Major shift with the new Google’s privacy initiative
Attention Business Owners & Marketeers in 2024
Google is acting to discontinue the process of all cookie tracking by the end of this year.
Goodby Cookies
Welcome Privacy
Starting from January 4, Google will start testing a new feature called Tracking Protection. This feature will help protect the user’s privacy by limiting the amount of information websites can collect about him/her.
This feature will be gradually introduced to 1% of Chrome users worldwide which is equivalent to 30 million people. The main goal of it is to reduce or delete third-party cookies for all users by the latter half of 2024.
However, this is dependent on resolving any remaining issues related to competition that have been raised by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Starting today, many users will be moved to Google’s new data tracking process that is more respectful of user’s privacy. This will be a significant change in how advertisers track user’s activity on the web.
So, Chrome users of the test will start to see a new notification when they open the app.
By doing this, Google is changing how it tracks user’s activity on the internet. And that will stop the use of cookies that help advertisers to show ads based on their interests. Instead, Google will group users into categories based on their interests in a way that protects their privacy.
This means that advertisers can still show their ads to groups of people who are interested in their products, but they won’t be able to target specific people based on what they’ve done on different websites.
This will urge advertisers to start looking to other means and methods which can help them to identify user’s interests in a company’s products and services while searching on the web.
This change will likely result in ads that are less effective, which means advertisers will spend less money on web publishers. This could lead to a worse web experience for users, with more generalized ads. Additionally, it may become more expensive for businesses to show their ads to the right targeted people.
However, Google is committed to moving forward with its data privacy initiative. This will require marketers to experiment with different approaches to understand how to use Google’s Sandbox tools most effectively. This new phase of experimentation will help them maximize their effectiveness while protecting user privacy.
No doubt, that more data control is quite important, but the changes that Google, as well as broader shifts at Apple, and via EU regulation, will change the rules of the game of targeting users by personalized related ads based on their interests, behavior, and past activities while browsing the web. This will move things too far in some respects, like moving from optional filters to broad-scale changes.
Let’s have a look at how cookies’ role was in helping marketers target specific audiences with related and personalized ads.
A cookie is simply a piece of code that is stored on your computer when you visit a website. This cookie aims to track your behavior and help the website remember your preferences, behaviors, interests, and any previous activity you have taken on the website. Such captured information by the cookie allows you not to enter again the same information to get back to that website, and all this happens when you simply accept the cookies policy.
By accepting the cookies policy, you also will be helping digital marketers to target you with highly relevant personalized ads based on those interests, and behaviors you have shown on the web. The information that is stored by these cookies is about your age, gender, location, interests, and behavior on the web page, search engine, and social networks.
For example, if you visit a footwear website and look at a certain product, cookies will remember what was your interest or behavior and then you will be started to show ads for that specific product on any other website you visit.
What Should Advertisers Do Now to solve the problem of targeting people on the web?
As a marketer, I’m sure how worried you are by knowing how Google’s plan to phase out cookie tracking by the end of 2024 and how this will badly affect your campaign.
But don’t worry! There are still other ways to track user behavior and measure conversions.
Let me take you through these lovely ways:
- Pixel Code: You still can use the pixel code which continually collects data about user behavior on the web. So, as an advertiser you can use online tools to access the gathered data, analyze it, and then find out how many users converted, when they converted, and much more information which will help you understand again the user’s behavior, and interests.
- Conversion Tracking: You can use conversion tracking, which helps you to track user behavior and measure conversions across different platforms.
I’m sure that by using these tools, you will still be able to optimize your campaigns for conversions and reach your target audience even without the favor of cookies.
Steps to use the pixel for tracking the data:
- Create a pixel account via your ad platform’s dashboard.
- Install the pixel on your website or other digital properties. You can do this by adding a small piece of code to your site’s header or footer.
- Once the pixel is installed, it will start tracking user behavior on your site. You can use online tools to access the gathered data, analyze it, and find out all the information you might need regarding how many users converted, when they converted, and much more.
Steps to use conversion tracking data
- To track conversions, you need to define what a conversion means for your business. This could be anything from filling out a form to making a purchase.
- Once you’ve defined your conversions, you can set u conversion tracking. This will allow you to track user behavior and measure conversions across different platforms.
- Now you can use the data you have gathered to optimize your campaign for conversions and reach your target audience without relying on cookies.