As the digital marketing and advertising world braces for the impact of cookie deprecation, developing strategies to collect and activate first-party data should be a top priority. First-party data can play a crucial role in helping MadTech companies adapt to and mitigate the effects of cookie deprecation.
While the timeline surrounding cookie deprecation is in a constant state of flux, MadTech companies can find their footing in an uncertain future by developing strategies to take control of their data. First-party tagging offers a more privacy-friendly and sustainable approach to data collection and advertising in a post-cookie world, empowering both advertisers and website owners to adapt to changing regulations and consumer expectations.
This post shares insights, predictions, and advice for developing a future-ready first-party data strategy, straight from the top minds in data technology across our Aqfer teams.
How should MadTech companies prepare for the near-term deprecation of the third-party cookie?
Develop resources to help customers recognize the impact of cookie deprecation on their businesses and evaluate Google Privacy Sandbox capabilities to determine the best approach to enabling support for customers’ use cases.
MadTech companies should be investing in solutions like partitioned cookie control, StatID and advanced graph management.
Optimizing Bid Requests with SSP partners by utilizing auction techniques & accessible datasets to increase match rates.
Developing a more robust statistical cluster identifier that has the ability to persist over time, and which can stitch together edges with a multitude of different first-party cookies under a common cluster. Partnership will be key. MadTech companies should offer commercial integrations with other data management and identity resolution platforms in order to provide more robustness with higher probabilistic matching.
What are the most impactful uses of first-party data in a post-cookie future?
There are a few important use cases. Targeting or NOT targeting customers outside owned media is a big one. And the ability to stitch together different datasets around customers to provide a 360 view.
A majority of consumers want to receive personalized experiences from brands and without first-party data that will be very difficult to do. Specific to tagging, persistence, and durability of the tag will also be very important in order to establish a first-party identity spine.
Optimizing strategies using first party data to improve personalization with transparency and consent to ultimately strengthen brand loyalty and customer relationships.
The most important uses of first-party data contribute to applications that drive long-term competitive advantage. Applications include media trading based lowest-latency, activation of audience segments based on first-party data, and measurement frameworks based on first-party data that allow the enterprise an information advantage in identifying qualified and receptive prospective customers.
What are your predictions for the next 5 years around the role of first-party data and tagging in MadTech?
As tracking visibility becomes more and more obscure, and identity resolutions become harder and harder to conduct, I think we’ll see those who have the ability to adjust quickly to the new first party tagging environment, will gain a larger and larger market share. There will be winners and there will be losers in this game.
Brands will focus on building and resolving first-party identities across devices and channels. Deterministic and probabilistic identity resolution techniques will be used to create a unified view of the customer and enable seamless experiences.
There will be an increase in registration data (eg, email) across both advertisers and publishers that they can resolve on. I expect to see services like Unified ID becoming more prominent.
I believe the next 5 years will see an increased investment in data quality and governance shifting towards prioritizing privacy-compliant tagging solutions.
From Insight to Action
Google continues to delay the Cookiepocalypse timeline – but your company can’t afford to wait to adapt to a first-party future. This post shares a small glimpse into what our team of first-party experts is capable of. Partner with Aqfer to develop future-ready solutions to help your company thrive in a world without third-party cookies. Click here to learn more about how Aqfer can help you collect and activate first party data.