How the cookie crumbles

Author

Tim Axon

Published

17 July 2024

I hate to be a scaremongerer, but I’m gonna….

Only 2% of brands are currently harnessing a mix of experimentation, marketing mix modelling (MMM), and attribution for measurement.

AND

Only 51% of marketers feel prepared for the demise of third-party cookies

These are the findings of WARC’s latest Future of Measurement Report. Whilst it was only announced recently that Google is delaying the end of TPCs – again – rest assured this is only a temporary reprieve. It is coming!

In the absence of TPCs, website experimentation and optimisation will become even more important for brands than they are now.

Why?

Because without cookies, obtaining direct insights from how people interact with your website or app becomes more crucial. By implementing controlled experiments on your website, you can gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour and preferences, informing more effective website adjustments and enhancements.

Experimentation enables marketers to test different user experiences and identify what works best with their audiences. This could involve tweaking website design, modifying navigation paths, or adjusting content placement—all aimed at enhancing the user journey and potentially increasing engagement and conversion rates. We’ve just done some amazing work with Kansino where we increased monthly revenue by over 10%. We engaged customers with a new in-app feature that recreated the in-person experience of gaming and then experimented with its positioning on the app.

Moving forward as Google moves to eliminate third-party cookies, exploring new technologies and methodologies like Privacy Sandbox or first-party data strategies through website-based experiments will be critical. These experiments help determine the effectiveness of alternative tracking and engagement strategies in a controlled environment, allowing for refinement before broader rollout. Whilst sophisticated analytics can be used to provide insights that drive better decision-making.

So there you have it. If you aren’t prepared for a cookie-less future, it is by no means too late. But make sure that experimentation and optimisation are part of your armoury!

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