When the Cookie Crumbles
3 steps to prepare your organization for the deprecation of tracking and third-party cookies
By Michelle Wimmer and Dil Singh
Both Apple and Google are center stage recently in the conversation about online data privacy as it relates to the deprecation of tracking and third party cookies. But what is exactly happening? What does it all mean? What are other organizations doing? How can your organization prepare? Don’t worry, we have guidance for you.
What is exactly happening?
Apple is getting serious about data tracking. Recently Apple announced that its ID for advertisers (IDFA) will begin prompting mobile users with a message that enables them to block cookies before using an app. Google is doing something similar. Within Google’s Chrome browser, tracking of third-party cookies will no longer be allowed. Timing on these releases has been a bit up in the air, but we know changes are coming in the near future.
What does it all mean?
Data privacy is a topic that spans across organizations in a complex manner. With recent legislation efforts, it can no longer be ignored. Every business has both an essential obligation to protect data and an imperative to give more personalized and meaningful experiences to those interacting with its brand. Unless organizations work with technology partners and determine a new strategy to deal with the depreciation, they will be left in the dark.
What are other organizations doing?
Right now Slalom is working with a number of organizations that are putting together plans on how to deal with the deprecation of tracking capabilities. Each of these plans is unique in nature to address the specific needs of the organizations, which range from pharma to high-tech. We’ve seen first-hand that this process is not simple and requires organizations to get a head start if they wish to maintain the dependencies they have on tracking.
How can your organization prepare?
We offer three steps to get you started.
1. Take an inventory to understand your organization’s dependencies on cookies and tracking.
We recommend that organizations first inventory their online traffic to understand the potential impact of Apple and Google’s changes. This will include understanding how many of your visitors typically use a Chrome browser and how many are using apps on Apple phones. Having this as a baseline will help you determine the overall impact these changes will have specific to your business. We estimate it will impact roughly 70% of your visitors combined from Apple and Google.
Next, look to understand advertising dependencies. By this we mean that organizations should quantify the amount of their online advertising that is reliant on tracking to support tactics like retargeting, look-alike modeling, and other third-party targeting. How important are these tactics for your organization, and what percentage of your media budgets are typically allocated toward these tactics?
You also need to assess how reliant your organization’s digital properties are on cookies for personalized experiences. For example, do you use any third-party cookie information to show tailored product or service recommendations to customers on your website or in-app?
Finally, you need to determine what will happen to your organization’s analytics capabilities when tracking capabilities are diminished. Based on your existing analytics platforms, what can be done in a cookieless environment?
2. Prioritize risks.
Using the inventory taken above, your business will need to identify specific risks associated with the depreciation of the tracking capabilities. What are the largest risks posed and the business impact?
We recommend approaching this with a short, medium, and long-term risk assessment—and then dividing this further into various levels of effort to understand how risks can be addressed.
3. Develop partnerships and devise a viable solution.
Once you have an understanding of your dependencies on third-party cookies and tracking capabilities—and the business risks associated with these capabilities going away—a mitigation plan comes into play to set your organization up for success.
You will need to assess and select appropriate technology partners to devise ways to mitigate the risk based on your unique needs. This involves a thorough analysis of partners at the forefront of these technology changes. These partners should have insight and capabilities to address privacy and measurement.
After the assessment and selection of partners, then the implementation and rebuilding of tracking can begin.
To sum up, the landscape of technology is quickly changing, but that’s nothing new. Slalom can help your organization think about tracking depreciation challenges and develop solutions that prepare you for the future of meeting your data privacy and advertising business goals. Let’s talk!
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