What will a post-cookie world look like?

Is Google going to kill Cookie Monster? No. Well, kinda.

In late 2023, Google Chrome will switch off third-party cookie tracking. And since nearly 65% of people use Chrome when surfing the web, this will have a huge impact on digital marketing. So, how will marketers adjust to this seismic shift?

First, let’s define cookies for those who need clarification. Then, we can look at how brands can survive, and even thrive, without them.

What is a cookie?

Invented by Lou Montulli in 1994 while working for Netscape, cookies are unique identifiers placed on a user’s web browser. They are required to access many websites, and more than one cookie can be used on a user’s device during a session. Third-party cookies have been a standard way of tracking website traffic since the earliest days of the world wide web.

And now, Google is effectively killing them to bring greater transparency and privacy to the web. In a world where there is more privacy and less tracking on the internet, organizations need to change how they extract, transform, and load their data.

What will the web look like without third-party cookies?

Finding viable alternatives to cookies will not be easy, but it will be necessary. But how do you even get started?

Marketing teams will need to embrace data automation solutions that can help them increase their volume of first-party data and help them identify alternative identification methods, including email addresses, IP addresses or device identifiers.

Teams will also be able to extract, transform and load (ETL) this first-party data into a usable, clean, and trustworthy data warehouse. But that will not be enough. Indeed, moving massive amounts of data from point A to point B without actionable intelligence (I call this first-generation ETL) will not solve their problems in a post-cookie world. They will still need to make sense of their data sets, not just move them around.

Implementing intelligent first-party data strategies with data automation and analytics will be crucial to optimize and personalize customer experiences while ensuring data security and relevant advertising opportunities. In this way, consumers will get more privacy, choice, and control over how their data is used, and marketers (who embrace data automation and analysis) will still be able to make strong business decisions based on consumer data.

So in reality, Cookie Monster won’t starve to death. He will just need to change up his diet.