{"id":22583,"date":"2023-12-22T19:45:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/library\/googles-privacy-sandbox-punt-shouldnt-slow-your-cookieless-preparations"},"modified":"2024-09-17T10:17:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T10:17:42","slug":"googles-privacy-sandbox-punt","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/blog\/googles-privacy-sandbox-punt","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s Privacy Sandbox Punt Shouldn\u2019t Slow Your Cookieless Preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this summer, Google sent shockwaves through the digital marketing world by announcing that it would not phase out third-party cookies beginning in 2022<\/a> as it previously planned to. <\/p>\n

Safari\u2019s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)<\/a> and Firefox\u2019s Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP)<\/a> have already stopped supporting third-party tracking and third-party cookies. Google\u2019s Privacy Sandbox<\/a> was initially scheduled to stop supporting the privacy-invasive third-party cookies beginning in January 2022 to be in alignment with Apple and Mozilla. <\/p>\n

Now, Google Chrome is expected to phase out third-party tracking in two stages that will not be complete until late 2023, nearly two years after it initially intended to. <\/p>\n

If Google was playing American football, it just opted to punt the ball and put its defense on the field until late 2023. Google is buying time<\/a> after it \u201cbecame clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right\u201d.  <\/p>\n

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Why Google Punted<\/h3>\n

Google\u2019s \u201cecosystem\u201d is an interesting one and can help us understand why it punted its phase out. <\/p>\n

Google has multiple irons in the fire \u2014 it operates both a browser and an online advertising platform\u2014 and has business relationships with tens of thousands of businesses across the globe. If Google Chrome (the browser) stops supporting third-party cookies, Google Ads (the online advertising platform) likely suffers.<\/p>\n

Not only does Google Ads likely suffer, the companies who rely on Google Ads will suffer as well. In 2019, there were over two million accounts on Google Ads<\/a> and in 2020, Google was the biggest provider of search advertising on the market. <\/a><\/p>\n

The delay certainly buys Google time to figure things out but also buys a large amount of businesses around the world time to make more long-term plans regarding the eventual loss of third-party cookies. <\/p>\n

While companies like Bloomreach customer musicMagpie<\/a> have already begun to prepare for the new privacy-centric web, many companies are still in the process of figuring out their plan for changes to third-party tracking. The postponement will allow many businesses to continue relying on third-party tracking through Google Chrome for important marketing strategies like retargeting while brainstorming what is best for the future. <\/p>\n

But, if you are a company like musicMagpie<\/a> that has already begun extensive work on your cookieless future…<\/p>\n

The Time for Cookieless Efforts is Now<\/h3>\n

This feels a bit like being back in grade school and working on a semester-long project that is very impactful for your class grade. You spend a great deal of time planning and working on the project, only to have your teacher postpone the due date a few days before it was due. <\/p>\n

Frustrating? Perhaps. Is all of the work you did on your project for nothing? Absolutely not. <\/p>\n

Like the school project example, efforts to make your company\u2019s marketing strategy privacy-centric are not in vain. You have not wasted your time figuring out how to stop relying on third-party cookies and third-party tracking despite Google\u2019s surprising announcement. <\/p>\n

Online data privacy concerns are on the rise amongst consumers<\/a> and fines for failing to comply with data privacy laws and regulations<\/a> have skyrocketed as well. Those two facts alone are reason enough to examine the care your company\u2019s marketers are taking with collected customer data. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to understand the market share that Google Chrome has amongst browsers. According to compiled data<\/a>, it is far and away the most used browser worldwide. 
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But it is not necessarily the runaway winner on every type of device. Safari, which does not support third-party tracking, is beginning to challenge Chrome on mobile devices and has nearly overtaken Chrome on tablets. <\/p>\n

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It will be interesting to monitor these numbers moving forward to see if they adjust at all based on Safari\u2019s decision to stop supporting third-party tracking and Google\u2019s decision to continue supporting third-party cookies until late 2023. <\/p>\n

How Customers Are Accessing Your Website<\/h3>\n

One of the most important reports your business can have in helping to plan for a privacy-centric future is knowing how your customers are accessing your ecommerce site. This is particularly important over the next 2+ years as different browsers will support different capabilities with third-party tracking. <\/p>\n

Below is a snapshot of the browser share breakdown of an unnamed Bloomreach customer. It does not match the overarching data. <\/p>\n

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Approximately 61% of sessions are already affected by the changes to third-party tracking. If this company, or any company with a percentage of sessions even close to this number, did not have a plan in place for the loss of third-party cookies, it would see significant changes in its ad reporting and in other key areas. <\/p>\n

A direct side effect of this would be losing connections with returning customers because of the browser\u2019s inability to recognize repeat visitors. This would also eventually negatively impact a company\u2019s bottom line and cause a loss of revenue as well. <\/p>\n

Bloomreach Engagement Provides a Proven Cookieless Solution <\/h3>\n

Bloomreach Engagement<\/a> is the solution needed to combat changes to third-party tracking and third-party cookies. <\/p>\n

Our CDP + marketing automation solution<\/a> will allow you to unify all of your customer data and deliver connected customer experiences all with a single solution. Most importantly in this situation, it allows for users to have outstanding data hygiene. <\/p>\n

Your company\u2019s data hygiene is of the utmost importance in 2021. Maintaining data quality in a cookieless world and reconstructing that picture of the customer again is crucial to continued success. <\/p>\n

The CDXP helps with this in two ways: server-side data ingestion and server-side conversion tracking. <\/p>\n

With the combination of Tracking API and front-end tracking, Bloomreach can ingest additional clean data from your back-end so that data can be used in an actionable way for connecting with consumers.<\/p>\n

Server-side conversion tracking exists primarily to enable sending of conversions via back-end to strengthen the conversion signal to optimize your campaigns and give you a clear idea of campaign performance. <\/p>\n

Server-side conversion tracking also gives your company complete control over the conversion data shared with ad networks such as Facebook, Google, or a different affiliate partner. It will help ensure that your campaign performances remain consistent. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking to begin or continue your preparation for the changes to third-party tracking, Bloomreach has you covered: <\/p>\n