Cookieless : Alliance Digitale publishes two guides on activation and measurement without third-party cookies.

The end of third-party cookies in Chrome is still not planned for 2024. Initially scheduled for 2022, then postponed to mid-2023, then to 2024, the removal of cookies was, in April, postponed once again. To 2025 this time. The time for the owner of the browser, Google, to obtain the green light from the British Competition Authority (CMA) for the deployment of its alternative solution to cookies, la Privacy Sandbox, which does not yet seem quite ready.

However, don't wait until 2025 to prepare and adopt the existing alternatives to third-party cookie collection and targeting, as emphasized by Paul Leperchey, Head of Data at Publicis Media and one of the two "Leads" of the Adressability working group of Alliance Digitale: "We see the pitfall on the agency and advertiser side, thinking that the cookieless topic will only start in 2025. But that's not the case at all. It's an issue that has impacted us for many years, both in terms of addressability and measurement, which literally alters the advertising performance for our clients," he explained during a conference organized by the association on June 12th. "Everyone must actively start using solutions that have long existed and can compensate for the deterioration of the standard that third-party cookies represent."

To illustrate the urgency for advertisers to pivot their models, two working groups from the Digital Alliance ("Adressability" and "Cookieless Measurement") compiled data on the impact of third-party cookies on addressability. Margarita Zlatkova, Head of Data & Programmatic Advertising at Weborama and Lead of the Cookieless Measurement group, stated: "Beyond Firefox and Safari, which have not used third-party cookies for some time and represent over 40% of addressable inventories, 20-30% of Chrome inventories are also no longer addressable due to lack of consent." She added, "This leaves only 30-40% of maximum addressable inventory with third-party cookies, making it increasingly difficult to reach unique individuals." In summary, Margarita Zlatkova explained, "60% of internet users are no longer reachable by third-party cookies. Focusing solely on the remaining 40% means missing out on a significant portion of the market and potential prospects for campaigns."

A panorama of cookieless targeting solutions

In line with the IAB's guide on the future of advertising targeting without third-party cookies, the Adressability group of Alliance Digitale has updated its panorama of alternative targeting solutions. This guide, designed as a toolbox, presents 36 solutions (and how they work) divided into three categories: identity solutions, cohort-based solutions, and contextual solutions. The goal is to enable each advertiser to choose the right combination of tools based on their specific objectives.

And to recall the definitions of each set of solutions: Identity solutions (IDs) are divided into two categories: deterministic (using data that directly identifies the user) and probabilistic (where information about the targeted user is inferred or modeled). LiveRamp, FirstID, theTradeDesk, ID5, Utiq, and Lotame are among the players in this category. Cohort-based solutions "group thousands of individuals based on common behavioral affinity, interests, and sociodemographic characteristics." Google’s Privacy Sandbox is one such cohort-based solution. Finally, contextual solutions "focus on the content of the pages viewed by users and the environment in which the advertisement is displayed." Among the players in contextual solutions are Oracle, Weborama, Sirdata, Seedtag, Implicit, Qwarry, and Teads. Originally published on E-marketing.