For years people have been unhappy with the lack of privacy online, especially that feeling of being tracked all across the web by a pair of running shoes you looked at once. Web browsers have been making changes to help people feel more comfortable:
In September 2019 Firefox discontinued third-party cookies
Safari followed suit in April 2020
Chrome, the most popular web browser in North America, will be doing the same, starting incrementally with the plan to phase out cookies completely by 2024.
Cookies are a small piece of data stored on your computer by the web browser while visiting a website, allowing advertisers to track you across the web and serve you ads wherever you go. This is remarketing, which has been a component in some campaigns for our clients.
This will be a huge shift in the digital marketing space as many large agencies and advertisers rely heavily on remarketing to bring success to their clients. However, for businesses who have been taking a more holistic approach to their marketing efforts and developing a strong brand voice across all platforms this change will be easily managed.
Some of the ways that will help to make this transition smoother will be to ensure your website has the tools to track customer behaviour and understand the lifecycle of your clients, such as:
Google Analytics
A CRM system
This will make sure your business is getting every dollar possible from your existing customers. Also, enhancing the platforms you have that speak directly to your customers not via ads will be incredibly important. This includes things like:
Email marketing
SEO
Organic social media
Influencer marketing
As third-party cookies get phased out new options for tracking and targeting online customers will arise, which we’ll investigate and test on behalf of our clients. Over the course of the year, we’ll be working with our clients to make sure this transition is a smooth one.
Have questions about what this means for your business? We’re happy to chat, get in touch here.