What Is The Future Of Advertising In A Post-Cookie World?
CEO at Jeeng, a company helping publishers create automated & personalized messaging which fuel engagement and monetization. getty  Ever since Google announced its plans to make third-party cookies obsolete on Chrome browsers by 2022, many publishers and advertisers have been scrambling to prepare for a cookieless world. The truth is, theyve actually been living in one already  kind of. Third-party cookies have already been phased out of Safari and Firefox browsers. Throwing Chrome browsers into the mix just feels like the nail in the coffin because theyre responsible for over 64% of the market share. Even though this change will cause ripples in the ad landscape, its happening for a good reason: to create a more private, transparent and trustworthy internet for all. As the CEO of a comprehensive platform that helps publishers and advertisers create automated and personalized messaging across channels, I spend each day guiding businesses through this seismic shift. Heres what business leaders need to know. How A Post-Cookie World Will Affect Advertising  Beyond just tracking, the death of the third-party cookie will affect many aspects of how publishers and marketers advertise. Specifically, it will have a major impact on:   Identity and addressability: Businesses will have to find new ways to track and identify their audiences across the web.  Targeting: With new identity data will come new targeting capabilities and strategies, such as contextual targeting and first-party-data-driven audience segments.  Data privacy: Businesses have an opportunity to improve transparency and opt-in processes when collecting and activating data.  Content monetization: For publishers, in particular, the death of the cookie could change the way they monetize their content and sell ad inventory to brands. As a result, their revenue channels and mixes may shift and, hopefully, grow with the right strategies. Industry-Proposed Solutions For A Post-Cookie World  Theres no one-size-fits-all solution. As eMarketer reported, 60% of US marketers believe theyll need multiple identity solutions to survive in a post-cookie world. Their biggest concerns when looking for solutions include the amount of buy-side adoption, transparency, yield and maintenance. Ideally, marketers want a solution that's easy to use and manage and will align with their current operations and tools. With that in mind, here are some of the identity solutions that have already thrown their hat in the ring:  Googles Privacy Sandbox: Google may have created this third-party cookie problem, but its also building solutions to fix it. Googles Privacy Sandbox is an umbrella initiative for a range of experimental APIs and open-web tracking solutions.  TURTLEDOVE: TURTLEDOVE uses browser data to create interest groups, which advertisers can use to reach specific audience segments with on-device bidding and includes FLEDGE, which takes data from trusted servers, still yet to be clearly defined by Google.  FLoC: The FLoC API uses browser data to create large cohorts of people with similar behaviors, such as pages visited. This way, an individuals data cant be accessed specifically and theyre ensured more privacy. Universal ID solutions: Advertising technology companies are creating universal ID solutions to take the place of third-party cookies. Universal IDs offer a standardized ID that all participating companies can harness to identify and target consumers across the web. It essentially creates a commune of businesses using one uniform solution to share data. The Trade Desk, for example, launched Unified ID 2.0, an open-source framework that uses first-party data: encrypted and anonymized email addresses, which is more privacy-safe for the user and future-proof for the advertiser. First-party data solutions: Publishers and advertisers can focus on using channels that are ripe with first-party data, replacing their need for third-party data.  Email marketing: Through specializing in email marketing in my own company, I've seen that if advertisers can gather email addresses, such as through subscription memberships and newsletter signups, theyll be armed with a pool of data they can use to segment audiences and target them across the web. Email is an opt-in channel, so data is given freely by consumers, yielding more transparent and privacy-safe experiences. Its also a direct-to-consumer platform, meaning businesses can use it to nurture one-to-one relationships and deliver personalized messaging  an increasingly critical strategy as we face a world without cookies.  Push notification marketing: Push notifications, which are also opt-in, can be used to reach individual users with content that matches their interests and behaviors. These real-time alerts pop up on users electronic devices, inviting them to visit your website or app. Most importantly, like email, they can be used to gather and activate first-party data directly from the consumer. Future-Proofing Your Business  Even with these solutions to choose from, publishers and advertisers need to know how to test and activate to continue driving revenue. That often requires money and manpower. Many publishers dont have the capabilities to do this all in-house, but cant risk missing out on opportunities to gather first-party data. Thats where artificial intelligence and machine learning come in. Some businesses without in-house resources might choose to partner with platforms that offer these tools (Disclosure: My company provides these services. ), but for those that don't, there are a few best practices to keep in mind. I recommend to start testing high-engagement channels like email and push notifications with small budgets and compare their performance with what youre running currently. Your biggest challenge will likely be scale. Frequently, youll find quality or volume but not both. Thats why I recommend advertisers look for a blended model where, in total, your acquisition budgets achieve your objectives even if a specific channel on its own may help with one metric but not others. Think of this cookieless world as a blessing in disguise. You have an unprecedented opportunity to retool your tracking and targeting strategies and take control of your own data. Remember this before jumping into any so-called easy or all-in-one solutions. Consider whats best for your audience, content and business goals in the long run. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders.