Recently we wrote an article with an update on the proposed changes Privacy Sandbox has announced that consumers will be given the opportunity to make an informed choice as to whether or not they wish to disable third-party cookies as a part of their browsing experience in Google Chrome.
To quote Anthony Chavez – VP, Privacy Sandbox:
“Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, 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.”
As a follow-up to this announcement, we asked the IAB Australia Data Council a few questions on the potential ramifications of these proposed changes and potentially… what’s next?
Lorraine Donnelly, AUSEA Head of Data – Yahoo
How can advertisers effectively leverage first-party data and alternative identifiers to maintain targeting and personalisation capabilities in cookieless environments?
Advertisers who care about incremental growth and reach must adopt an innovative solution that models first-party data in real-time to close the gap left by cookies and make every impression count.
Consumers expect personalisation, but to deliver those tailored ad experiences, identity is key. When you preserve identity, you’re not just maintaining reach—you’re boosting performance. That’s why investing in and activating your first-party data and alternative IDs is a no-brainer – for both publishers and advertisers.
But here’s the catch: only 30-40% of online impressions can be deterministically linked, leaving a massive chunk of inventory ‘non-addressable’. This means we can’t apply ID solutions due to users who denied consent or lack registration – and this type of inventory is only growing.
Ignoring non-addressable inventory is a recipe for poorer performance and skewed results. It’s not just reach that takes a hit—domain diversity, eCPM, and the total cost of activating your data can also suffer.
Yahoo’s in-platform identity testing has shown this clearly. In one test, an advertiser’s CPA shot up by more than 400% when they strictly limited inventory. But by activating our Next Gen solutions, they were able to connect with more like-minded consumers and measure non-addressable conversions, bringing the CPA back to a much more reasonable, and expected, rate.
If you’re wondering whether your campaigns might see similar fluctuations in the months to come, now’s the time to start a conversation with your platform. This is what we’ve been focused on—partnering with agencies and advertisers to refine data strategies and make every marketing dollar count.
By leveraging the industry’s collective expertise and tools available, brands can navigate these changes with confidence and thrive in a cookieless future.
Given the repeated delays, how prepared is our industry in transitioning to cookieless future?
The industry’s been buzzing with talk about cookie-less readiness, but it’s been more sting than honey.
We’ve observed that advertiser, publisher and platform readiness is currently not there (nor Chrome readiness if we’re being honest!). The expectation to take existing advertising and targeting tactics and continue as is despite cookie reduction is guaranteed to lead to disappointing results.
In terms of channel capabilities, display is the only channel where testing has been possible at scale (albeit 1% of chrome supply). Video ad formats and native ads haven’t received the love or attention they need to be tested fully. It would be impossible to state our industry is anywhere near ready given the technical hurdles we are yet to conquer. Moreover, the secondary consequences of cookie-deprecation, from brand safety to attribution are yet to be fully understood or resolved.
On the flip side, it’s encouraging to see many advertisers controlling what they can control, and beginning to invest in first party data strategies and platforms. However some fall into the trap of pouring dollars into CDP’s and Data Clean Rooms without the resources to utilise their full potential for end-to-end advertising and closed-loop marketing. This underscores a big disconnect for our industry: knowing the destination, but not having the roadmap, or vehicle, to get there just yet.
The repeated delays might feel like a breather for many marketers for this exact reason, but this extra time shouldn’t go to waste. Use it to do your due diligence and research. Continue to test different approaches. We also need to use this time to hold our partners accountable for their development and readiness too.
Is this announcement impacting your plans to prepare for the changes to come in any way?
3rd party cookies have long since been deprecated on other major browsers, with no alternatives nor industry support provided.
Yahoo’s Identity Solutions – Yahoo ConnectID & Next Gen – were created independently to any Browser’s whims to ensure marketers, publishers and consumers can communicate in a consent-based and respectful way.
At Yahoo, we are supporting and welcoming Chrome, and other browsers, who are proposing alternatives to 3P cookies and are excited by the complementary value they add to our existing Identity Solutions. Despite the delays, we still expect the majority of Chrome supply to be cookie-less, due to consumers withdrawing consent. As such our plans remain the same – Invest in collaborative testing frameworks, nurture our strong partner relationships and meet advertisers where they are on their data transformation journey, providing the support they need to adapt.
Damien Quinn, Manager, Agency Sales – Eyeota (a Dun & Bradstreet company)
Given the repeated delays, how prepared is our industry in transitioning to a cookieless future?
Despite all the uncertainty that the industry has endured over the past four years, Google’s original plans to deprecate third-party cookies, followed by the subsequent delays and reversal, have put our industry in a much stronger place than it was when the plans were originally announced. The relevance of third-party cookies had been on the decline for years, and Google’s announcement sparked the wave of innovation that was needed to build a more-sustainable future for digital marketing in a privacy-first reality.
So, how prepared are we? Very. We’ve spent years now cultivating a landscape of alternative identifiers that can understand and reach to users on cookieless browsers, including Safari and Firefox, and cookieless channels such as audio, CTV, digital out-of-home, mobile, and social. More importantly, we’ve had the time to embrace an ID-agnostic approach that enables us to connect the dots on these identifiers in an accurate, compliant, and sustainable way.
Is this announcement impacting your plans to prepare for the changes to come in any way?
No. Although Google’s reversal makes cookies a viable identifier in the ecosystem again, it does not change the waning importance of cookies. The path we’ve been going down these past few years wasn’t taken just because Google actively planned to deprecate third-party cookies. It was taken because it’s the right path for our industry, both from a performance standpoint and an ethical standpoint. Cookies were never going to sustain the needs of marketing organizations in a privacy-focused omnichannel future.
Naturally cookieless environments are more important than ever. Media channels including audio, connected TV, digital out-of-home, and social do not use—and never have used—cookies. Thanks to innovations developed through key industry collaborations, there are now privacy-compliant alternative ID solutions that enable addressable cross-channel marketing at scale, even in these cookieless environments.
That’s an area where we will continue to invest.
How can advertisers effectively leverage first-party data and alternative identifiers to maintain targeting and personalisation capabilities in cookieless environments?
Data collaboration will be paramount. Advertisers and marketers who want to succeed, with or without cookies, will lean into well-established partners that can enrich and provide insights into their first-party data to enable more effective segmentation, precision targeting, and authentic personalisation.
In vetting data and technology partners today, marketers need to go straight to the core of these organizations: What kind of data and insights power the company and its solutions, and does the company prioritize consumer privacy and ethical data practices? More importantly, are there third parties in the marketplace that can attest to this quality and compliance? At the same time, marketers will need data partners who are committed to sustainable, ID-agnostic approaches that will enable brands and their campaigns to pivot as needed alongside future marketplace shifts.
Natalie Hatch, Audience & Data Partnership Lead – Kinesso
Is this announcement impacting your plans to prepare for the changes to come in any way?
The announcement from Google to shift cookie deprecation from a Google mandated action to a user powered choice is not impacting or changing our plans. From a data, technology, and media activation perspective we are steadfast in our approach to innovate, plan and activate in an industry that is shifting towards a consumer centric approach while still maintaining the health of the industry.
Cookies are still not a built for purpose identifier, meaning they are still not ideal for accurate targeting or measurement, nor do they respect consumer rights to privacy. Considering this, while the removal of a deadline by Google might delay an immediate threat to buying targeted media at scale, we should all be continuing to look to growing an industry that is more focused on privacy compliant solutions and trading, because Privacy Legislation is not on a Google timeline.
For clients, the continued investment into the development of a strong first party data asset is still necessary, and it is still and will continue to be a competitive advantage and a way to collaborate with publishers, adjacent clients, and agencies in the future.
As we enter into Privacy reforms in Australia, how might the delay and eventual deprecation of third-party cookies impact consumer privacy and trust in digital advertising practices?
The media landscape is going through fundamental shifts with Google’s move to remove 3rd party cookies via consumer and Privacy Legislation changes with confirmation the proposed legislation will be introduced in the House of Representatives in August 2024.
While these two events are independent, they are intrinsically linked as the need for privacy change is largely being driven by three factors:
• Consumer demand: consumers are rightfully becoming more protective of the currency of their online data. While still expecting personalised experiences, consent management puts the power in the consumers hands to consent to brands they trust.
• Regulation: with reforms occurring around the globe (GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California), the Australian Government has had to fast-track privacy reform in this market, and this reform will shape the way the advertising industry collects and uses data in the future.
• Technology: changes to traditionally used identifiers such as 3rd party cookies and device IDs, in certain environments, has prompted a new approach to how we buy and measure advertising and prompted the rise of new privacy safe ID solutions and aggregated audience solutions.
We can also gain an understanding of the current consumer trust landscape by looking into the consumer responses to the Government run CAPS survey, some key statistics being:
- 84% of Australians want more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information.
- Only 2 in 5 people feel most organisations they deal with are transparent about how they handle their information, and 58% say they do not understand how it is used.
- Only 21% say their privacy knowledge is ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’, and 57% say they care about their data privacy, but do not know what to do about it.
Those results, alongside with the lessons we can take from the 2021 iOS14.5 update, that when consumers are given a choice to opt-in to tracking, they often don’t, it is not difficult to see that consumers in the market are currently untrusting of the ad industries use of their data. Privacy reforms and entrusting consumers with the power to control cookie tracking in chrome is a step forward in rectifying that trust.
From a reform perspective, there are a number of changes, such as the fair and reasonable test, expansion of PI definition, added protections for children and vulnerable persons as well as mandated consent for collection of data, that will go along way in ensuring that consumers feel that their data is being collected for the right reasons, without duress or manipulation and that it will be handled with respect.
My hope is that the industry responds to these changes with innovation and solutions that respect the changes. What we need to avoid at all costs is the temptation to build work arounds that will continue to erode consumer trust, an ultimately does not build a healthy and long lasting industry.