A cookieless world will threaten the effectiveness of some advertising channels—specifically those that survive off third-party cookies alone. But ultimately, advertisers will decide their fate based on where they spend their money.
We worked with YouGov, a reputable, long-standing member of the research world, to survey advertisers about how they feel as we approach a cookieless world. That includes whether or not they plan to move their spend and where it will go. Two channels rose to the top.
Survey Says Advertisers Will Move Their Money When the Cookie Dies
Over 200 decision-makers in advertising and marketing from companies with at least 100 employees were surveyed. Most weren’t ready for Chrome to deprecate the cookie.
Only 25% felt completely prepared for the cookie phaseout, and 46% agreed with Google’s decision to delay it.
When the day finally comes to say goodbye to third-party cookies, 44% of advertisers expect to shift their advertising spend to different channels. Search and native advertising channels were ranked as having the strongest potential to provide better performance and a high return on investment.
3 Advertising Channels Advertisers Can Count On
Search and native channels feel like a safe space for a reason—they are. They naturally collect a rich set of signals that give your campaigns a good chance to perform well.
1. Google Search Ads
Search data is naturally a very clear intent signal. A consumer chooses a keyword to enter into a search browser—which means you know what that consumer wants to see without a doubt.
Advertisers then bid on those keywords, and ads are shown based on the context of those keywords rather than guessing what the consumer wants to see based on the user’s browsing history. That’s what happens when you target using a third-party cookie.
For example, when you search for “snow boots” on Google, the ads are based on that keyword’s contextual signal. Therefore, you see the ads for snow boots that won the auction.
When you run a search ad, you run an ad based on something a consumer is actively asking for. This signal won’t change when the third-party cookie is removed from Chrome.
2. Native Social
Consumers send a diverse set of intent signals on social platforms, too. The data that powers your ads isn’t just about how consumers interact with other ads.
It’s also about signals from the content people post, their engagement with other people’s posts, and interactions with the network.
Those algorithms are working to provide an engaging user experience by choosing what to recommend overall—an ad or an organic social post.
When ads like these show on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, they are chosen in context with the broader user experience, not just past behavior related to other ads.
Plus, users are almost always logged in when using social media websites, making most of these first-party signals, which are straightforward to collect. This won’t change when the third-party cookie dies.
3. Native on the Open Web
Taboola is a native advertising platform for the open web. Like social platforms, we recommend both editorial content and ads to consumers on publisher websites to provide an engaging user experience.
We work with many of the world’s best-known websites, such as CNBC, MSN, USA Today, and many more. But we also work with small websites, blogs, and niche magazines.
We own the code that we place on our publisher partner’s web pages, which allows us to create a rich ecosystem of first-party data and intent and interest signals from which both our advertisers and publishers benefit.
Take a hypothetical consumer, Steve, for example. He’s clicked a headline on NBC News about stock prices but quickly bounced. Next, he clicked another article about sports and read it all the way through. When he finished, he clicked an Expedia ad, like the one pictured below.
Taboola sees all of these signals and uses them to recommend both organic content and ads to Steve across our 9,000 publisher partner sites.
By working with Taboola directly, Expedia takes advantage of our first-party data learnings, intent signals, and contextual awareness from our entire Publisher and Advertiser network to deliver performance at scale.
Go Beyond First-Part Data
While first-party data and learnings are a must-have in a cookieless future, they aren’t a complete cookieless solution. Taboola is investing in new technologies and partnerships to address key marketing use cases at scale.
- Get the most out of first party data from Sandbox and alternative identifiers where they exist. We’re working with Google’s Privacy Sandbox and other data providers to build audiences you can leverage for targeting, retargeting, and attribution/reporting in compliance with the privacy standards consumers demand.
- Deliver results even when first-party data isn’t available. New Predictive AI tools have the power to connect first-party data learnings with diverse signals from multiple sources to increase scale while still delivering results.
Taboola remains uniquely positioned to help you thrive. In addition to first-party data, our technology leverages contextual targeting to deliver personalized content and advertising, ensuring seamless audience engagement and superior performance in a cookieless future.
Get Prepared for a Cookieless World
As an advertiser, you may not feel fully prepared for the transition to a cookieless world—you’re not alone. Only 25% of advertisers feel completely ready for this change and 44% of advertisers like you are already anticipating a shift in advertising spend to different channels, with search and native advertising seen as providing better performance and return on investment.
Don’t procrastinate and start preparing for a cookieless world. Not sure how to get started? Check out our Best Practices focused on helping you make the most of what you can do today to set yourself up for success.