Google Turning off Third-Party cookies From Chrome
The digital giant is confident to sustain the ad-supported world while turning the cookies archaic.
The company today announced its plans to phase out third parties cookies within two years from its popular Chrome browser. The move comes as digital advertising is seeing drastic changes in how ads are bought and sold. Other popular browsers like Apple’s Safari with 56% market share already have implemented similar measures to safeguard users’ details. This move doesn’t come as a surprise since Google’s announcement around privacy in Chrome, including ‘Privacy Sandbox’.
StatCounter data states that Google Chrome has a 69 percent market share on desktop and 40 percent on mobile. This aggressive timeline put the company on a track that will surely affect all facets of the ad industry.
Justin Schuh, Google’s director for Chrome engineering said, “This is our strategy to re-architect the standards of the web, to make it privacy-preserving by default.” He further adds users are demanding privacy and the web ecosystem needs to evolve with greater demands. Google’s team is also working on preventing fingerprinting among other things.
Cookies were once the base of targeting users through programmatic advertising, but with the use of ad blockers and users clearing the cookies hindered the effectiveness. The ad industry then found a new way ‘fingerprinting’. This involved using the information of the user’s browser coupled with the user’s unique browser settings to build a unique profile of the user without using cookies. The unique settings are the plug-ins, IP address, fonts, and extensions installed by the users. This information is used to create a profile of the user, which is used to target them with ads through programmatic without using cookies.
Impact on the publishers and ad industry
Starting this February, Google will implement techniques to limit cross-site tracking by imposing its new SameSite rules and third party cookies can only be accessed with an HTTPS connection. In the next two years, Google plans to completely remove third party cookies from Chrome which marks a significant change for the advertising industry and publishers who highly depend on marketers to track users across the web. Google’s answer to this is “privacy sandbox” which would allow advertisers to show relevant ads and allows users to share as little information about themselves and their browsing history as possible.
Google in its blog says it is confident that Privacy Sandbox “can sustain a healthy, ad-supported web in a way that will render third-party cookies obsolete.” however, industry players suggest this will only enhance Google’s strong plans.
At present, Chrome’s competitors are taking radical steps to block third-party cookies. It remains to be seen how this will turn out in the future as a lot of ideas are still in pipeline. It will be interesting to how the industry will take the change given Google’s own role in advertising. Google needs to get this right to keep the web ecosystem healthy.
These two global giants leverage Coronavirus to boost sales- A notable case study in rapid response marketing.
The ongoing spread of new coronavirus strain ( 2019nCoV) has been declared a global emergency by WHO and some companies whose products can help to prevent the spread are reaching out to consumers using rapid response marketing.
The outbreak of a new coronavirus from China is making headlines worldwide. Procter & Gamble’s Clorox, which makes cleaning products made a landing page discussing 2019-nCoV on its site. The page provides basic information about the disease and links Clorox products which can be used to disinfect the surfaces on which the virus might live, as their products demonstrate effectiveness against similar viruses. Clorox page claims ” per the EPA Emerging Pathogen Policy, these products can be used against 2019-nCoV when used as directed.”
Similarly, competitor Reckitt Benckiser owned Lysol also has a page on the site giving information about 2019-nCoV and linking its cleaning products used to disinfect the surfaces to prevent the spread of the virus.
SEO Effect:
Clorox or Lysol, none are linked to these pages from prominent locations on their site homepages or promoting on social media. This shows that clearly the page was designed keeping SEO in mind.
However, it is not possible to estimate the returns Clorox or Lysol will generate from these targeted pages but already are ranking high for searches related to ‘coronavirus’ or ‘disinfect coronavirus’.
Clorox and Lysol practices are worth considering for brands looking to use rapid-response marketing from event-driven opportunities.
Simple and Straight
Pages on 2019-nCoV are simple and straightforward with minimum efforts. This allowed the companies to publish pages quickly so they could get indexed and start appearing in the SERPS.
Take advantage of Primary Domain
Clorox and Lysol published their pages on the primary domain taking advantage of the domain Using existing sites is favorable initially instead of building microsites in rapid-response marketing.
High Authority Links
It is worth noting that both companies strategically are including high authority links such as the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Technically, this improves the utility of the page for visitors and makes it easier for them to have access to all important information from a trusted source where chances of misinformation are high.
Risks
Rapid Response marketing involves high risks. For example, Clorox and Lysol run a risk of providing inaccurate information or accused of taking advantage of the intense and serious situations to sell their products which might explain why they are not active on social media to address coronavirus.
Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA) took over the hand Sanitizer company Purell regarding the health claims it made on its site and social media platforms. FDA does not allow hand sanitizer brands to make claims of prevention of disease and believed Purell was doing the same. Therefore, the parent company, GOJO had to take immediate action.
All health companies when selling products runs certain risks but companies using rapid-response marketing need to identify the associated risk beforehand and work them out.