It’s déjà vu all over again. As we reported last week, Google has once again delayed the complete deprecation of third-party cookies. It will not happen in the second half of Q4 this year, as was previously announced, but the phasing out is expected to be complete in 2025.
The news did not exactly send shockwaves through the industry. Robin LeGassicke, managing director of digital for Cairns Oneil says the agency is not surprised by the delay. “There have been ongoing issues that they’ve been struggling to solve for that can ensure some sort of targeting that is of value but done in a compliant way. That said, we’ve already been transacting in a world where much of the web is cookieless. Browsers outside of Chrome have been that way for quite a while, and we’ve been prepping for and counselling clients on Google’s deprecation since early 2020.”
LeGassicke adds that advertisers shouldn’t be waiting for the last cookie to drop and basing a solution implementation on a moving target date. “Advertisers need to continue to collect privacy compliant first-party data, building out the infrastructure to be able to segment and transact with this data. By doing this, they can also ensure that they are able to build out models to mitigate attribution gaps that cookie deprecation contributes to.”
Brian Cuddy, SVP digital and performance media Canada for Plus Company says, “This decision provides more time for testing of new solutions and we encourage our partners to do so. We are also confident in the CMA’s collaboration with Google to ensure the timing for the change is aligned with industry readiness. As an agency we are prepared and our clients will be continuing on the same path nonetheless, but perhaps with a little less urgency. Also, generally speaking, avoiding a major change in Q4 is always a good thing.”
Media agencies continue to get clients ready for a cookieless world, whenever the final deprecation of third-party cookies happens.
“Whether cookies disappear tomorrow or next year, we continue to work closely with clients to futureproof their digital media to ensure it won’t be affected,” says Erica Kokiw, EVP of digital at UM. “Our approach is threefold. First, we make sure they have a solid testing plan to measure the impact of new cookieless measurement methods. Second, we ensure their technology infrastructure supports a cookieless ecosystem, and finally, we collaborate with clients to evolve their measurement plans to rely less on cookies.”
Sonia Carreno, president of IAB Canada, added: “While the announcement from Google provides the industry with some extra time to work out change management requirements, the industry has accepted the full deprecation of third-party cookies. Several valid solutions are in play and IAB Canada and its members are aware that the delay from Chrome is not a call to re-think alternatives. We must continue to forge ahead with testing and implementations of solutions that allow advertising to leverage consented first-party data sets. With so much momentum behind innovation and collaboration, let’s keep our eye on the prize – the dawn of a privacy-protected ad ecosystem. The sooner we transition, the quicker we’ll achieve scaled solutions.”
