The upcoming changes to third party cookies mean marketers, agencies, brands and clients need to reset how they measure customer activity. Here, Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, Paul McCrory, Group Industry Director for Facebook Australia and Jonathan Waecker, Chief Customer Officer of The Warehouse Group NZ explain how these changes are a chance to rebuild, learn, and inspire further collaboration across the board.
2020 was a pivotal year for the Internet. While more and more people flocked to businesses online, many voiced higher expectations about how the industry protects their privacy.
In order to address these issues, some of the fundamentals of online advertising are being reconstructed. And with events moving fast, those late to strategise for these changes will find it harder to catch up.
In 2020, Google Chrome announced it would be the final web browser to enact the new policy that limits or blocks the use of cookies, following the likes of Safari and Firefox. These changes are set to be implemented by 2022.
Following this announcement, to meet regulatory changes, Apple announced several new policies. These require users to opt in to tracking across mobile operating systems, meaning app developers will need to ask some users for permission to measure their activity.
Understanding the new cookie-free landscape
In simple terms, these impending changes mean businesses will no longer be able to track people who visit their websites. If you are a fashion retailer, for example, the ability to retarget someone based on a previous clothing purchase will disappear.
Facebook advertisers who do not adapt to these changes may experience higher acquisition costs as they will ultimately revert to relying on clicks for optimisation.
For many, it’s a game changer. That’s because the secret sauce of online advertising performance has always been personalisation. The industry now needs to find new ways to achieve that personalisation without compromising privacy.
These opportunities for change should not be viewed as an afterthought or a small update to a business, but as an important addition to a new strategy for success.
Paul McCrory, Group Industry Director for Facebook Australia, believes these changes are going to come around faster than we think, and stresses the new opportunity to bring all members of the C-Suite together to understand the opportunity and take action.
“It’s important now more than ever for agencies and marketers to understand the changes they are facing. Businesses need to grasp how they connect with consumers in a relevant way and deliver ads that measure campaign performance.”
One solution for marketers to consider is the Facebook Conversions API tool, which has the ability to maintain insights into consumer behaviour even in the new ad ecosystem.
According to McCrory, this tool is not just a pixel replacement, but is Facebook’s new mechanism for sharing offsite customer activity, allowing advertisers to determine what information is shared, and how it can be used.
“For businesses heavily invested in web conversions campaigns, Facebook’s Conversions API tool creates a way to connect with Facebook directly from your server. In other words, Conversions API reduces your reliance on cookies as an advertising mechanism, while still respecting people’s privacy,” McCrory explains.
For Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, the difference with these impending updates is they affect the entire industry, not just a siloed few. Collaboration across the industry and within cross functional teams, she believes, will be key to thriving in this new landscape.
“Often we have industry changes that impact one part of the supply chain. This will impact everyone - agencies, marketers, lawyers, cross functional teams and other stakeholders, so we have to work together in the reset,” she says.
The Warehouse Group’s Chief Customer Officer Jonathan Waecker echoes this advice. He notes that during his business's recent digital transformation, the focus was largely on making sure C-Suite and different business functions were in the loop to understand any new challenges.
“My biggest partners are peers like our CFO, our Chief Product Officer, our Chief Digital Officer, and our Chief Sales Officer. So getting all of us understanding the metrics we want to use and measure, that was one of the most important jobs.”
The Warehouse Group is one of New Zealand’s largest legacy retailers, owning over 260 stores across its multiple umbrella brands. Despite the scale of the undertaking, Waecker and the leadership team understood the need to shift its focus to the customer and measuring activity.
“When we thought about how digital fits into it, we couldn’t just make it a thing on the side. It had to be the epicentre of everything we're doing,” he says.
Waecker brings in first hand experience of transitioning to engage with technical solutions, such as the Facebook Offline Conversions API and Conversions API. For him, the number one advice is not to treat it as an add on.
“Lean into your teams, agencies and platform partners to understand how it fits into delivering on a full customer journey or full customer mission,” he says.
Privacy and personalisation
Facebook’s McCrory says in a post-cookie landscape, respecting privacy and consent will continue to be at the forefront of minds for businesses.
“Leading businesses must innovate their data practices now to meet people’s expectations around relevancy and privacy. While collecting first-party data will be the golden goose, marketers need to take into account that consumers are only going to get more savvy with the way companies handle their data,” he says.
As consumers migrated to the digital landscape following stay-at-home restrictions, digital marketing experienced rapid growth. McCrory says to continue to engage with customers in this oversaturated ecosystem, marketers need to create seamless and personalised experiences.
“Accenture’s 2018 study, Making it Personal, showed 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognise, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. While 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to enable a personalised experience,” he says.
Le Roy believes changes to how marketers can measure consumer activity via third-party data will also create new opportunities.
“This is a chance for marketers and agencies to spend time challenging their own thinking and re-educating themselves. Marketers, particularly over the next year are going to have to be incredibly focused on growth. They’ll have to get back to where they need to with short term sales, as well as longer term brand growth,” she says.
The key to success with these changes, Le Roy says, is relying on the many resources that are available for everyone across the industry.
“Ask the right questions and reach out to people, particularly your partners. There will be opportunities to replace what we have lost. We just have to find new ways of measuring and assessing that activity,” she says.
Facebook’s McCrory believes as we head closer to the demise of cookies in 2022, the key will be collaboration across the industry and setting up transitions early to get a better understanding of what these changes will do.
“For agencies and marketers, one of the best choices you can make is to use the partners available to make any transitions as smooth as possible. Partners that specialise in technology, migration, customer awareness, or conversation data will be able to help strategise the new way of connecting with customers,” he says.
Following the changes to cookies and privacy policies, the industry will rebuild together. New regulations and guidelines will invariably be set up for regulation around customer measurement and activity, all while respecting consumers' privacy and feedback. Those that make the transition early won’t be left on the back foot come 2022.
For more information, download Facebook’s digital one-sheeter on Conversions API here.
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