Since Google announced their decision to abandon plans to deprecate cookies in Chrome, we’ve been discussing what this means for us as media planners and for our clients.
Cookie depreciation to date has created a two-tiered landscape where multiple solutions are required to reach your audiences. Nothing has changed on that front…
- – There are multiple browsers without cookies already e.g Mozilla Firefox and Safari
- – The privacy landscape of the last few years has led to loss of cookie data – at scale. This will only continue as the public further engage, and where controlling your privacy becomes increasingly habitual
- – AND Google’s own proposed alternative (a browser-level cookie consent control) will further fuel the erosion in cookie data
Wholescale U-turn?
So, we won’t see a wholesale U-turn and re-engagement in cookie-based solutions. Privacy is simply too important to people.
However, I suspect we will see cookie data being re-introduced to “cookieless” solutions – partly to expand scale, partly to improve modelling. Knowing it will no longer be deprecated, cookie data is suddenly more robust and resilient than it was two weeks ago, so we should see a re-investment in technologies and techniques where cookie data can be applied to improve modelling, alongside cookieless and consented data.
Measurement remained the one area of greatest worry – for which there were few answers. Google has put in place some building blocks; GA4 + Consent Mode + Enhanced Conversions. These have all been designed to use what data could be captured to model the data that couldn’t be fully captured. Still with me?!
I believe, cookies sticking around greatly improves the expectations we should have for viable, increasingly accurate and, importantly, permanent solutions when it comes to measurement. Cookie data will simply be an additional performance dataset to help drive modelled solutions.
So what next?
Cookieless will continue to be a thing – the market like it; the public like it – and Google have said they will continue to support and develop their Privacy Sandbox.
The Google measurement building blocks remain absolutely paramount: Consent Mode; Enhanced Conversions – all remain essential – to meet this fragmented landscape… And having cookie data, long term, will help.
Will the regulators allow it?
Last but not least all of this is regulator dependent – Google’s suggested solution is browser level consent – that you have a choice, managed in your Chrome account. That has to be approved by the ICO, and the CMA (Competitions and Mergers Authority).
Approval is in no way a given, especially as this decision to abandon cookies means that Google has taken a huge step back in their engagement with regulators – both parties having up until last week committed substantial time and money assessing the Google Privacy Sandbox.
The recent announcement possibly suggests Google couldn’t remedy concerns from the CMA and/or being simply unable to match previous performance. All this at a time when the AI battle is just heating up…
Nick Smith is Chief Digital Officer at JAA.
