Introduction
As the world increasingly adopts a cookieless approach, brands need to adapt their marketing strategies to future-proof their ad spends. Some of the opportunities within this new framework include targeting more specific audiences through probabilistic behavioural segmentation, reallocating ad spend to channels that don’t rely on third-party cookies and using in session personalisation to build relationships with customers.
How can brands prepare for a world without third-party cookies?
The strategies for future-proofing your strategy are straightforward and largely dependent on three main factors: first party data, in-session personalisation, and probabilistic behavioural segmentation.
Whether you’re a publisher or an ad tech company that relies on third-party cookies to serve ads, there is no reason to panic. While the EU’s new regulations will affect how consumers interact with publishers and brands online (for example, by limiting their ability to share information across different devices), these changes have created opportunities for marketers who can leverage their first party data in innovative ways.
For example:
- Use first party data for targeting – Enabling us to match up users visiting only one site versus those who visit multiple sites in order to create segments based on cross device behaviour across all platforms in our network.
- Use in-session personalisation – While this won’t work well if you only target users who have seen an initial impression (e.g. banner) before visiting your site because they cannot see it again without cookies being present on their machines at that point (and thus not triggering any additional impressions), we can still use it when those impressions happened sometime ago but were stored locally on each client machine without being sent back up into our systems until now.
- Use probabilistic behavioural segmentation – Probabilistic behaviour tracking allows advertisers/brands using first party cookie matching technology like ours through third parties like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics etc!
Reallocation of budget in ad spend
- First-party data: The first thing you need to do is get your hands on more first-party data. This is the easiest way to make sure that you’re targeting your audience with the right message at the right time. It also gives you a chance to personalise your campaigns and improve attribution rates.
- In-app visits: People spend over 90% of their time using apps, so it makes sense that this would be an important channel for marketers as well! It also allows marketers to reach users while they’re actually using their device instead of waiting until later when they’ve left something like Facebook open all day long on someone else’s computer or phone (which means it’s less likely those ads will even be seen).
First party data becomes more important than ever
First party data is the holy grail of digital advertising. It’s more accurate, more personal, more relevant and timely, it’s secure and actionable. There’s a reason why first party data has become such an important asset for marketers to leverage in their marketing strategies.
First party data can be collected from your website or app when users interact with it by either clicking or viewing content on certain pages. This information includes what type of device they are using (smartphone vs tablet), their location in real time if they have GPS enabled on their smartphone so you know how many people are visiting from a specific area around the world at any given time which helps determine which markets should be targeted for advertising purposes based upon geographic locations where there is high traffic volume coming from versus low traffic volumes going into those same markets – similar to how people used maps back in ancient times before maps were digitised!
In session personalisation
In a cookieless world, the first party data you collect from your users is going to become even more important than ever. You’ll need to be able to take that information and use it to personalise the experience for each individual user.
This allows marketers and product teams alike to build algorithms that can automatically filter out non-relevant data and give users an experience that’s tailored specifically for them.
Once these models are built, they can be used in real time so that every interaction with your brand feels personalised – no matter what device or channel the user is accessing your site through!
Probabilistic behavioural segmentation
This is where behavioural segmentation comes in. You can use data to determine which customers are most likely to purchase, churn or become inactive. You might find that certain segments of customers behave differently – for example:
- A certain demographic may be more likely to purchase new products than an older demographic.
- Customers who have purchased a product previously are more likely to buy again than those who haven’t.
- The same applies for churning; if a customer has churned once, they’re less likely to come back as loyal customers.
Data ownership
- First Party Data is More Valuable. If you own your first party data, it means that no one else does and that you’re the only one who can use it for marketing purposes.
- First Party Data is More Accurate. Your first party data is more accurate because it’s coming directly from you and not someone else’s third-party database or platform. No need for manual intervention or faulty algorithms when dealing with first party data!
- First Party Data is More Secure (and Private). Because the data comes directly from YOU and not another source, there are fewer chances of getting hacked, which means less risk of leaking sensitive information about your customers (or potential customers). Plus, since this information belongs to YOU instead of some third party company who may misuse or exploit it against YOUR interests—you have complete control over what happens next!
- First Party Data Is Actionable + Personalised: You know exactly where each piece of information came from so if something goes wrong then you know exactly how to fix it because nothing else matters except those three words: ‘me first.”
Conclusion
All of these trends spell out a future where consumers are more in control of their data than ever before, but that doesn’t mean brands need to be left behind.
In fact, there are plenty of opportunities for brands to use this opportunity proactively to build better relationships with their customers and bring more value to their marketing strategies.
