Since the creation of the GDPR, the future of digital advertising has been threatened, and there’s no other option than to transform its current practices or die. The age of cookie based advertising is at the beginning of a radical shift, thanks to Google and other online search engines that are beginning to block the use of third party cookies – an invaluable source for digital advertisers for reaching their desired audiences.
What are cookies and why are they problematic?
By being a modern day internet user, it’s inevitable to be unaware about cookies. It’s increasingly common to run into pop-ups on web pages that ask for your permission to store cookies, but what are these so-called cookies anyway and why do advertisers care about them so much?
Cookies and Privacy
Cookies are essentially files of information that websites keep in order to identify each user that visits a website. The data that these files contain are based on the activity that takes place on each cookie’s respective website. Think of cookies in the following way: cookies are like your individual record or a point of reference for websites kept with the purpose of creating personalized experiences for each user. The more cookies that exist, the more data websites will have to use, and therefore the more personalized your experience will be on a given website.
This is important for advertisers since cookies offer them an opportunity to know what advertisements audiences are interested in, which advertisements are efficient, and when and how they can reach these same audiences in the future.
Overall, cookies can help users have an efficient experiences online, but they can also be a cause for concern when there’s little to no information on what personal data these cookies are collecting, or who exactly has access to this data since certain cookies can be third-party cookies. Because of this, the GDPR and other data privacy laws are looking to protect online user’s data privacy.
Goodbye cookies, hello first-party data.
The year 2020 brings a lot of opportunity for online privacy. The industry is beginning to change its ways by looking for new ways to identify users without having to rely on third-party cookies. The new age of digital advertising is about to begin and it’s time to give a warm welcome to the shift towards first-party data.
In a near future, we’ll be able to see more partnerships between publishers and advertiser networks, united by the mission to create new technologies and practices that ensure transparency in the media buying industry. Now more than ever, it’s important to create advertiser-user relationships based on trust since this will allow advertisers to obtain high-quality first-party data. We will also begin to see the return of contextual media buying.
We’re barely at the beginning of this shift, and it will be interesting to see exactly how the industry decides to adapt to a post-cookie world. What is clear is that the future of the industry will lie in finding ways to adapt that are compliant with the new data privacy laws and regulations instead of finding ways around it, and those who resist the change will fall behind.
Source: www.digiday.com