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Situation

The war on third-party cookie tracking, especially with Google and Apple, is in constant flux. Taking a step back and examining the situation as it has evolved (and continues to evolve) is the best way to keep composure as an advertiser in this tumultuous time. This POV is meant to put the current news in perspective and explain the impacts it may have on paid digital advertising (particularly Facebook and Google Ads) and website tracking.

Executive Summary

• While Google and Apple are replacing and fully eliminating the third-party cookie, respectively, they are approaching it entirely differently. Apple eliminated it swiftly with the iOS 14 iPhone update, while Google is planning on releasing a replacement in late 2023. 
• With Apple’s update, Facebook/Instagram has reported some limitations on reporting and targeting accuracy, resulting in diminished results.
• The EU enacted new cookie and data-sharing policies several years ago with GDPR that limits U.S.-based advertisers from accessing European’s data. This is causing backlash from Meta (Facebook). In the U.S., states including California have also enacted policies similar to those in Europe.
• The withdrawal of third-party cookie usage makes it imperative that companies generate their own first-party cookie data — especially for targeting and remarketing digital campaigns.

Research

Apple

As you know, Apple users are now asked for their permission to be tracked on apps and websites with the iOS 14 release. While Apple’s web browser, Safari, has been blocking third-party cookie tracking for almost 2 years now, the company set a new bar for web-based privacy policies (Statt, theverge.com). This bar is spreading to other companies like Google.

What does Apple’s cookie policy entail exactly?

When a user denies app/website tracking, Apple blocks the ability for a company to track the user’s data across websites that are not owned by that company. Any identifying information (i.e., location, advertising ids, emails) will only stay with the first party, according to the Apple AppTrackingTransparency Framework.

How does this affect advertising on social platforms like Facebook?

Mainly, this update provides some reporting and targeting limitations. Advertisers on Facebook will be limited in their ability to track performance of iOS 14 app install campaigns and advertisers will only be able to track 1- and/or 7-day conversion attribution windows for Apple users. As for targeting limitations, Facebook recommends broadening targeting, however, that has an adverse effect on the pinpointed audience targeting advertisers have enjoyed in the past. Broadening targeting must be done more carefully, with a heftier reliance on first-party data. Retargeting and lookalike audiences could be helpful to counteract the audience targeting limitations.

On top of the Apple commotion, Meta has also threatened to discontinue Facebook and Instagram in the European Union based on new “European data regulations that prevent Meta… from transferring, storing and processing Europeans’ data on US-based servers” (Davies, euronews.com). This would have an apparent effect on U.S. advertisers advertising in Europe. Similarly in the U.S., states including California have enacted comparable policies. The DBE team is keeping a sharp eye on this issue and will update you if any monumental steps take place.

Google

Google is moving toward cookie replacement, but on a longer timeline. Bloomberg explains Google’s proposal well: “Google calls its proposed [cookie] replacement Federal Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), a mouthful for new computer science jujitsu that will lump web surfers together around particular interests” (Bergen). Instead of allowing sites to directly track you, Google will place users into interest groups. Vinny Goel, Product Director of Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox, explained that phasing out third-party cookies will happen toward the end of 2023 due to “a rigorous, multi-phased public development process” (blog.google.com). Google is not taking the steps to replacing the third-party cookie lightly. This will help advertisers adjust their media planning in the meantime.

The “Death of the Third-Party Cookie” & Your Website

In the midst of the ‘dying’ third-party cookie, marketers are able to plan for the future. If your website relies on third-party cookie data, now is the time to brainstorm alternative solutions. This freshens up our perspectives of first-party data.

What ways can companies utilize already-known information to engage with audiences?

Jason Cottrell’s Fast Company article, “A Future Without Cookies, ”says companies will likely have to “focus on logging in, signing up, or otherwise granting permission to the host to make a direct and ongoing connection to the user.” The ways this can be executed may become more clear as we draw closer to the 2023 Google deadline. Keeping up with the news and brainstorming possibilities are the best things anyone can do to prepare for the shift.

The Outlook

A world without third-party cookies is becoming a reality. With it, the opportunity for a new kind of customer relationship is surfacing. Daniel Newman from Forbes sees a chance for more truthful brand-consumer relationships. Consumers will have more control over their data, and that may allow them to trust companies more fully. Trust leads to loyalty and retention. And so on and so forth…

The key is keeping our minds open to possibilities as we stride through the perpetually changing world of digital advertising.

Works Cited

“About Targeting Expansion.” Facebook, 

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/128066880933676?id=17627623301948

7.

Bergen, Mark. “Apple and Google Are Killing the (Ad) Cookie. Here’s Why.” 

Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 26 Apr. 2021, 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-26/how-apple-google-are-killing-the-advertising-cookie-quicktake#:~:text=Starting%20on%20Monday%2C%20Apple%20will,prohibition%20is%20coming%20to%20apps.

Cottrell, Jason. “A Future without Cookies.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 9 Aug. 2021, 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90664099/a-future-without-cookies.

Davies, Pascale. “Meta Warns It May Shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe.” 

Euronews, 9 Feb. 2022, https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/07/meta-threatens-to-shut-down-facebook-and-instagram-in-europe-over-data-transfer-issues.

“How the Apple IOS 14 Release May Affect Your Ads and Reporting.” Facebook, 

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/331612538028890?id=42863664817020

2.

“Legal – Use of Cookies – Apple.” Apple Legal, 

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/cookies/.

Newman, Daniel. “Apple’s Privacy Updates Push CMO’s into a Cookie-Less World.” 

Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 May 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2021/05/19/apples-privacy-updates-push-cmos-into-a-cookie-less-world/?sh=57162edc7c3b.

Statt, Nick. “Apple Updates Safari’s Anti-Tracking Tech with Full Third-Party Cookie 

Blocking.” The Verge, The Verge, 24 Mar. 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21192830/apple-safari-intelligent-tracking-privacy-full-third-party-cookie-blocking.

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Here are a few articles that caught my attention to share with you as a way to take a break from your business-day action:

• Ha! We weren’t ready to start talking business yet! This one’s for the more personal side of you: For the first time in 17 years Rolling Stone has compiled a list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Let the debating begin!

Okay, now we’re ready to talk business leadership:

• You’re by now familiar with “the great resignation” as millions of Americans rethink their career choices Lots of conversations are happening around wages, work from home, and other aspects of work, and this article for Inc. from Jessica Stillman has a different spin, especially important to note for younger workers. “Career transparency” helps them see the opportunities in your company, even when traditional promotions aren’t an option. Good read and sharp ideas designed to help you keep the good ones longer.
• What does a great data experience look like for you? Here’s what other leaders are saying.

Do Good Spotlight on: Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice

The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice is a lot of good all rolled into one for members of various communities but especially providing support to the LGBTQIA, BIPOC, and immigrant communities. Educational center, safe space, community engagement are just a few of the ways The Bayard Rustin center supports kids, families, schools, and the Princeton area. We donated to help them find and build out a new physical HQ since the one they used in Princeton, NJ is no longer available. There’s a lot going on with very limited resources, so if you can help, please do.

•  This year’s Gallup Poll results on American’s trust in the media has hit an all-time low, with only 36% saying that have either “a great deal” or even a “fair amount” of trust in mass media. What can the media and other institutions do to rebuild trust?
• This Harvard Business Review podcast is about rethinking mental health and work. Fascinating topics and guests, I’ve added it to my subscribed to list, here’s where you can check it out.

I hope this issue was helpful to you. Reach out if you’d like to catch up. For now, stay well, stay strong, and stay focused. People are counting on you!

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Google Analytics 4 is the latest significant iteration of the product and will eventually replace Google’s current version of Universal Analytics.  No need to make a wholesale change yet. GA4 is currently available to Universal Analytics users and Google recommends setting up a GA4 property to run in parallel with your current setup.  However, it appears that new websites will be required to jump straight to GA4.

So what’s different?

• AI-Powered Machine Learning – Google brings predictive power to GA.  For example, predicting churn rate for different audiences, and therefore lifetime value estimates, so that you can focus your marketing dollars on better long-term audiences. GA4 will also enhance event tracking to send stronger signals back to Google Ads for higher-value audience building.

• Deeper Google Ads Integration – Feedback loops between site behavior and Google Ads audiences will escalate. YouTube advertising and engagements will now be part of the GA reporting and machine learning engines.

• New Reporting Interface – GA4 reports are now focused around the user lifecycle including Engagement, Retention and Monetization reports.

• Codeless Event Tracking – Manual setup of events like video views and scrolling through Google Tag Manager may be a thing of the past.  GA4 will largely automate this process and capture data in real time, eliminating virtually all the latency in reporting.

• Cookie-less Analytics – Cookies are in the process of being phased out and audiences continue to increase their cross-device usage.  Google intends to use machine learning to fill in the gaps of these mixed data sets.

• Consent Mode – New features are available to help site owners stay compliant with data regulators such as GDRP and CCPA.  While seeming to be very much a work in progress, Consent Mode initially will offer site visitors separate opt-outs for ads and analytics.

It’s a lot to wrap your mind around as in many ways Google Analytics 4 will be a totally different way to think about and use your web analytics.  No doubt many of the features touted at launch are in little more than a beta stage and will continue to evolve over time.  A smart next step is to reach out to your web analytics team and setup a parallel GA4 property so you can start getting used to the new features, while keeping your familiar Universal Analytics reports close at hand.

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PLAINSBORO, N.J. (January 30, 2014) – Digital Brand Expressions (DBE) today released its second Point of View (POV) statement for 2014, this one on the evolution of search engine optimization (SEO) metrics in the wake of Google’ s announcement last September that it was no longer providing keyword-level data to analytics packages, including its own popular Google Analytics.

Search engine optimization — the way that search engines find and rank the value of a website so it appears at the top of search results – is still critically important to a brand’ s success. How sites achieve top rankings and domain authority, and how brands track their progress in achieving those great SEO rankings, even after Google changed its process, is the focus of this POV.

“We’ ve been helping our clients understand the importance of looking at SEO performance from a variety of indicators for quite some time now,” said Marc Engelsman, Director of Client Strategies and Analytics and the author of the latest POV. “The absence of keyword data for analytics isn’ t the death of SEO as many have claimed, and it’ s important that marketers recognize and embrace other metrics to ensure their brands continue to take advantage of content-driven SEO as a reliable component in their marketing mix.”

Engelsman’ s POV includes these seven tools with explanations for using each to assess performance and identify opportunities for improving results:

• 1. Google Trends
• 2. Organic Traffic Gains
• 3. Organic Traffic Conversion and Site Behavior Gains
• 4. Organic Traffic Gains to Optimized Landing Pages
• 5. Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries
• 6. Keyword Rankings
• 7. Domain Authority

Shoot us an e-mail at info@digitalbrandexpressions.com to request this POV.

Digital Brand Expressions helps businesses to be found faster on the Web and to be more actively engaged with stakeholders in social media channels than their competition. The company plans, creates, and develops engaging digital properties and marketing programs to help its clients gain competitive advantage. Through an integrated suite of analytics-driven content marketing services, which typically includes search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, and social media marketing, DBE’ s creative and innovative services help ensure that its clients are visible on the Web when–and where–people are searching for the solutions they provide. The agency’ s clients include well-known brands in the consumer, B2B, healthcare, education and pharmaceuticals industries as well as several national-level not-for-profit organizations.

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Note to Editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks contained herein remain the property of their respective owners.

• Media Contact:
• Marc Engelsman
• 609/462-3925
• MEngelsman@DigitalBrandExpressions.com

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