The end of cookies: the start of a war of independence for digital advertising players?

Why actors became addicted to Walled Gardens

Within their logged environments (Google, Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Chrome, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), the Walled Gardens retain a large volume of proprietary data — the data of billions of users — that is highly prized by advertisers. These allow them to carry out ultra-effective retargeting according to the sites visited by Internet users and to optimize their return on investment. Key assets for brands. The dominance over user data is such as it is today 75% of the targeted advertising market is vertically integrated by Google and Facebook. And deleting third party cookies shouldn't help. By succeeding Apple and Firefox, which were the first to remove them from their browsers to better meet the requirements of the GDPR, Google Chrome, which has 60% of the market, will seal the fate of cookies. Moreover, the giants are also in a position to impose their vision of privacy protection. In fact, they are the ones who configure the use of cookies on the browsers and not the users, as is the case on the sites of publishers. In addition, at the end of third-party cookies, they will still have the advantage of being able to fully exploit their proprietary data while the rest of the open market will still use cookies (at least until 2022, when Google Chrome has removed them from its browser) and other trackers.

A bargaining chip whose market will have to learn to do without

For the time being, actors are still very happy to comply with the current “standard” of targeting while ensuring compliance with regulations. Some forms of banners present on sites, intended to obtain the consent of Internet users regarding the use of cookies while browsing, are currently under debate. According to the interpretation made by the CNIL of the RGPD, “cookie walls”, which block access to the content of a site when the user does not consent to the monitoring of his navigation through cookies, represent an obstacle to the free consent of the Internet user. For their part, publishers are ready to sacrifice part of their audience to ensure that they have the means to provide advertisers with ways to target and thus ensure their revenue. A dispute that, as much as the removal of cookies on browsers, highlights the effects of a market that is too user-centered and sheds light on thoughts on the new models to be put in place in the future cookieless era.

Towards a less “user-centric” market?

What the end of cookies supposes is in fact to no longer follow the user throughout their browsing but to target them on the basis of their immediate attention. Cookieless solutions that are implemented quickly take this future situation into account. Most of them work on the principle of contextual advertising, through the analysis of the content and/or semantics of the pages visited in order to offer personalized ads in real time. However, the possibilities are numerous. The industry must reinvent itself and innovate to perpetuate the market and preserve publishers from the overwhelming dominance of big platforms, without cookies. Internet advertising is necessary to keep online content free; cookies and other trackers are not. A paradigm shift therefore seems essential. However, the independence of actors from the giants will depend on a real desire to unite in a collective effort to identify the solutions that brands need and redistribute advertisers' budgets to actors who are not judges and parties.Article originally published on Widoobiz.