement [last week] will neither slow down nor reverse this process.”
“We expected another postponement, as opposed to a full blown ‘We’re not going to pursue it’ — that’s the surprising part,” said Femi Taiwo, head of the Google practice at Stagwell’s Assembly Global. “But this was always sort of — how can I put it? — a trap in the making.”
Omnicom’s response looked into the move’s more concrete impact, with some relief. “We estimated that if third-party cookies were to disappear, it would impact 26% of overall digital investment. With Google’s change in direction, we anticipate a drop in 3P cookie availability due to the opt-outs, however, the impact will only be a fraction of that initial 26% cumulative impact across digital channels,” read a position document Omnicom Media Group provided to Digiday.
Per that document, Omnicom Media Group “recommends holding off any Privacy Sandbox testing until Google refines the product and offers a wider public launch. In the interim, we advise brands to … invest in first-party data and alternative media identifiers like UID2.0 and RampID; implement Google tech, such as GA4, to preserve targeting and measurement; work with TRKKN for expertise in Google media investments.”
Similarly, Dentsu plans to forge ahead on its clients’ behalf with alternatives. “Alternative ID solutions will be critical as privacy legislation continues, and Dentsu sees the increased dedication to deterministic data, AI, and cookie-free media tactics, and a reliance on rich, reliable first- and second-party data,” read a statement by Dentsu on the issue.
The decision by Google doesn’t exactly mean cookies are here to stay in the long run – “cookies’ days are still numbered,” said Paul DeJarnatt, vp and head of digital at Novus. What is likely to stick are the efforts to move off of cookies and build on the established “good habits,” he explained. These include other forms of targeting, like device graphs or opt-ins, as well as better first-party data usage.
“Now there are entire digital channels like CTV and streaming audio that do not rely on a cookie for targeting or measurement, making the long-term prospect for cookies one of obsolescence in a multi-channel, fragmented landscape,” DeJarnatt said.
Digital agency Croud is communicating with clients on the details of Google’s updated policy and keeping their plans around using first-party data with them, said Konrad Kopczynski, vp of strategic analytics there. “But for the most part our approach [in data] is going to be largely unaltered.”
Croud focuses on enhancing clients’ first-party data collection capabilities with various tools, from consent to conversions. Consented measurement, for instance, helps protect user privacy by letting them choose what data they make available for analytics and advertising.
Similarly, Code3 continues to advise clients that Google’s reversal on cookies does not mean they can stop using the alternatives – and should continue leveraging first-party data and test audience expansion capabilities across platforms, said Yvonne Williams, vp of media at Code3.
“All of this points to the fact that third-party cookies haven’t met an abrupt end, but it is on life support,” Williams said. “Therefore, it’s important to proactively have strategies in place to navigate potential lack of addressable inventory and any other unknowns to help mitigate revenue and performance loss.”
Jason Alfred, senior digital specialist at agency Media+, added that continued privacy concerns around cookies and consumers opting out will lead to “a significant reduction in signal from third-party cookies. Our advice for advertisers is to continue to test and build solutions around first-party data and contextual relevance.”
As for Google’s Privacy Sandbox itself, media agencies are hesitant about its merits. “Alongside their announcement, Google also released internal test results on Privacy Sandbox. Test results claimed some recovery caused third-party cookie loss, however, these results lack advertiser input and detailed methodology, making them unreliable for predicting 2025 campaign performance,” said Omnicom in its positioning statement.
Kinesso is taking its own hands-off stance, explained Chris Schimkat, global head of platforms and intelligence at the IPG agency. “What we’ve found is that the conversations developed since the dawn of the privacy sandbox — as an industry, we were [initially] thinking this is something that we’ll need to implement on all of our clients,” said Schimkat. “But in fact, as things have progressed, it’s turned out that these are more APIs and technologies that the ad platforms themselves would need to be taking advantage of. And then making those features available to people activating and buying ads within those platforms.”
In the end, though, there’s some remorse that a bigger opportunity has been missed with Google’s moves, given the move to put the onus of decision-making on consumers’ shoulders rather than proactively removing this form of tracking.
Andrew Richardson, svp of advanced analytics and measurement at New Engen, said this isn’t a time for agencies to “let their guard down.” Even with the shift to consumers opting out in Chrome, Richardson said “signals are already eroding” – with a lot of people using browsers that block cookies and other potential ad blocking to Apple’s Safari browser, as well.
“As an industry, we need to prioritize consumer privacy and adapt to a world without cookies rather than trying to circumvent the inevitable decline of these signals,” Richardson said.
Given how GDPR’s intentions over the last six years have resulted in unintended consequences for consumers (constantly having to accept or reject cookies on every web site they visit), a similar outcome for consumers isn’t unexpected.
“I feel like we’ve, at least at this junction, missed an opportunity to reinvent the internet for better or for worse,” said Assembly’s Taiwo. “At least a chance to innovate in a meaningful way, I think, has been missed.”
[Read the full Digiday article here.]
