The online landscape is continuing to change at an ever-increasing rate. One of the biggest looming shifts has to do with cookies. Cookies have been a staple of online advertising for years, but with privacy concerns growing, they’re now on their way out. This will be a very big disruption to the ability of advertisers to put their ads in front of target audiences that are most likely to spend money on their product. Change is in the air for advertisers and online content publishers.
What is a Cookie anyway?
We’re not talking about the kind you eat. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on a reader’s computer and used to track their activity on a website. A cookie contains identifying information such as pages you’ve visited, clicked links, keywords entered into a search bar, and the results. If that wasn’t enough, cookies also contain user preferences, like language and preferred text size. There can be information about location, search history, and even purchasing history.
Inhale. Exhale. If you weren’t concerned before, maybe you are now. That’s a lot of information, isn’t it? The privacy concern is understandable; there is a lot of our information out there. Many people are now blocking cookies and taking steps to protect their online data. In response to these concerns, many browsers, including Google Chrome and Apple Safari, have announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies.
If Cookies are gone, what will that mean for advertisers?
Advertisers will need to find new ways to target their audiences. They don’t want to spend premium dollars to put an ad for a Hummer in front of an environmentally conscious public transportation commuter.
One potential solution is to use first-party data, which is data that is collected directly from users on a website. This could include information like email addresses, purchase history, and browsing behavior. They might also use other technologies like device fingerprinting, which uses information about a user’s device to create a unique profile, or contextual targeting, which uses the content of a website to target ads.
What do publishers need to do?
Publishers will also need to make some changes to their website, particularly to their privacy policies to stay in compliance. This means being transparent about what data they collect and how they use it. They’ll also need to provide users with clear and easy-to-understand opt-out options. This could include allowing users to control the types of ads they receive, or even opting out of all targeted advertising altogether.
Monumetric has your back!
If you are a Monumetic publisher, rest assured, we are staying on top of the changes and have already begun some adjustments to meet new requirements. As more information becomes available and additional changes are needed we will continue to communicate with you and help you navigate the process with peace of mind.
Here’s your next step for now. We’ll update you as needed.
Click here for instructions on updating your Privacy Policy Page to meet the new requirements
