If you haven’t already heard, Google announced way back in the beginning of 2020 that it would be phasing out all third-party cookies on its web browser, Chrome, by the beginning of 2022. Now that we’re in 2022, I thought it would be a good time to review this announcement and what it means for your PPC (pay per click) campaigns.
Table of Contents
- What Are Third-Party Cookies?
- Why Should We Care About Chrome?
- How to Run PPC Campaigns without Third-Party Cookies
- What Are Google’s Motivations?
- Get Creative with Your PPC Campaigns
What Are Third-Party Cookies?
You might already have a vague understanding that cookies have to do with tracking user behavior online, but if you’re unclear on the difference between third-party cookies and first-party cookies, you’re not alone, so let’s break it down.
First-party cookies track what users do on your website. Every time you log into your Google Analytics account to see how much traffic your website got, how long people stayed on your website, which pages they visited, how many pages they visited, etc. – all that is tracked using first-party cookies, which are unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon, so you can still use them to monitor traffic on your own website.
Third-party cookies track what users do, not only on your website, but all over the internet. It tracks what other sites they visit, what they’ve viewed on those other sites, as well as the purchases they’ve made. If you’ve ever looked at an item on one website, only to see an ad for that exact item on another website, that was the result of third-party cookies.
Why Should We Care About Chrome?
Firefox and Safari had already phased out third-party cookies, and multiple laws had already been passed restricting how marketers and advertisers could use people’s data, if not outright banning the tracking and collection of that data, which might leave you wondering why people are making such a big deal over the absence of third-party cookies on one browser.
It’s because Chrome has more than half of the web browser market, and more than half of the website traffic in the world takes place on Chrome. That means that online marketers and advertisers could still use third-party cookies to gather data on more than half of internet users and use that data to create more targeted ads.
How to Run PPC Campaigns without Third-Party Cookies
Google has suggested the use of a “Privacy Sandbox”, which would allow marketers to continue creating highly targeted ads, but users’ information would be collected in groups so as to maintain privacy for individuals. The Sandbox would also keep users’ information on their devices, rather than their accounts, which will further protect their individual privacy.
This means marketers will still be able to run targeted PPC campaigns to groups of people who have shown an interest in a specific search term or a competitors’ website.
Marketers have also been leveraging information from first-party cookies to identify their audience and run PPC campaigns targeting them.
What Are Google’s Motivations?
While it might be nice to think Google has our best interests at heart in making this transition, that seems unlikely from a company that has been built on our personal data. Instead, marketers have pointed out that a ban on third-party cookies, while maintaining first-party cookies, creates a reliance on Google’s Chrome for running targeted ads. Is Google protecting our privacy or eliminating the competition?
Getting Creative with Your PPC Campaigns
If you’ve been running PPC campaigns that rely on third-party data, it’s time to get creative and think about other ways you can identify and target your ideal audience. Google’s Privacy Sandbox provides one solution, but it’s also a good idea to keep up to date with changing regulations. If there’s a chance of a new law being enacted that could cut you off from the data you use to run campaigns, it’s a good idea to both keep abreast of that information and to constantly be thinking of ways in which your marketing strategies and PPC campaigns could be made foolproof.
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