Google Postpones Third-Party Cookie Phase-Out – Implications for Digital Marketers

In February 2020, Google revealed plans to complete the phasing out of third-party cookies on its Chrome browser by 2022.

This generated mixed reactions among marketers, advertisers and the technology world. Google Ads, which relies on third-party cookies from its Chrome browser to serve ads, is arguably the largest digital ad publisher in the world. Google Chrome accounts for about 65% of the global web browser market share.

By mid-2022, Google announced 2024 as the new date to phase out third-party cookies saying it wanted advertisers to review and change their advertising tactics to the less-intrusive first-party cookies and other targeted advertising technology.

Google has a major stake in third-party cookies as more than 50% of its revenue is generated via advertising. Without third-party cookies, their advertising strength could be negatively affected.

This maybe one of the biggest reasons why Google has shifted the deprecation of third-party cookies severally.

Although, in the past four years, Google has implemented new privacy policy about cookies, including allowing users block third-party cookies, ensuring websites implement cookie consent for users, and experimenting with the removal of third-party cookies from 1% of Chrome browser users. etc. The next stage was the total deprecation of third-party cookies.

However, in July 2024, without surprise, Google announced that it is postponing the phasing out of third-party cookies. Some of the reasons provided are due to non-viable alternatives, divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers etc. Let’s explore how third-party cookies have built the advertising industry and how its deprecation can affect you as a digital marketer.

Third-Party Cookies [Image Source]

Third-party cookies have been a fundamental part of the web for close to three decades. Beyond advertising purposes, they are also important for supporting users’ online behaviour, including fast log-in, showing you relevant ads, or generally for smooth user experience on websites.

An e-commerce website, for example, can use the cookies to remember which of their webpages you visited and then populate ads on other websites you visit so you can return to their sites to purchase their products.

Everyone has experienced ads following them around the internet – these are only possible because of third-party cookies. Marketers, companies, and advertisers use these cookies to improve their own conversion rate.

Even though cookies birthed a $600 billion digital advertising industry, tech giants are working towards stopping the use of third-party cookies to heed consumers’ privacy request and for regulatory compliance. While blocking third-party cookies increases user privacy and security, it will create problems for consumer tracking, ad-serving, and reduce smooth customer experience.

What does this mean for Advertisers, Digital Marketers and Tech Businesses?

While third party cookies are the bedrock of the digital advertising world, digital marketers need to prepare for the possible phasing out of third-party cookies.

Advertisers and marketers have made a valid point that third party cookies are useful since it allows them to show ads to users based on their interests. After all, if a user is forced to see ads on a freemium platform, it is better if the ads are based on their interests, giving them a good user experience.

Google, the largest advertising platform, has again postponed the elimination of third-party cookies until 2025. It is pertinent to prepare for the cookie-less future, as it is only a matter of time before third-party cookies are phased out.

Today, Chrome browser allows users to block and delete third-party cookies, but Firefox and Safari browsers take it a step further by blocking third-party cookies by default. We can simply say that the days of third-party cookies are numbered, as continued pressure from regulators and web users will only increase.

So, the big question is “What are your advertising options as a digital marketer?

What are the advertising options without third-party cookies?

1. Organic Marketing & SEO: Digital businesses have successfully used organic marketing & search engine optimization to drive growth. The possible deprecation of third-party cookies makes SEO super-critical. Bootstrapping startups didn’t have much option but SEO & organic marketing, as their marketing budget was limited anyway, however, for enterprise digital businesses reliant on digital ads, this is the time to implement strategies to maximize the potential gains of SEO and organic marketing.

2. First Party data: First party data are collected by the digital business and stored on their own server to identify their web users. This data can be used to create buyer persona and target audience to then create other targeted ads – with the assumption that there will be other similar users on the internet. Customer data collected through lead generation can also be used for customer match ads. By uploading hashed customer data on Google Ads or Meta Ads, you can accurately find them online for retargeted ads, or for the advertising platforms to create a similar audience for targeted ads.

3. Google Topics: Another good way to target customers on the web is using Google Topics, available, within Google Ads. This allows you to identify their interests based on the topics they have interacted on the internet. The anonymity of the user is still preserved by Google, as it is data collected through the Chrome browser by the tech giant itself for advertising purposes.

4. Contextual Advertising: These are adverts based on the target user’s website content they are currently visiting. This also does not require third-party cookies, as the ads are based on the content of the website they are currently browsing. For example, if a user previously browsed a car-selling website, and proceeds to a sports website, the ads that will be served them will be sports-related ads on the sports website.

In conclusion, the days of digital advertising relying on third-party cookies are numbered. While Google has postponed the deprecation of third-party cookies until 2025, it is pertinent to prepare for the cookie-less future.

As a digital marketer or digital advertiser reliant on the accuracy provided by third-party cookies, enjoy the show, while preparing for the cookie-less future using any of the options highlighted above.

About the writer:

Oladayo Adeniyi is a Digital Marketer with extensive experience working in financial services, insurance, investment, Fintech, and telecommunications industry. He also lectures digital marketing in a Business School.

Oladayo is deeply involved in mentoring/training digital enthusiasts to join the tech ecosystem, having created a digital marketing course for Utiva and mentored students in Udacity’s partnership with Edo state tech scholarship programme.