Google’s decision to remove support for third-party cookies in Chrome browsers in 2024 will force e-commerce companies to fundamentally rethink their strategies. Ultimately, the sector relies on effective targeting and measurement of digital advertising for a large part of its marketing effectiveness.
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Expect a rush of activity towards this deadline, but it doesn’t feel too urgent.according to Adobe research, 75% of marketers still rely heavily on third-party cookies. More than three-quarters of his business leaders expect the third-party cookie deprecation will hurt their business. In fact, marketers are expected to have much less visibility into user behavior, in addition to the loss of targeting capabilities, making it much more difficult to personalize digital advertising.
This is a problem as consumers continue to demand highly personalized experiences.
According to Smart Insights, 63% of consumers will stop buying from brands with poor personalization strategies, and 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to create more personalized experiences. I don’t think so.
Adobe’s data above shows a high level of concern about how to address this challenge, and it makes an important point about the general approach to marketing campaigns. Since the pandemic, e-commerce companies have focused on short-term performance marketing solutions aimed at generating sales today, with less consideration for tomorrow’s issues. M.E-commerce businesses have invested large marketing budgets in PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns and leveraged advertising services from Google and Meta to build their customer base.Investing in more strategic “top of the funnel” marketing techniques such as branding.
But marketers need to start thinking again from a more strategic perspective. For e-commerce companies, it’s important to prepare their strategies for this new dawn.they need to give important thoughts Marketing data strategy and what marketing partners need to help.
technical solution
Consider how technology can mitigate the impact of challenges. One option is server-side tagging. This provides a solution to Google’s decision to discontinue support for third-party cookies placed on users’ browsers. Instead, she uses server-side scripts to manage the company’s tracking and analytics tags for her website. Data is collected and processed on the server and not in the user’s browser, thus reducing third party reliance on her cookies. By moving the tracking and analytics process to the server side, marketers can continue to collect valuable data and serve personalized ads without relying on third-party cookies.
However, this still doesn’t seem to be a magic bullet. Server-side tagging requires more technical expertise and infrastructure than traditional client-side tagging, and real-time visibility into user behavior has proven more difficult. Server-side tagging can also limit your ability to share data with third-party vendors, as all data is processed on the server.
Other technical solutions include contextual targeting. Advertisers target users based on what they are viewing, not their behavior. Alternatively, Unified ID 2.0, an open-source, community-driven solution, creates a standardized, interoperable identity that can be used by all stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem.
There is also FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), a new privacy-focused solution being developed by Google. Instead of tracking individual users, FLoC groups users with similar interests into cohorts and allows advertisers to target ads to these groups. The idea behind FLoC is to protect user privacy while enabling relevant advertising.
Probabilistic tracking is another solution that has been discussed. In this approach, advertisers use statistical modeling and machine learning to infer user behavior based on available data. Although not as accurate as deterministic tracking, probabilistic tracking can provide useful insights for ad targeting.
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Unfortunately, no solution meets the accuracy, reach, or ease of use that third-party cookies offer.
back to basics
If technology hasn’t yet delivered a magic bullet, the 2024 deadline should be seen as a resetting moment for ecommerce marketers. They need to relearn classic marketing techniques while demanding more from the agencies that support them. They use traditional methods of reaching out to customers to better understand their complex needs We need to put more effort into what we do. We also need to get better at real-time market insights to help us understand market aggregate demand and evolution more clearly. what the customer wants.
With the 2024 deadline, it’s a smart idea to invest heavily in lead generation and build the largest possible prospect database built on your own data. This can be achieved through various channels such as CRM marketing, affiliate marketing, checkout marketing, insertion campaigns, etc.
CRM marketing programs can also drive repeat purchases. Brands have to get much better at focusing on the relevance of their products to specific parts of their customer base. , you need to check the type of related similar products.
But we also need a return to the lost art of branding.
Since the pandemic changed everything, brands have forgotten that the bottom of the funnel isn’t everything. In short, they are creating demand for your e-commerce store and converting visitors into customers. You should also think about the top of the funnel and invest in the early stages of your customer’s journey. The old adage of investing 60% of his budget in branding and 40% in his performance marketing still persists.
Anyone can start a webshop, but after that it’s all about building a brand.
training and preparation
To accomplish all these changes, ecommerce startups and scale-ups need to focus on making sure they have the budget available for employee training. Some members of the marketing team aren’t ready for this back-to-basics approach and need to learn quickly.
The world of marketing is undergoing rapid new developments and innovations, meaning that the requirements that marketers must meet are constantly changing. In fact, a HubSpot study found that training top talent will be the top challenge marketers focused on in 2022.
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As such, brands need to invest in employee training while building a data-driven branding and marketing strategy and an agency ecosystem that can provide the expertise needed to build and maintain a winning machine.
mindset change
Ultimately, the issue of third-party cookies needs to be rethought. For small businesses, you should focus on building your brand. You need to win over consumers by building brands that people love and trust. They need to ride the wave while keeping an eye out for technological advances being developed by larger companies and institutions.
Large companies, on the other hand, need to focus on advancing technology. You can choose to build your own data warehouse or buy one from another source. But they also need to invest in branding with the aim of becoming the brand leader in their category.
But e-commerce companies also need a new level of support from marketing agencies. The traditional agency model, focused on creative ideas and big campaigns, needs to evolve. Web shops need agencies with an entrepreneurial spirit and a deep understanding and inquisitive mind about technical issues, as they need to calculate the value of the proposed solution in real time. To support such decisions, agencies need real-time insights to understand aggregate market demand along with changing customer needs.
With testing, research, and a cutting-edge understanding of the evolving landscape, the best agencies may be able to guide e-commerce companies through the turbulent years to come.
