Navigating a Cookieless World

By creating intrusive and annoying ad experiences, brands broke the trust of consumers. Want proof? How about the fact that 34.6% of global consumers opted in for iOS14.5 within weeks of the update rollout.

While cookie deprecation brings new challenges, it also creates an opportunity for brands to regain consumer trust. Now is the time for the industry to band together to create better ads and use marketing strategies that enhance the online experience.

Brands Must Put Consumers at the Heart of Advertising:

Privacy updates and cookie restrictions are born out of consumer concerns for how their data is being used. For too long, consumers have been served ads that cover the content on a page or have been retargeted for products they’ve already purchased.

Brands need to consciously work to create a more positive online experience. A 2017 study found that 65% of global consumers think advertising is valuable when it aligns with their interests and is seamlessly integrated into online content.

Using First-Party Publisher Data

As marketers begin planning for a cookieless future, first-party publisher data becomes increasingly valuable and puts publishers in the driver’s seat for future solutions to target and personalise ad experiences. Ad-tech companies are building new tools for participating publishers that give brands easier access to consumer data by aggregating and distributing first-party customer insights.

At Rakuten Advertising, we’re seeing that publishers are quite open to collaborating and sharing their data – so long as there is a mutual benefit. What is needed now is for brands to prioritise building stronger, more collaborative relationships with publishers to better leverage and optimise the objectives they have set out to deliver during all phases of the purchase journey.

Context vs Data

Contextual advertising has long been a proven marketing strategy. And based on consumers’ desire to be shown ads aligned with their interests, it’s one of the most valuable strategies at a marketer’s disposal in a cookieless world.

Privacy legislation and browser cookie policy changes mean that the usefulness of data provided by cookies is dropping, making context equally, if not more important. For example, a brand that partners with cashback publishers knows the context of where they are appearing, the audience demographics, and the consumer’s mindset when visiting the site. The brand doesn’t necessarily need to target specific people within the audience, as long as they appear contextually relevant. This enables the brand to create an ad experience that isn’t intrusive and enhances the consumer experience.

Let Rakuten Advertising make cookieless an opportunity for your business instead of a hindrance. You can get better results by doing what marketing is supposed to be about: pleasing customers and delivering messages in the right way, in the right place, at the right time.

For more information about cookieless, iOS14.5 or advertising strategies, visit rakutenadvertising.com and speak to an expert.