At the beginning of 2021, digital media experts considered third-party cookie deprecation to be one of their top challenges. It looks like it will remain a challenge for the next couple of years. Per data from Lytics, more US marketing decision-makers believe that the deprecation of third-party cookies will have a large impact in 2023 than believe it will in 2022.
The survey of more than 250 US marketing decision-makers representing companies with more than 250 employees reveals that close to 9 in 10 (86%) rely on data from third-party cookies for their marketing or advertising. This is also evident from other research that shows that about half of senior marketers say that third-party cookies are very important and make up a majority of the data their company uses.
Added to that, more respondents believe that the deprecation of third-party cookies will have at least a large impact on their campaigns in 2023 (56%) than in 2022 (50%).
Adjusting for Lack of Third-Party Cookies
To compensate for the lack of third-party cookies, respondents will be making adjustments to their advertising campaigns. Most are planning to spend more on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Amazon and Google (62%) — the same companies that already account for close to two-thirds of total US digital ad revenue this year.
Respondents also plan to spend more on their own channels, such as email and their website (51%). And, while many advertisers are diverting some of their linear TV budgets towards CTV advertising, almost half (49%) of respondents plan to spend more on TV advertising due to lack of third-party cookies.
Of course, these changes will also affect organizations’ data strategies. Many respondents believe they will be working more closely with an ad/buying agency to test new technologies (54%), while others will need to research new ways of reaching audiences (49%) and will need to learn new systems or software (47%).
Using First-Party Data
Unsurprisingly, third-party cookie deprecation has made first-party data more valuable than ever in marketing, with 92% of respondents agreeing as such. Marketers are already using first-party data to create more personalized content on their website, predict customer behavior and create more personalized content in their email.
Although advertisers are making efforts to enhance their first-party data, the survey shows that first-party data strategies are being hindered by factors such as needing to create a holistic view of the customer, lack of data and insufficient data collection and insufficient data quality.
Even though the majority of marketing decision-makers are prepared to phase out third-party cookies, there are still some who are either not prepared to phase them out (14%) or are not sure if they are (17%). Some of this hesitance might be because almost half anticipate that the end of third-party cookies will have a very large (18%) or large (29%) impact on their marketing ROI.
About the Data: Findings are based on an October survey of 256 marketing decision-makers from US companies with more than 250 employees.
