Cookie Policy changes affecting Online Marketing in 2023

Why is Google Discontinuing Cookie Data from 2023?

For many years now marketers have been working on a data-driven marketing model on the internet.

This model provides customer data to marketers in the form of cookies on the internet, which record customer activity on a particular website or application.

However, with rising concerns around the privacy and security of customer data, browsers are now doing away with the cookie model.

With the introduction of iOS 15, Apple managed to provide its customers with more control over their data and their activity on the internet. This means that customers can decide whether or not they want a particular application to track their activity.

According to reports, Google, which has the largest penetration for search engines and its Google Chrome browser, will be removing third-party cookies from its model to protect customer data.

In simple terms, this means that marketers will no longer be able to track customer activity on the internet and therefore may not be able to remarket their products and services to these customers.

What Are Browsing Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that identify a user’s device.

Once downloaded onto a device on a particular network, they enable web servers to store stateful information, such as login information and saved items in a shopping cart. They can also track users’ browsing activity, including buttons clicked, time spent on a webpage, pages previously visited and more.

What Are the Concerns?

Over the years, there have been rising concerns around customer data being manipulated for retargeting purposes through the use of third-party cookies.

Customers are often over-targeted with advertisements relating to something they have previously searched for on the internet.

Concerns increased when customers were already past the point of purchase in their buyer’s journey, yet continued to be heavily targeted with advertisements for the same product.

With the introduction of GDPR three years ago, more internet users are becoming aware of their privacy rights and are concerned about protecting their personal data from marketers.

How Does It Affect the Luxury Hotel Industry?

Working in the luxury hotel industry, we come across many customers who research hotels before their visit and leave without taking an action on the website or a particular webpage.

Luxury hotels will not be able to track visitor activity on their websites, which may reduce the scope for research and development aimed at improving websites and delivering a better customer experience. These customers may also no longer be targeted with hotel offers and products before making their bookings.

What Can Be Done?

For a very long time, marketers have depended on third-party data to reach their audiences on the internet. However, with changes to cookie policies, a new plan of action must be implemented while taking a step back from this approach.

While third-party data will no longer be accessible, first-party data will become the key solution for online marketing approaches.

Essentially, first-party data is what the name suggests. Data collected directly from the source and with the consent of the user is known as first-party data.

This can include a name, telephone number, email address and other details, but only when the customer has allowed a particular website or application to record this data in advance.

While this will reduce the amount of data available to marketers, it will produce more relevant information and create an opportunity to build greater customer loyalty.

The collection of first-party data will create more transparency between customers and marketers or brands, therefore providing a better online customer experience.

Opting into email marketing campaigns and retargeting advertisements will become a requirement. Without a customer’s permission, brands will not be able to access or use their data for marketing purposes.

Over time, luxury brands will be able to build higher-quality customer relationships, target people more effectively and recommend products that make a difference to their lives.

Aró Digital Strategy is a creative web design and digital marketing agency with over 20 years’ experience, specialising in delivering technology solutions. We work in collaboration with our clients to improve their customers’ experience while adapting to new cookie policies to protect customers and provide effective online marketing solutions for the foreseeable future.

Follow Aró Digital Strategy on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for more industry news.