Cookies: Going, Going, Gone?
C is for cookie and cookies are for me! Except, oatmeal raisin. What can I say? It’s in my name and I was born in the 80s.
Have you ever got the feeling that our devices and organizations know too much about us? That’s true in some ways and you can thank cookies. For the non-tech people reading this, cookies are text files with small pieces of data — like a username and password — that are used to identify your computer when you use a computer network. Specific cookies known as HTTP cookies are used to identify unique users and “improve your web browsing experience.” Data stored in a cookie is created by the server upon your connection. This data is labeled with an ID unique to you and your computer. When the cookie is exchanged between your computer and the network server, the server reads the ID and knows what information to specifically serve to you.
Here’s how cookies are intended to be used:
Session management. For example, cookies let websites recognize users and recall their individual login information and preferences, such as sports news versus politics.
Personalization. Customized advertising is the main way cookies are used to personalize your sessions. You may view certain items or parts of a site, and cookies use this data to help build targeted ads that you might enjoy.
Tracking. Shopping sites use cookies to track items users previously viewed, allowing the sites to suggest other goods they might like and keep items in shopping carts while they continue shopping.
First-party cookies are usually generated and placed on the user’s device by the website that the user is visiting. Such cookies are often used for facilitating user experience and some core functionalities of the site. For example, first-party cookies can identify returning visitors so that they do not have to use the username and password to log in on successive visits (let’s just admit we don’t typically mind this aspect). They are usually harmless since they do not “spy” on the users. That being said, some analytics tools use first-party cookies to gather data on your browsing habits and other less straightforward things.
Third-party cookies are generated and placed on the user’s device by a different website other than the one the user is visiting. Most third-party cookies are used for analytical or marketing purposes. This is where fandom from the consumer's standpoint tends to end. That being said, there is a bit of a love-hate relationship when it comes to 3rd party cookies. We hate being tracked, or people knowing more about us than we would like, but most people aren't sad when you see an ad about a product you didn’t know existed but really could use (no judgment on that snuggy you bought last year, because, well...COVID).
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about these 3rd party cookies because Google has been threatening to get rid of them altogether (although they announced that it is delaying the phase-out until 2023). They have pinned the reason behind this decision to allow time for “public discussion on the right solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and for publishers and the advertising industry to migrate their services.”
Good news for consumers? Mostly yes. Good news for snuggy manufacturers? Probably not as great. But regardless of your affinity for walking around with a blanket on, cookies are a tool that had arguably good intentions from the outset, but ultimately just made marketers lazy. Why think through meaningful engagement if I can just cheaply bombard you with similar products to what you have been searching for? The relatively low cost of digital marketing has created a world where half-assed marketing is the norm, and metrics like impressions and clicks have become proof of genius.
Recent studies, including one from Pixalate in 2017, have shown that close to 75% of clicks and impressions are basically made up (click fraud). The perpetrators of the fraud are clearly to blame here, but let's not let marketers off the hook since a focus on metrics that are known to be false is not exactly being a good actor in this either. Another consequence of the focus on impressions and clicks is that it has become a stand-in as engagement for too many organizations.
From a purist view if someone is actually seeing your ad then there is an engagement at some level. Apart from the fact that only a quarter of your audience might be seeing your ad, you trying to sell something is not engagement. One of the best things to come out of the end of 3rd party cookies (subjective statement to be sure) is that organizations are going to be forced to rethink how they engage with their audiences. Currently, this is, at best, a transactional relationship. I have a product. You, consumer, look at my ads (come on, my sweatpants are far superior to the snuggly you bought). Stop ignoring me….more ads for you. Hey, you bought something, sweet….even more ads for you, oh and can you leave a review for other lovers of comfiness?
This relationship is one directional with the company bombarding the audience member with ad after ad, delivered through 3rd party cookies. It doesn’t build brand loyalty, it doesn’t build trust, and it certainly does not build an actual relationship. Ultimately success will be measured in how well you can engage with consumers, and in our view of the future, this means placing the consumer at the middle of the relationship and allowing them to share their views, provide feedback, and ultimately shape the way the relationship is being formed.
More work? Yup. Will this quickly separate the organizations that do this well? Without a doubt! Google pushed the pause button, but the changes are coming. The question is, are you going to be ready?
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. Pull up a seat and bring popcorn.