Erin Mullaney, Media Director

I recently participated in a lively discussion with buy-side and sell-side ad executives to dive into the latest thinking around targeting, measurement, and—of course—cookies. While these conversations can sometimes get technical, here are 4 straightforward takeaways for marketers navigating this landscape:

Remember the Root Concern

It’s not just about the third-party cookie as a method for collecting and using data on internet users, but about the act of data collection itself. The issue of unclear consent and privacy won’t disappear with the cookie, which makes building trust and transparency with consumers while still effectively advertising the real challenge. At its core, 1:1 deterministic targeting and tracking, regardless of the method, is what fuels privacy concerns. While there are many alternatives to third-party cookies, some are just fixes for targeting and measurement, while others aim to solve the underlying issue. The latter are likely to be more sustainable as privacy regulations evolve.

Wait, I Thought Google Said the Third-Party Cookie Wasn’t Going Away?

Google decided it wouldn’t proactively phase out cookies but would instead allow consumers to choose whether they want to be tracked. This mirrors Apple’s rollout of iOS 14.5 and App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in 2021, where users were prompted to decide if they wanted apps to track them. At that time, 96% of iOS users opted out. Today, that opt-in rate has climbed to about 24%, as people grow more accustomed to these types of prompts. While Google is putting the decision in the hands of consumers, if the prompt is as direct as Apple’s, we can expect most users to opt out. This means third-party cookie alternatives are still very much in demand. (Source: Adjust)

Exploring the Alternatives

At CP, we categorize targeting and measurement approaches into two groups: Hyper-Targeted and Privacy-First.

Hyper-Targeted solutions are the easiest alternatives to third-party cookies because they preserve 1:1 deterministic targeting and measurement, making them compatible with current ad tech. This group includes identifiers like IP addresses, device IDs, universal/alternative IDs, and data matching methods like identity graphs and cleanrooms. Measurement alternatives here include server-to-server tracking. Although these solutions are often considered “more accurate than third-party cookies,” they may still face future regulatory scrutiny, as they don’t fully address the root privacy concern. Even if the data is anonymized, it’s still being collected, leveraged, and in some cases, linked to personally identifiable information like names and emails.

Privacy-First alternatives, on the other hand, break away from 1:1 attribution. The key difference here is using “unattached” data in targeting, measurement, or both, to avoid tracking individual consumers across their entire journey. For targeting, this could mean probabilistic targeting via survey-based, contextual, or cohort methodology. On the measurement side, it could involve aggregated or modeled results, as well as brand lift studies, test & learns, and media mix modeling. These solutions, specifically on the targeting side, are less widely adopted and often perceived as less effective, but it’s critical to test them as the landscape continues to evolve. At CP, we’ve seen some promising early results with these alternatives, even outperforming hyper-targeted methods in certain cases. We believe AI will further improve the ability to leverage unattached data signals to drive results.

Where Does First-Party Data Fit Into All This?

The role of first-party data largely depends on your business model. Knowing your customer will always benefit your marketing efforts, but building a robust first-party data strategy requires transparency and incentivizing consumers to share their information. For some brands, there’s an immediate value exchange—like providing an email to unlock content behind a publisher paywall. For others, data is collected post-purchase, which is less helpful for prospecting. Ideally, you can use first-party data as a seed list to reach similar audiences, but privacy-first alternatives may also limit the effectiveness of lookalikes. Thinking strategically about how you collect and utilize first-party data is essential to determining its value for your business.

Conclusion

The ad industry’s focus has shifted from simply finding alternatives to third-party cookies to addressing the bigger picture: consumer privacy. While hyper-targeted solutions continue to dominate, privacy-first approaches are gaining traction, and their relevance will only grow as regulations tighten. As brands and advertisers, it’s crucial to stay ahead by testing a variety of strategies and ensuring that your approach to data is both transparent and adaptable to the evolving landscape. The future of targeting and measurement lies in balancing effectiveness with privacy, and those who can master this will be well-positioned for success.

Chris Watts, Media Technology Specialist

This past week’s news that Google will be keeping third-party cookies around might have broken the internet, but don’t worry— that’s about all it did to the web. After years of preparation and significant investment in cookie alternatives, the decision to keep third-party cookies alive has raised many questions about the future and renewed some ongoing concerns. 

While the immediate impact of this decision may seem minimal, let’s take a closer look at what this means for the future of privacy, advertising, and the digital marketing industry.

The Cookie Conundrum and Google’s Privacy Sandbox: A Closer Look at Third-Party Cookies

Lest we forget the original plan to deprecate cookies was driven by a desire to address privacy concerns. However, that sentiment was quickly lost as the industry came up with potential workarounds. Enter unique alternative IDs, identity graphs, and Google’s own Privacy Sandbox. Exactly as it sounds, the Sandbox is a fenced-in area with kids, or the marketing industry, playing with Google coined sandbox tools. These tools or “proposals” are aimed to replace the separate functions of the cookie and offer privacy-focused solutions for personalized advertising while minimizing data collection.

While the Sandbox and other alternatives do aim to give consumers more control over their privacy, the reality is that we are simply shifting our trust from one entity to another. Instead of rethinking data collection, we are merely transferring it to a corporation, which may end up holding as much, if not more, information as entities do now. Furthermore, by using tools that link online identifiers with personal information, we are, in fact, reducing privacy rather than enhancing it.

Shifting away from third-party cookies or adopting alternative technologies may appear to be a step forward, but it doesn’t address the fundamental issue. The real challenge lies in improving consumer choice alongside the handling of data. We need to find a way to give consumers genuine preference control over their privacy while still meeting the demands of effective and efficient marketing.

Navigating Industry Whiplash & The Road Ahead

I feel a mix of empathy and pragmatism about this situation. On one hand, companies have invested significant time, money, and resources into new processes that may now be adjusted or ultimately abandoned. However, it seems that few advertisers had fully embraced these new methods, partly due to skepticism about the deprecation actually happening. This period has been a valuable testing ground, forcing the industry to look within itself and explore alternative solutions, while bolstering the focus on consumer privacy. With enhanced understanding of our own internal processes, we as brands have a real opportunity to improve transparency and build trust with our consumers.

Food for thought – With consumer privacy in mind, we need to remind ourselves that brand awareness is not always positive. As a consumer there have been plenty of times that the same ads have popped up everywhere I go, and it’s actually turned me away from a brand or product. When a consumer is doing their everyday browsing, we need to think of both new and current places that they’re being presented with the choice. This is apparent in consent banners, which allow consumers to opt in/reject all third-party cookies. But even so, the choice is incomprehensible to the average consumer.

I ask the question – How do we include the consent banner as part of the consumer journey? Not only with the intention of more consumers hopefully “accepting all”, but for that split second when someone appreciates being clearly presented with the choice and told what accepting cookies will mean for their future browsing experience and relationship with the brand. This is a very powerful first step towards brand trust.

Conclusion: The Evolving Landscape of Third-Party Cookies and Privacy

The industry will continue to evolve and adapt, regardless of what Google does next. But like in any fable, the lessons learned along the way were not in vain. We’re back to tackling privacy concerns head on, with consumers. Which seems a lot more straightforward. And when we look at that – it should never have been just about third-party cookies, but any 1:1 identifier. And that discussion still needs to be had.

But for the few early adopters that created truly privacy-first approaches (as opposed to the slew of cookie workarounds we saw) – congrats. You saw the forest through the trees and have something that’s actually future proof. And for agencies and advertisers, remember that no policy or software update can take away research and understanding of your customers, your media investments, and your business results.

By focusing on assessing performance against real business results – be it correlating results over a long period of time, test and learns, or more sophisticated data science models, you will be able to continue to evolve and stay successful amidst the ever-changing industry.