Future-proofing your digital measurement for the post-cookie era

Abstract

After Google’s most recent announcement1, third-party cookies are expected to be fully deprecated from all web browsers in mid-2023, when market-leading Google Chrome joins Apple’s Safari and other browsers in no longer recognising the bits of code placed on web browsers that help companies understand consumer behaviour across the internet. As such, the trusted open internet will lose its current basis for advertising campaign measurement and attribution. The primary way in which advertisers and publishers currently derive insights into ad effectiveness will go away, impacting everything from how brands decide to spend their advertising budgets and grow their businesses, to how publishers fund themselves and survive in the future and how valuable the internet is for consumers around the world. Despite the extended timeline (the change was originally scheduled for January 2022), the countdown is still on for the industry to adapt. So, what will the future of advertising on the open internet look like? How will consumer consent be recognised and success be measured? And what actions do advertisers need to take now to get ready for the change? This paper will address important factors to consider, and why identity solutions, consumer privacy and first-party data should be at the heart of advertiser contingency plans.