The Cookie That Just Won’t Crumble: What This Means For Your Marketing Measurement Strategy

On Monday, Google surprised many by announcing its decision to halt the deprecation of third-party cookies, citing transition challenges and acknowledging the substantial efforts made across the advertising ecosystem. Their ability to follow through with cookie deprecation was always uncertain, due to cookies’ crucial role in ad targeting; according to Google’s 2023 10-K filing, ad revenue makes up more than 75% of their total revenue. The prolonged timeline and inadequate planning also brought to light Google’s underestimation of the complexities involved in cookie deprecation, leading to mistrust among brands and frustration among partners. This announcement marks an abrupt conclusion to a four-year chronicle of uncertainties and delays.

Now, Google unveiled an “updated approach” to cookie deprecation, introducing a new experience in Chrome that lets users make informed choices across their web browsing activity, which can be adjusted at any point in time. And while giving users more tracking control should be celebrated, it will lead to a less reliable digital signal for marketers.

What do these sudden changes mean to marketers’ plans for holistic measurement?  Discontinuing cookie deprecation has a negligible impact on marketers striving to gauge digital ad effectiveness. Brands have already diversified their measurement strategies, with a significant uptick in adopting marketing mix models in recent years.

So, why the shift? More sophisticated techniques offer a comprehensive view, and they’re free from reliance on volatile, third-party cookies. Here, we outline why this comprehensive approach is crucial for success, including five opportunities every marketer should commit to for “cookie-free” performance excellence.

Despite Google’s sudden halt on third-party cookie deprecation, it maintains its Privacy Sandbox, which appeals especially to brands heavily invested in alternatives for measurement. Google plans to enhance the “utility” of Privacy Sandbox, offering extended support for scaled model training to optimize future outcomes. However, industry giants and regulatory bodies, such as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, vehemently oppose Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Why? Because it is clear Google wants to retain control: Privacy Sandbox is Google-operated, giving them unilateral power over its features at any moment. Google’s announcement on Monday reinforces how marketers who rely on Google for measurement need to be nimble.

Since Google’s 2020 cookie deprecation announcement, marketers have gained a clearer understanding of the complexities within the broader marketing ecosystem. They have recognized the pivotal roles of media companies and publishers, grappled with cross-platform measurability challenges and confronted Google’s dominant market influence. Ironically, Google’s added stress to this ecosystem spurred a more discerning breed of marketers. More marketers leverage advanced analytics and machine learning techniques that span channels and encompass broader business impacts. Today’s marketers demand sophistication and refuse to be dictated to.

Despite this announcement’s minimal impact on the measurement landscape, marketers must remain resolute, operating as if third-party cookies are already outdated. Whether you are new to this journey or you have already eliminated third party tracking data from your measurement, Analytic Partners recommends committing to five areas:

1. Pursue a compelling omnichannel view of performance and decision-making. To get a panoramic view of your brand’s success, focus less and less on third-party cookies. Embrace a strategy that spans every channel — marketing, media, promotions, etc. — and factors in trends, economics and the environment to truly gauge your marketing mix’s impact. None of these require third-party cookies; they never have. Instead, marketing, finance and operations leaders must leverage their internal data science team or external insights partners to enhance their model’s capabilities. This includes integrating detailed performance data, analyzing non-media factors impacting revenue growth and developing predictive planning for data-driven decisions.
2. Commit to the optimal pace of decisioning, not the fastest. Based on data from Analytic Partners’ ROI Genome, which aggregates marketing intelligence across over 1,000 brands, the primary drivers of marketing performance are investment levels and creative strategies. Therefore, marketers need to pace their planning to ensure their investments and creative are optimized, their brand is top of mind and they reach the right customers. Leverage forecasting and scenario planning techniques to predict future performance, aid in future investment allocation and build accurate plans to achieve your growth goals. Relying on data-driven decision-making to inform your future investment choices will also help you get the most bang for your buck by identifying areas of media cost savings, while pinpointing the most accurate time to deploy your marketing campaigns.
3. Enable a first- and second-party data strategy. First-party data, acquired directly from your consumers, has become the cornerstone of modern marketing. Utilize your own marketing exposure and sales data to meticulously track and measure the effectiveness of your strategies. Second-party data, sourced through strategic partnerships, provides a wealth of performance-driven insights. Marketers should collaborate closely with publishers and media partners to access granular impression-level data to answer their more tactical questions. This also further powers your holistic marketing measurement models, while reducing reliance on third-party advertising platforms such as Google.
4. Continue investing in cookieless technologies. Despite the establishment of third-party cookies, marketers should persist in adopting cookieless strategies due to the diminishing efficacy of digital signals from cookies. It is crucial for marketers to assess their current technologies to ensure they incorporate cookieless measurement options. Prioritize technologies that leverage first- or second-party data sources, eliminating the reliance on third-party cookies. Look for providers that use more aggregated touchpoint or impression data to understand campaign and program effectiveness. Finally, engage with your partners to grasp their viewpoints on third-party cookies and how they are preparing their cookieless technologies for the future. This investigation will provide valuable insights for developing a robust measurement strategy that mitigates data risks for your organization.
5. Establish testing as a core competency. Testing is a powerful, scientific approach that can concretely prove causality of an event. As you build your measurement strategy, ensure your advanced models measure the incremental impact of marketing on your KPIs. Then, identify areas in your marketing plan where you can create tests to understand marketing efficacy not captured in your advanced models. Start with a clear hypothesis, work with your data science team or measurement partner to build testing parameters, and then monitor and examine your marketing KPIs, like sales lift, to determine if the test was a success you can integrate into your overall decisioning. And best of all? You don’t need third party-based cookie data to create tests.

Measuring marketing efficacy is not enough. Marketers must consider all business indicators that impact marketing efficacy and accelerate business growth. Measurement tools must be embedded with decisioning capabilities that support future investment planning, and a company’s data, technologies and testing discipline must not rely on third-party sources.

Analytic Partners’ forward-looking, business-centric solution is designed to propel our clients towards success. We leverage Commercial Analytics to deliver comprehensive insights swiftly and at scale, and our Commercial Decisioning Platform, GPS Enterprise, is independent of third-party cookies – ensuring future proofing.

Want to learn more about how we’re considering business dynamics with a commercial – and cookieless – lens? 

Get in touch to see how we can propel your company above the competitive set.