Google Delays Third-Party Cookie Depreciation Again – More Time to Prepare?

Google has announced that they will be delaying the sunset of third-party cookies for Chrome until 2025. Originally penciled in for the end of 2024, exactly when this could happen in 2025 is yet to be determined. 

The start of the end for third-party cookies became a “real thing” when Firefox and Safari blocked their usage back in 2020. This means that they will no longer be stored by these web browsers.

If you want to know what third-party cookies are, then jump to this section. 

Why Has Google Faced A Delay?

The choice to delay proceedings can be attributed to three key reasons:

1. Challenges and Scrutiny: 

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – a UK body – has raised concerns about the decision to remove third-party cookies and feels as though the delay allows them more time to review the implications. The boards biggest worry is how this will impact Google’s competitors; there is concern that this decision to end third-party cookies has been made to prop up their own advertising business at the expense of other web advertisers.

Consolidation of market power in favor of Google is what the CMA is desperately trying to avoid. They believe that without third-party cookies, publishers will struggle to successfully monetize their websites. 

2. Preparation Time:

It comes as no secret that marketing and advertising agencies rely heavily on Google’s third-party cookies to measure their campaigns. Now that cookies are slowly being transitioned out of practice, a lot of these agencies feel like they’re in the dark in terms of what alternative they need to use going forward.

According to the latest Future of Measurement report from WARC, just half (51%) of marketers are prepared for the eventual end of third-party cookies.

WARC attributes these statistics to a lack of awareness and overall knowledge of what alternatives there are to using third-party cookies. In a cookieless world, marketers will need to find new ways to connect with customers and build trust with them so they continue to opt-in to sharing information.

The level of uncertainty surrounding what happens after third-party cookies means a further delay is only a good thing for marketers, as it’s clear more time is needed to outline a clear plan of action once cookies are deprecated. 

3. Google’s Privacy Sandbox Initiative

For Google, the ultimate motivation behind removing cookies is to replace them with their own Privacy Sandbox Initiative. This initiative aims to allow websites to access user information without invading privacy, enabling online advertising by sharing user data without using third-party cookies.

However, this initiative has faced some harsh criticism from experts who believe this will negatively impact marketers. Jeff Green, CEO of the Trade Desk, argues that the Sandbox Initiative is too complex and will lead to poor user experience for Chrome users: 

“I think it’s not fully understood by more than ten people on the planet. Without either cookies or publisher authentication, advertisers won’t value those ad impressions nearly as much.” Jeff Green, CEO, Trade Desk

Also, as aforementioned, the CMA wants to conduct a thorough investigation of Google and its Sandbox Initiative to make sure Google isn’t releasing an anti-competitive product.

In essence, if anyone benefits most from this delay, it’s Google themselves. It is clear they need more time to test the technology behind Sandbox while receiving feedback from industry stakeholders and regulators. 

What are Third-Party Cookies? 

To not reinvent the wheel, I’m going to borrow Timo Kovala’s (one of our expert authors) description from his “Cookieless Future” Guide:

“Third-party cookies are a text file that is stored in your browser used for identifying your device as you browse a website. That’s the simplest way to describe them but it also helps to compare them with first-party cookies.

“First-party” means that the cookies are placed on your browser by the same website that you are on, whereas third-party cookies are placed by a completely different website from the one that you are browsing.

Without third-party cookies, online advertisers essentially lose the ability to target anonymous website visitors based on their behavior. Examples of third-party cookies include:

• Marketing automation tools that place their tracking cookie to record engagement with marketing assets, such as page visits, etc.
• Social media platforms place their tracking cookie when you visit an online store which allows platforms to serve you targeted ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

​​However, first-party cookies alone do not allow you to create audiences for advertising. For this, we need to first convert our anonymous visitors into identified prospects. Once a visitor submits a web form, they are no longer simply a device with a cookie – they are a real person with a name, history, preferences, and attributes.”

Preparing for the Third-Party Cookie Depreciation

In light of the gradual phasing out of third-party cookies, some actions needed to be taken regarding Salesforce marketing tools. As Google is the world’s leading search engine, you could argue that us marketers now have more time to finalize changes to our technologies. 

Take Account Engagement (Pardot), as an example. The “First-Party Tracking” mechanism has been around for some time. We remember speaking with one Marketing Champion a few years back, who exclaimed “Why aren’t more people talking about this?!”. 

First-party tracking means that Account Engagement (Pardot)’s web tracking is moved from the go.pardot.com domain to your company’s specified tracker domain, e.g. www2.companyname.com. There are three high-level steps to implement this. Again, you should check out Timo’s guide on how to set this up.  

Support from CDPs

While we have no data on the uptake of this setting, we do know that the conversation around CDPs – like Data Cloud – has ballooned in the past two years. Using Data Cloud, or similar, will enable you to get more leverage out of your first-party data from multiple sources, as opposed to keeping first-party data in silos. 

Your MarTech Stack

Although the enablement in Account Engagement (Pardot) is relatively straightforward, this doesn’t account for your whole marketing tech stack. While you may not be responsible for every aspect, once again, Timo’s comes to the rescue with a checklist for your company, which includes commentary to the following questions: 

• Which third-party cookies does your website use currently?
• Are the third-party cookies relevant to your business?
• Is your advertising reliant on third-party cookies?  
• Are your reports based on third-party tracking?
• Do you need to update system preferences to enable first-party tracking?

If you haven’t already reviewed these questions as a team, now is the time to do so. 

Summary 

Google have faced severe scrutiny for their decision, but are sticking to their guns despite the need to further delay the process. Is the Sandbox Initiative a step in the right direction, or is this only going to negatively impact marketers and users going forward?

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below!