“That’s Just the Way the Cookie Crumbles”: Our Thoughts on Google’s Decision to Keep Third-Party Cookies
Written by Samantha Zeleznik
TL:DR Not to worry, don’t be distracted by the hoopla surrounding Google’s announcement. Cookies are here to stay, and AR is not planning on drastically altering our interactions with them any time soon.
After much anticipation, Google’s long-winded discussion surrounding the future of third-party cookies has come to a staggering halt. On Monday, July 22nd, the internet caught wind of Google’s announcement that after much deliberation, they were rescinding their efforts to yank third-party cookies.
For everyday internet surfers, it’s unlikely your experience will change, regardless of which way Google would have decided. However, for agencies and advertisers like ourselves, this may have deeper implications. We chatted with a few of our Google connoisseurs here in the office to learn more about what the future of advertising looks like on Google.
So, what are cookies?
In short, cookies are little bunches of code that websites deliver to a user’s browser. They are used to track online activity making them a valuable piece in the process of placing targeted ads.
Third-party cookies are particularly valuable because unlike first-party cookies, they can “follow” a user across websites, serving as the key way a user can view a specific product on one website, then see an ad for it on another website just five minutes later.
What does this mean for advertisers?
According to a study done by Adobe in 2023, roughly 75% of advertisers depend on third-party cookies to target their audiences, meaning the threat of revoking them would be potentially detrimental to ad agencies.
In voiding this decision, Google is saving many from the effort to completely reconfigure their online ad strategies. However, that does not mean people didn’t feel the growing pains of Google testing different cookie methods over the past few years.
Our digital experts shared their perspectives in dealing with Google’s attempt to lean less on third-party cookies over the past few years.
“They've been testing random methods and it has been screwing with ad stuff,” shared our Senior Digital Marketing Manager, Ashley Wade. “We have to do these advertiser verifications on Google Ads and there's all these extra shenanigans we've been having to deal with.”
Despite never following through with the revoking of third-party cookies, Google has still posed a challenge for advertisers to work with. A few of our strategists mentioned the dreaded “spray and pray” method that a decision like this would force some agencies to do. Should third-party cookies be stripped from browsers, advertisers would be forced to market to a wider, less-targeted audience, i.e. the “spray and pray” method. Less data on users’ journeys would mean less of a guarantee that ads would reach the eyes of those they were relevant to.
What does this mean for internet users?
Third-party cookies go relatively unnoticed to everyday internet users like you and me. In fact, an argument for keeping them centers around convenience; they make navigating the internet and online shopping a smooth and streamlined experience.
Cookies are the reason you’re able to stay logged in from site to site, receive ads relevant to your shopping needs and navigate the web for free. They are invisible to the naked eye, but crucial to your browsing journey.
So what would it really mean if Google phased out third-party cookies? Our strategists said that the everyday user would likely not notice a difference. Just as most don’t notice the presence of third-party cookies, most likely wouldn’t notice their disappearance.
According to a blog post released by Google, instead of pulling third-party cookies all together, “We would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”
Our team sees this as a way of saying “Google is going to put [third-party cookie access] in the hands of the user,” like many other websites do in displaying a pop-up asking users to allow third-party cookies before browsing on their site. Google has yet to elaborate on this topic yet though.
What does this mean for AR?
With all that is going around about Google and their cookies, we want to ensure our customers can be confident in our advertising abilities.
“AR has been working on utilizing first-party data and using other targeting,” said Wade . “We don't fully rely on third party cookies anyway.”
We believe that it’s crucial to stay on top of current digital, social and design news. You’ll always find us sharing the most relevant news around the office in an effort to serve our customers the best that we can.
“It's more like preparation and staying aware of the changes. That's honestly something you have to do with Google in general because the Google algorithms are always changing,” added Wade.
We’ve certainly followed Google’s announcements closely and made an effort to stay informed, but luckily, our method of advertising is not fully reliant on third-party cookies.
Charles Bunch, one of our Digital Marketing Managers advised that “not relying on just the algorithm to keep tracking where these people are going based on the cookies and instead, just focusing on what the target audience is doing” is the name of the game. Useful tools pop up left and right in the digital space, but we ultimately rely on our talented team to tailor our clients’ ad strategies and discern when to alter them appropriately.
