The news that Google isn’t going to deprecate the cookie could finally mark the end of an 8 year vigil that has seen millions (if not billions) of dollars being spent preparing people for a future state that has now been handed to consumers to take over the line. While many will argue that all that time and investment was for nothing, the reality is that those that embraced a future without cookies are (and will continue to be) in the driving seat in relation to seizing opportunity and supporting an ad funded open web.
I believe this for one simple reason; consumers don’t like to be tracked. If consumer behavior is anything to go by, when given a clear option to opt-out and in the absence of a clear value exchange, consumers will protect their privacy and remove their identity from the clutches of the advertising ecosystem. If we use Apple’s ATT (App Tracking Transparency) framework as a proxy then according to AppsFlyer, in April this year, ~50% of users Globally have opted out. Now it’s way too soon to suggest Google will opt for a similar mechanism but if the opt-out rate is similar that would mean on an already depleted cookie based inventory, that would leave a tiny pool of impressions for the industry to ‘carry on as normal’. To put this into actual numbers, across the Teads publisher ecosystem (on mobile predominantly), only 37% of US impressions have a cookie present. If we halve that number, we’re at 18.5% of impressions will be actionable using cookie based solutions. In that scenario, when choosing between cookie-based vs cookieless advertising strategies, there is no change to which brands will come out the winner.
And so Google’s handing of the cookie deprecation responsibility to the consumer doesn’t really change anything. We are fast approaching an Open Web without 3rd party cookies and so any and all work being done to be cookieless ready is essential.
At Teads, we’ve approached cookieless by building solutions that work with the absence of a cookie and not based upon what Google’s next decision will be. They may be complemented by our partnership with Google Sandbox, but the original and still current premise is to build solutions that work in cookieless environments. As a result, we’re operating where cookies aren’t a dependency but an ingredient in a bigger and broader Data Suite that is delivering campaigns using 80% or more cookieless signals.
We at Teads are committed to a cookieless future that benefits our Publisher, Advertiser and Agency partners and that’s why we’ve evolved our business into a state of ‘cookieless by default’. We’re past auditing and testing our solutions and have moved forward with an approach that sells audiences, contexts to advertisers and in return keeps monetizing the quality journalism from our Publisher partners.
So as we all reflect on what the future holds our view is that this won’t really change anything. We aren’t clear on the timelines, whether regulators will allow this path forward from Google or how consumers will be asked to consent, however, what is clear is that a cookieless future isn’t near… it’s here and Google’s news won’t change that.
Discover Teads’ privacy-safe, future-proof solutions by reading more on the Teads blog.
Written by James Colborn, VP of Global Data