Good morning Marketer without third-party cookies, what would ad targeting look like?
Some browsers (Safari and Mozilla Firefox) already no longer support third-party cookies. The announcement by Google that it too will block these cookies in Chrome within two years (i.e. by the end of 2021) has provided the impetus for a range of responses from martech, adtech, advertisers and publishers.
To be clear, there isn’t a threat to first-party cookies – the cookies used by websites use to collect information about users who have chosen to interact with them. The demise of third-party cookies, however, will likely strike a blow to targeted advertising efforts.
“In a world where you aren’t able to target someone specific, everyone is going to get sunglasses ads,” said Luke Taylor, founder and COO of TrafficGuard. “You could get one every day for the next five years. Because there is no cross-site view of who you are, or what you’ve seen, the ability to frequency cap, is removed.”
Whether or not the blocking of third-party cookies is good for consumers, it clearly presents a major challenge to brands, agencies, tech vendors, advertisers and publishers.
There’s more below, including an update on Facebook’s efforts to merge its messaging platforms.
Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor
