A Cookie-Less Future: What Does It Mean for You?
Google has started moving away from cookies. Over the past few years, it’s phased out third-party cookies — requiring businesses to get people to accept first-party cookies. But now, the company is taking things a step further.
Starting this year, Google will begin removing third-party cookies for Chrome users. So, what does this mean for you, your business, and your marketing efforts?
In this article:
- What does Google’s announcement mean for marketers?
- Google is phasing out third-party cookies on Chrome
- What will replace Chrome cookies?
- How should marketers prepare for third-party cookie restrictions?
- Marketers: want better reports for Google tools?
What does Google’s announcement mean for marketers?
If you’ve visited any website in the last few years, you’re bound to have received a message similar to the one below. This is a website asking for your permission to cookie your browser. The purpose of a first-party cookie is to improve user experience, collect analytics, and keep login information — as well as deliver ads if the company is running them.
First-party cookies are made by the website that you visited. And it’s only for that host domain.
Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are cookies that were created by third parties — as in NOT the website that you were visiting. The purpose of these were many-fold. For example, they could be used for retargeting. They could also collect data from different data sources, or they could help with ad serving.
For a long time, there’s been a push to phase out third-party cookies. This is partly due to the fact that users want more privacy over how their data is used and has led many browsers — like Mozilla and Safari — to stop using them. But the biggest change to cookies is coming this year.
Google is phasing out third-party cookies on Chrome
Google is probably putting the final nail in the coffin of third-party cookies with their latest updates. Starting this year, it will begin phasing out Chrome third-party cookies.
The main reason for phasing out Chrome cookies? The Privacy Sandbox. The purpose of the Privacy Sandbox is to create technologies that protect people’s privacy and help companies thrive in the digital space.
The goal is to make everything online safer and more private for everyone, but that doesn’t mean that the transition is going to be easy. Google has stated that the rollout will take place over several months in 2024, but that also doesn’t mean that you can wait until the last minute — like many marketers did during the GA4 rollout. It’s better to start working with your developers on a rollout plan now.
What will replace Chrome cookies?
This is what marketers really want to know. According to Google, the new feature will be “Tracking Protection”.
While there isn’t much information available as of yet — since it’s still being implemented — Google calls it “a new feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default.”
Currently, the feature is only being rolled out to about 1% of Chrome users. Once it’s rolled out, websites won’t be able to load third-party cookies. The users who do participate have the option of turning on third-party cookies if the site won’t load without them, but even that is only for a limited amount of time. According to the demo, it’ll be about 90 days until cookies are limited again.
Users can click on the “eye” in the search bar to open up Tracking Protection. From there, they can select whether they’d like to allow third-party cookies on a particular site.
And that’s about all we know about this new feature. As it’s rolled out to more people, companies and marketers will better understand how it’s affecting their website, its usability, and their advertising.
How should marketers prepare for third-party cookie restrictions?
Well, for one, you’re going to have to prepare for what’s to come. Google has created a step-by-step guideline for marketers to help them transition.
This includes:
- Learning about what the phaseout means and its rollout timeline.
- Doing an audit of your cookies.
- Testing your site to determine what will happen without third-party cookies.
Google already has a lot of literature on what the phaseout means so the most important step for companies and marketers will be to audit their cookies. Within the Chrome DevTools Network, there’s a feature that allows you to see cookie usage. But this tool is mainly designed for developers and is a bit complicated to use.
But if you do use Chrome DevTools, you can navigate to the Privacy Sandbox panel and analyze any cookies on a site. Here, you can see the behavior of your third-party cookies and the number of them.
On the other hand, the Privacy Sandbox Analysis Tool is a Chrome extension that you can download from the Chrome Web Store.
Once installed, you can go to any site, click on the extension, and it will show you the cookie usage on the site. But you won’t be able to see the actual cookies, just the number and functionality.
If you select Enable CDP, a debugging browser will appear at the top. This will indicate whether there are any issues with the cookies on the site.
Once your cookies have been audited, you need to create your plan for the phase-out. The testing phase helps you understand how your cookies will react if they’re blocked. This can help you determine if you need to change functionality on certain pages. Google has a line of code that you can use for testing your site.
In short, if you haven’t started migrating away from third-party cookies yet, you need to start now. If not, your site might not function as it should, and it could affect your marketing efforts. Since Chrome is the biggest browser out there, you need to prepare for this massive update — ASAP.
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