A future without third-party cookies?

But what can third parties do with these cookies?

Third-party cookies are thus often used for advertising purposes. For example, Facebook can collect data to allow online advertisers to use increasingly better targeting. Think of search behavior of users, visited websites or even purchases at webshops. In Google Analytics all this data is collected to eventually track how you arrived at the website.

This sounds harmless but beware!

Third-party cookies are useful for advertisers because they collect a lot of data, allowing personalized ads to be created. So much data in fact that it violates the AVG/GDPR legislation. This is also the reason why more and more websites require you to give permission for third-party cookies to be collected. Because of this, Safari and Firefox have already decided to stop using them before, and now Chrome has done so as well.

So how do you get reliable data?

Start collecting first-party data

Despite the fact that third-party cookies are going to be blocked, you don't have to sit still. Marketers can still use first-party cookies to collect data from forms, surveys and other methods. A big additional benefit of first-party cookies is that you own the data collected and your competitors do not have the same data. The data can be better regulated with first-party cookies so that the data can be used with the right user.

Moreover, the reliability of the data is very high and valuable, since you only collect data from your own website visitors. First-party cookies are sometimes seen as the "forgotten cookies," but without a doubt they are becoming more important than ever. Through this data, customer profiles can be compiled more easily. These profiles, in turn, can be optimized for better targeting and personalization.

Anonymous contextual advertising

As the name suggests, ads are shown based on context. With the phasing out of third-party cookies, the advertising channel will be used less. Based on context, a match will be sought between visitors and possible interests. Among other things, you can bet more on content in the form of blog or news article, for example. For example, it is possible to write a blog about recipes and then show ads about kitchen appliances. Chances are this will get clicked on, right? Advertisers can continue to target endlessly by location, age, topic and interests. The benefit of anonymous contextual advertising is that the ads remain relevant and of high quality, and you remain anonymous.

Google Topics API

Google is finally discontinuing its cookie alternative FloC. Instead, the company is proposing the new Topics API, which is a Privacy Sanbox solution for interest-based advertising. This eliminates the need for tracking codes and Google Chrome determines topics and interests for you. The Topics API includes an algorithm that can determine topics and interests on a weekly basis without having to connect to Google servers. Advertisers can then tailor ads based on topics and interests that in turn are linked to user groups. This is AVG-proof because the data is deleted after only three weeks.

Insight into your performance

In the current situation, tracking takes place on the website visitor's side, by placing a cookie. As an alternative, Google has made it possible to send visitor behavior directly to the platform (server side tagging). Platforms provide a click-id that you then send back to the platform along with the user's actions via an API. Google Tag Manager server side has recently become available and is still under development.