Down The Rabbit Hole of The Cookie Apocalypse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, the European Union (EU) passes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires websites to get users\u2019 consent before tracking them with cookies. Safari started to block some third-party cookies through the first iteration of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) protocol in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Firefox and Safari now blocks all third-party cookies by default with enhanced tracking protection features. There has since been a 40% decrease in third-party cookies since Apple and Firefox made changes to their browsers. Google Chrome was the last to join the bandwagon in 2020 by announcing that it will block all third-party cookies within two years starting with its Privacy Sandbox initiative to \u201cdevelop and test new browser features that would boost user privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to cookies, the web had no method of remembering a user at all, with the exception of logging in again directly. When Lou Montulli (founding engineer of Netscape) invented the cookie in 1994<\/a>, he meant to create a way for websites to remember information about visitors who had previously visited them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cookies were originally designed to prevent tracking, because only the originating website can set and receive that cookie. What none of the early browser inventors anticipated, however, was the ability of other websites and services to insert their own cookies onto a browser whenever someone visited a specific website or viewed specific content. Combined with other web technologies, so-called \u201cthird party cookies\u201d could track users even if they weren\u2019t on the originating website – the rest of the world figured out how to exploit the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The argument made for not killing third-party cookies was that it fueled advertising – the main revenue stream of websites. By turning off advertising cookies, it would severely diminish the ability for revenue to be made on the web. At the time, the tech industry\u2019s priority was to maintain a revenue model to make the web successful so the choice was to try to give cookie options to the user, but not to disable them entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, a study in 2016 found that while using more information from cookies increases the accuracy<\/a> of prediction of purchases, it was at a decreasing rate. In estimating the effect of an ad on a user\u2019s purchase probability, researchers found that on average, ads do not have a statistically significant impact on purchase probabilities of consumers. However, individuals who have a high baseline purchase probability, do respond positively to ads and ads can increase their purchase probability by up to 2.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, the likelihood that a person will buy something from an ad that uses cookies compared to one that does not, has been overstated – so to speak. Cookies are neither that accurate nor useful, and in fact the tide against third-party cookie tracking has helped us to rethink what data really matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in the late 1990s, like a waiter who can\u2019t recall who ordered the beef burger with extra cheese, the internet back then had no memory of who did what. Sites had no way to know you were a returning visitor, or even to record when you visited another one of its many pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cookies are small pieces of code that websites deliver to a visitor\u2019s browser and stick around as the person visits other sites. It helps the website remember information about you\u2014often for benign reasons, like remembering your login credentials or making sure the items in your shopping cart will still be there even if you close the page and come back later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was initially designed to maintain your privacy and your security; that little bit of text wasn\u2019t software code and it didn\u2019t know your name or what you did elsewhere on the web. It just knew that the browser in your computer had once visited that particular website, so it could be referred to if you returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That modest computer cookie has now evolved into something far more nefarious. It can be used to track users across multiple sites to target ads and see how they perform \u2013 and sits at the center of a multibillion dollar digital ad industry that has taken over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cookies that come directly from a website you chose to visit are called first-party cookies. For example, if you visit an e-commerce site and type in your shipping address to get a shipping fee estimate, the site might save a cookie on your device. That way, it will remember your location\u2014and offer the right recommendations more quickly\u2014the next time you visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When cookies come from someplace other than the website you chose to visit, they\u2019re called third-party cookies. For example, if you go to the ESPN website that displays a gambling ad, that ad might save a cookie on your computer that reports back to the advertiser. The cookie then marks you as the person who saw this particular ad at this particular moment. If at some point later you visit the advertiser\u2019s website and bet on a cricket match, the company can infer that its marketing campaign influenced your decision and was effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advertisers use third-party cookies to measure how well their campaigns are performing, gather data on your interests, and target ads to specific audiences. As mentioned earlier, there hasn\u2019t been any conclusive evidence that all this tracking actually gets consumers to spend more money on products\u2014but it does get businesses to spend more on advertising. That extra spending has propped up a thriving industry (read: Google) dedicated to harvesting your data<\/a> through third-party cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n 1.Understanding precisely how third-party cookies power your business:<\/strong> Do you know who your target audience is? What about their demographics, interests, wants, and needs when it comes to engaging with your brand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.More first-party data conversion data means better measurement:<\/strong> First-party cookies aren\u2019t used for ad tracking and they aren\u2019t going away. The data you do have about your customers via first-party data should become the foundation of your advertising efforts moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.Identify the right ad tech tools to replace third-party cookies:<\/strong> There has been a few initiatives for how the advertising industry can continue to show consumers relevant ads and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns without relying on third-party cookies. The following tools and systems aren\u2019t mutually exclusive as the industry continues to experiment with new technologies to replace legacy, data-intensive mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information on the ReverseAds\u2019 privacy-first tracking solution, email info@reverseads.com<\/a> or connect with us via Facebook<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Beginner\u2019s Guide to The Cookie Apocalypse and a Cookie-less Future In June 2021, Google announced that it is delaying its plans to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome until 2023, two years later than originally planned. Although few would shed tears over Google as the company attempts to rework online ad targeting amidst the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[76,77],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15092,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656\/revisions\/15092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is a Browser Cookie?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s The Difference Between Third-Party and First-Party Cookies?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/reverseads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/the-end-of-3rd-party-cookies.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThree-step marketing survival guide for a cookie-less future:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n