The promising post-cookie world

Facebook and Google sealed their supremacy in the digital advertising world by virtue of their special personal identifiers. Google’s market-leading Chrome browser makes use of a signed-in Google account, and Facebook needs individual logins to access its common platform. Prior to the post-cookie world, marketers who wished to reach customers effectively outside of the walled gardens have actually long relied on the third-party tracking cookie. By tracking individual users across their browsing activity, an entire community has actually emerged that has actually reached a stability, stabilizing the requirements of publishers, advertisers, and the tech suppliers that exist between them.

Now Google has actually revealed that they will phase out third-party tracking cookies in Chrome, and the market has been in a panic. Undoubtedly, many companies will need to adjust their company models wholesale in order to adjust to this new truth and privacy issues.

The future, nevertheless, need not look bleak for publishers and advertisers. While some stakeholders will lose tracking and attribution functions they’ve grown familiar with, a go back to the first principles of marketing will be good for consumers, publishers, advertisers, and the bigger digital community.

The return of context

In the short-term, giant companies like Google and Facebook will continue to manage real identity. Some workarounds currently are entering into practice, depending on things like organizing accomplices to reach the ideal consumers with the best message. Targeting marketing according to groups of accomplices that share comparable attributes is one method to provide some efficiency, however it does not permit things like frequency capping in order to increase scale and efficiency.

Rather, advertisers and publishers will need to collaborate to return to first concepts like contextual advertising. By targeting marketing based on the real material it’s published beside, consumers are most likely to see pertinent ads, and resourceful publishers can generate income from accordingly. For a long time, contextual targeting has been dealt with as an add-on function in the industry, and marketers and publishers need to get ready for a future in which context is a great deal more crucial.

From a higher level, contextual advertising likewise makes philosophical sense. Marketers have actually known a whole generation of customers as qualities and numbers. A thoughtful return to contextual marketing suggests that the market will need to consider the whole person, rather than a collection of abstractions. While this might be challenging for many marketers who have grown accustomed to performance and effectiveness, it also represents a chance to develop brands and relationships.

Keep one’s cool, carry on

Due to these advancements, some in the digital marketing market are rightfully nervous about the uncertain future. If there’s one thing that 2020 has actually taught us, nevertheless, it’s that absolutely nothing can be really taken for given, and the old platitude holds that change is the only thing that remains consistent.

To those who are worried, I would prompt calm and reflection. There’s excessive cash and a lot of smart people in our market for us to offer all of it up wholesale. It’s a virtual certainty that the marketing industry will discover a way to move forward– outside of the walled gardens and without the handy tracking cookie.

Part of the solution will require finding performances in locations aside from the media spend. More thoughtful innovative and more intentional targeting will result, resulting in a better client experience. New channels like addressable CTV will fill some of the gaps, and things like Digital Out of Home (DOOH) are poised to gain ground. Measurement and engagement proxies like viewability and video completion rates will become more important.

In the end, the digital ad market will be required to move away from the one-to-one goal that we’ve focused on for too long. Our entire industry will end up being smarter and much better as a repercussion. There will be some battles along the way, but the future of digital marketing outside of the walled gardens has every reason to appear bright.

Ryan Bricklemyer is VP of Advertisement Operations and Product Development at Octopus Interactive.