The digital advertising landscape has always been marked by rapid evolution and sudden change. However, these dynamics have accelerated over the past year. Google's recent decision to extend support for third-party cookies in Chrome (despite years of advising the market to prepare for their deprecation), looming privacy changes, and the sudden departure of significant players in the ad tech space have left many marketers feeling uncertain about their ability to execute successful omnichannel campaigns in such a volatile environment.
While it's natural to feel apprehensive in the face of change, marketers in Australia need not worry about the future of global omnichannel marketing. With trusted audience data, personalized marketing across channels—even at a global level—remains achievable, whether or not cookies are part of the equation. Here’s what marketers need to know.
The Rise of Personalized Omnichannel Experiences
Today's consumers expect to be valued across every interaction they have with a brand. Nearly every Australian switches between devices throughout the day, expecting a consistent experience with a brand regardless of the platform. According to one study, 90 percent of Australian consumers expect seamless brand interactions across their multiple devices. Brands that implement effective omnichannel strategies can retain up to 89 percent of their customers.
Moreover, 62 percent of consumers expect their interactions with brands to be personalized. Brands that deliver on this expectation can see an increase in sales.
Meeting these simultaneous expectations for omnichannel consistency and personalization cannot be achieved through third-party cookies alone. While third-party cookies will still be useful on Google Chrome for now, they have not been relevant on other popular browsers for years. Today, Chrome accounts for about 55 percent of browser usage in Australia, meaning that the remaining 45 percent of traffic is happening on browsers that are effectively cookie-less. This includes:
- 29 percent – Safari users
- 8 percent – Edge users
- 3 percent – Firefox users
- 5 percent – Other browsers
Do Australian marketers really want to ignore the nearly half of internet users who are operating on cookieless browsers today? This percentage is only expected to increase, as Chrome users also gain the option to opt out of cookie tracking.
Additionally, cookies do not work—and never have worked—in crucial channels like audio, digital out-of-home (DOOH), mobile, or connected TV (CTV). To succeed in an omnichannel, personalized world, marketers need a combination of cookies and alternative IDs, coupled with a robust approach to audience data and enrichment.
A Harnessing Audience Data in a Privacy-Centric Era
Maintaining privacy compliance and addressability is more critical than ever for advertisers. Fortunately, today’s leading data providers offer innovative and privacy-centric datasets and tools that enable advertisers to continue reaching and engaging their target audiences, even as regulations and platform policies evolve.
High-quality, reputable audience data that classifies consumers based on their brand affinities, offline behaviors, demographics, lifestyle interests, and more is essential for targeting users across the channels where they spend their increasingly fragmented time. The key is identifying data partners who offer privacy-compliant audiences in the markets that matter to your brand and at a quality level that will help you achieve your key performance indicators.
Interoperability is crucial to the viability of audience data. If a dataset is only linked to third-party cookies, that can quickly become a problem. Such data will not support advertising within mobile environments or other essential spaces like connected TV. This points back to the need for advertisers to approach their data resources from a holistic, ID-agnostic perspective. The more alternative consumer identifiers that power a dataset, the more viable that data will be in delivering true omnichannel targeting.
Privacy-centric personalization is achievable—with the right audience data. New regulations will emerge, and digital platform policies will evolve. However, the right audience data partner will enable marketers to continue delivering successful omnichannel personalization, no matter what challenges arise.
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