Studies show that small businesses in Singapore were less affected by the COVID-19 crisis compared to their contemporaries in other parts of Asia, and that’s wonderful news. However, we can’t deny that not all small businesses could mitigate the effects of the pandemic since they didn’t have as many resources as bigger companies.
Another study found that Singaporeans spend over twelve hours on their phones every day, and you can imagine that that number rose as people are compelled to stay home as much as they can. These and more are reasons why business owners can’t afford to neglect digital marketing in a landscape that’s constantly changing and evolving.
One of the key changes that are being proposed nowadays is moving towards a cookie-less world, where advertisers and marketers need to find ways to get their campaigns across without access to third-party cookie data. This presents multiple challenges for brands and agencies because there will be less clarity surrounding the values, priorities, and shopping behavior of our target markets. It will be even more challenging to validate the effectiveness of their campaigns. It also makes it even more difficult to provide relevant offers to their audience since algorithms will be out of commission, and customers will no longer be shown personalized ads.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to get around this impending change. Here are some of them.
Programmatic advertising
Programmatic advertising is all about providing brands and clients with real-time, automated buying and selling of ad spaces on the internet. It makes use of a highly advanced artificial intelligence (AI) platform, with the help of a sophisticated algorithm that identifies the winning bid and automatically publishes the ads in as short a time as milliseconds. This strategy is incredibly convenient because it does away with repetitive paperwork, tedious negotiations of contracts, and several back-and-forths between the publisher and advertiser.
But because of Google’s announcement that they will slowly but surely deprecate the Chrome cookie system until its complete eradication in 2022, people have proclaimed the certain death of DMP as well. But this is not necessarily true—DP can still work, even if the end of non-consented data promiscuity is upon us. The end of third-party cookies will usher in the era of a more manageable partnership between privacy compliance and brands and marketers’ goals and objectives.
Instead of seeing this change as a threat, it can be an opportunity for brands, marketers, publishers, and their technological tools and platforms to invest in finding and managing consented data. As time goes on, we might even see security engines, consent, and governance built-in as basic capabilities of the DMP.
A cookie-less world need not be an enemy; it can be an ally. Businesses will benefit greatly from employing the services of reputable programmatic advertising agencies that have keen insight into this upcoming change and how it will affect the world of digital marketing.
First-party and second-party data
Even though third-party cookies are on their way out, first-party data remains, and it’s still a powerful tool that we can use to our advantage. Marketers automatically know where the data comes from, which means we’re not breaching privacy or using information against people’s consent and will. Even though it may be smaller in scope than second and third-party data, it’s still an effective tool that brands and marketers can use to gain insight into their customers and audience.
One example of first-party data is registration, which is all about encouraging users to register their own information themselves, whether for newsletters, product updates, or promo announcements. Some business websites even offer users and visitors numerous chances to register with the promise of a better user experience.
The same can be said for second-party data, which can be gained when advertisers purchase the information and data directly from the agency or company that owns it. In many cases, second-party data is other companies’ and businesses’ first-party data. This factor provides clearer and more accurate information for your business, all while giving you more control over the parties and people you work with. It’s one way to ensure that all the data you receive is of the highest quality and there is transparency from the parties you’re working with.
While this change presents more challenges for brands and marketers, it’s all an opportunity for the digital marketing industry to work more ethically and give the people the privacy they deserve. As long as we rise to any change and work with the most skilled and strategic marketers, our businesses can continue to thrive despite a third-party cookie-less world.