Cookieless internet? Are we ready?

Source: Unsplash/ Christina Branco

Today we are talking about Oreo´s and Chips Ahoy... Not really, just kidding.

Yes, we are talking about cookies, but not the ones your mom or grandma could cook. These are less eatable. 

As a user of blogs and web pages, we suppose that when you enter one of these, an ad appears saying that if you accept the cookie policy that it has. It is common to accept things on the Internet without reading the fine print. Most of us look for what we want, take it, and then leave the page; however, cookies take something from us in exchange for this.

Don't panic; breath. It is not like you have sold your soul to these companies. In fact, you are only offering information about your consumption patterns.

Accepting the cookie policies allows these brands and even applications to trace our behavior when buying on the network. They will not watch you through your laptop's camera, and you don't need to cover it.

This is why if you search for dog leashes on Amazon, ads for dog leashes appear "magically" on Facebook, nothing mysterious. It is just the cookies doing their job.

While some may look askance that they "monitor" your behavior as a consumer on networks and web pages, the idea of a cookie-free internet comes up without spying on our data as a customer.

So, we are ready for a world without cookies. Well, let's examine this topic in more depth.

Is the Cookieless internet good for marketers?

Short answer, no it isn't. In fact, it is not good for consumers either.

Cookies are used to collect information about our customers, and with no cookies, our fount of data will be basically extinct. More likely, if we have no cookies on our blog or website, it gets a little bit harder to get information on what specific products do you want so that companies can offer them to you faster.

Let´s look at it from a content creator perspective. The creator gets their articles, art, or other valuable information on their website. Your payment to get all this knowledge and entertainment offers the company information about your preferences and products you like.

Source: YouTube.

So without cookies, it gets harder for companies and online businesses to track their target audience, and, as a consequence, they start to get less money.

If you get 10 dollars a thousand as a publisher, with no cookies, you would be receiving 5 dollars a thousand, which means less money in the ecosystem, less content, and smaller webs, damaging the chances of improving.

If there are no cookies, only big companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google will have the right information about customers since they have the biggest data pools on the world wide web. That leaves marketers helpless, and they will start to depend on these 3 big companies to get the data they need to understand their customers.

Although it sounds crude, cookies are a way of paying for content offered "free," Without these tools, web pages that offer blog or video content will have to start charging for them to access their pages.

What is the future for Cookies?

Google has announced that by the year 2022 3rd party cookies will no longer be used to track the web browsing of its audience.

First-party cookies are ads created by the website's developers, while third-party cookies are ads from other websites or services that seek to redirect you to their page.

Google has been the last to join the cancellation of 3rd party cookies, as web browsers such as Firefox and Safari have blocked this online marketing strategy.

Part of these processes has been applied since creating bodies that protect private information, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the body in charge of data protection throughout the European territory.

Removing the 3rd party cookies represents a decrease in revenue for Google. Even so, setting the rules of its own game, the multimillion-dollar company has decided to implement another method to keep track of its users: The FLOC.

Although one would think that Google thinks to respect the privacy of its users, the Federated Learning of Cohorts model allows this company is to group consumers into cohorts according to their tastes and preferences. In this way, businesses cannot get personal information about individual clients, but all are relegated to a specific group. This directly affects online businesses since the parameters of the cohorts do not give as precise information on how they can redirect the ads to their target audience.

Source: YouTube.

Are cookies bad for customers?

This is a tricky and polemic topic, and everything depends on the user's opinion.

The main problem with cookies lies in the invasion of our privacy. Certain investigations have shown that events as important as the elections in the United States have been affected by information sold by Facebook, which makes users panic who feel guarded.

While cookies are the perfect tool for marketers to understand our audience, it is up to the consumer to decide the limit to which we can interfere with their tastes and preferences when buying.

It is fair to say that not all cookies should be demonized. In fact, 1st party cookies are the most honest since the owner of the website provides them. Things get a little tricky when we talk about 3rd party cookies.

In an article on the generations, we see how the youngest are more carefree with the information they deliver since they feel that their needs as consumers will be better satisfied. Meanwhile, older people like Baby Boomers and Generation X are pickier when sharing personal information.

The fact that cookies are bad or not really depends on each customer and every opinion should be respected. In this article, we share this video from YouTuber R E A, talking about internet privacy.

Source: YouTube.

Are we ready?

Well, the truth is that, like it or not, it is practically decided that the future will be almost cookieless.

Marketing without tracking the behaviors of our users feels like a more complicated step to understand our audience. However, the moral dilemma about the privacy of our users weighs quite heavy on this discussion.

FLOC is a solution that many marketers are not pleased with, as placing audiences in too general groups renders their ad efforts invalidated.

Like any marketing specialist, the only thing we have to do is adapt to the changes that are coming and see how we can advertise fairly and effectively to take our business forward.

Tell us, what is your opinion about cookies? Do you feel that your privacy is invaded?

Leave your comments below!!!!!

Feel free to contact us to see the unprecedented growth of your business.

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