Yesterday, 14 January 2020, Google announced via a blogpost that they will stop supporting third-party cookies in its Chrome browser within two years as part of its user privacy policy.
This is a seismic shift. The loss of third-party cookies will not only affect the way we deliver data-driven digital marketing, but also how we assess its effectiveness and optimise for future performance gains. From simple attribution to more advanced multi-touch, propensity-driven approaches, measurement of the digital space will need to evolve alongside the new world of persistent unified IDs and truly privacy compliant consumer data.
Given Google has been devaluing third-party cookies since May 2019, this is not a surprise – it just means we have an end-date to work towards. Google has also made it clear that they will work with the wider digital advertising community to find ways forward. To this end, they have launched the “Privacy Sandbox” initiative, a mechanism that will allow marketers and advertisers to continue target ads to consumers without violating privacy.
PHD has a long and successful history of working with Google and we will be at the forefront of framing this project to ensure that our clients’ digital marketing activities remain strong and deliver real business results.
PHD teams have already been working hard to ensure our measurement solutions are future proof, and we remain confident of a compliant and robust outcome. Over the next two-years, we will continue to ensure that all our media and technology partners respond to these changes productively and responsibly to deliver the best results for our clients.
We will be evaluating potential solutions across the first half of 2020 and are committed to outlining clear pathways forward for our clients, enabling them to futureproof should this have any impact once completed.
Like with any disruption, we see opportunity in these changes and we firmly believe that with proactive and measured approaches, smart media buyers will benefit greatly from this new environment. Consumer privacy will finally be fully addressed, platform value propositions will be strengthened and we believe PHD will produce even better marketing and business outcomes.
