Cookies Are Dead: First-Party Data for Your Marketing in the Cookie-less World

Cookies are Dead; well, sort of.

Despite of almost four years of socialisation, Google has been trying to phase out third-party cookies on Chrome. Moreover, they are also dealing with respective regulators to make online advertising as ‘privacy-friendly’ as possible.

This shift highlights the reliance on first-party data, which offers a more reasonable and privacy-friendly approach to understanding customer behaviour.

Companies need to adapt by strengthening their data collection strategies to ensure they continue to deliver personalised experiences without the use of third-party cookies.

In this article, we’re going to have a deep dive on what are cookies, what’s the difference between first and third-party cookies, and how it will affect your marketing day-to-day.

It’s not really “Cookie-less”. So what are Cookies?

However, in reality, Cookies are still around.

We’re still using it on a daily basis, and each Cookie still play a fundamental role on our daily operations.

So what are Cookies? And how does it impact our online activities?

According to the Mozilla Development Network Documentation, A Cookie (or browser cookie or web cookie) is:

“a small piece of data a server sends to a user's web browser. The browser may store cookies, create new cookies, modify existing ones, and send them back to the same server with later requests. Cookies enable web applications to store limited amounts of data and remember state information”

It’s a mouthful, but here’s the TL:DR version; a Cookie:

• Is a relatively small piece of data
• Could be created, updated, deleted by the browser.
• Could be sent to a server by the browser.
• Is remembered and stored within a period of time.

Common use cases of Cookies

In a case of cookies, the most common usage are:

• It remembers your credentials within a website; so you don’t have to re-login every time you visit.
• It remembers your items inside your shopping cart.
• It remembers your preferred site settings
• It remembers you and use the credentials for re-marketing purposes.

First-party Cookies vs Third-party Cookies; Significant Difference

Even though every Cookie might look the same, where the cookies are sent and how it is processed will make a huge difference on how you would track everyone which comes to your website.

For the sake of simplicity, here’s a table of comparison on how both are very different:

Difference First-party Data/First-party Cookies Third-party Data/Third-party Cookies Extra Notes Where data is sent to? To you! To the third-party, then to you. While both are sent to the respective platforms, the data which you receive in a form of first-party-data is as-is. Is data received has been “pre-processed”? No Yes How do you know who is coming to your website? Entirely on user behaviour and form submissions. Based on data gathered by the third-party Does the platform “guess” who the person is? No Yes What is the accuracy of the data? 100%, based on implementation. Less than 100% Because third-party platform pre-processes the data, misattribution might happen with third-party data. Benefits of remarketing with a certain type of data You control the whole remarketing process, since you gather your data. The third-party controls the data instead of you; means, less flexibility.

To make it even simpler, I present you both use-cases about first-party and third-party data below.

A third-party data use case: Google Analytics 4

Have you ever wondered how Google knows what are the gender of the person coming to your website, which age range the person is, or which country the person comes from?

This is because Google re-uses the identification (in this case, cookies) gathered from other website to make an educated guess who the person is and where the person comes from.

Even though the person comes to your website completely anonymous/without submitting any personal information, Google knows who your visitors are based on their gathered information from the entire world-wide-web.

This approach, however, is not without any problems.

Because Google is guessing your visitors identity, your data will never 100% correct.

Third-party data has a huge flaw

Imagine the case of John, who made a purchase on a website (which is not made of yours) through Google Ads in 2017 while residing in Switzerland.

Google's third-party data recorded John's location as Switzerland.

Fast forward to 2024, John relocates to Singapore. However, because Google's data hasn't been updated since 2017, it still incorrectly identifies John as residing in Switzerland.

This inaccuracy can lead to misleading marketing strategies and ineffective decisions; because the data no longer reflects John's current situation.

Do take note that this example is an oversimplification. But the point stays the same, you cannot rely 100% from third-party data, especially for your marketing purposes.

A first-party data use-case: Segment CDP (Customer Data Platform)

In Admiral Systems, we use Segment as our Customer Data Platform to track the movements of our digital platform visitors.

The way Segment works is by collecting data directly from our website and applications through a piece of code we've implemented. This data can include page views, button clicks, form submissions, and even purchases.

Unlike Google Analytics, Segment doesn't try to guess who the user is.

Instead, it relies on unique identifiers we assign to each visitor (folks at Segment call it “Anonymous ID”). This allows us to track individual user journeys across our platforms and gain a deeper understanding of their behaviour without relying on third-party cookies.

For example, we can see that a specific user, identified by an Anonymous ID, visited our blog post on "First-Party Data," downloaded a related blueprints, and then signed up for our newsletter. This granular level of detail allows us to personalise their experience better, such as sending them targeted emails and ads based on their liking.

Conclusion

The phasing out of third-party cookies marks a significant shift in the digital marketing landscape. While it presents challenges, it also offers an opportunity to prioritise a more sustainable andprivacy-focused approach to data collection.

By focusing on first-party data, businesses can build direct relationships with their customers, gain a deeper understanding of their needs, and deliver more personalised experiences. This not only improves marketing effectiveness but also fosters trust and loyalty.

Investing in a robust first-party data strategy is no longer optional; it's essential for thriving in the cookie-less future. Tools like Segment CDP can help you collect, organize, and activate your first-party data, enabling you to personalise your marketing efforts and build stronger customer relationships.

Having a hard time implementing your CDP for your marketing purposes? Reach us out at our Enquiry form and we will get back to you!

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