Targeting audiences after third-party cookies

If your company has relied heavily on third-party cookies for marketing analytics and targeting your audiences, now is the time to re-evaluate your approach. There are still plenty of ways to reap those digital advertising efforts and find out what makes your buyers tick.

Many brands are forced to re-shape their marketing tactics, as the post-cookie era may take its toll on certain personalized advertising and targeting efforts. It certainly may require an examination of the types of data, audience segmenting and targeting measures carried out by brands.

“Digital marketing as we have known it for years will change, but not drastically,” says Heidi Kurppa, Key Accounts & Digital Specialist at Sanoma. “In a way, the shift from third-party cookies means a return to basics, having a different approach to targeted advertising, especially in brand-related activities.”

The shift is not really new news, since Firefox and Safari have already made their cuts, but it looks like Google’s plan to kill cookies will finally happen by the end of 2023.

The role of first-party data becomes more pronounced

Now, more than ever, it is crucial to gather and utilize CRM data at companies. This rings especially true for brands doing marketing for online stores. Even without third-party cookies, CRM data provides quality information about target groups, allowing the creation of, for example, lookalike audiences of prospective customers. Of course GDPR sets its standards for collecting and using data.

You do not need to produce this data yourself – media houses can also help you out. For example, Sanoma provides extensive first-party data on Finnish consumers that can be used for targeting particular audiences across different media.

Find new ways to analyze and measure data

Measuring digital marketing in the post-cookie era will look somewhat different. It may be time for brands to revisit analytics, especially if it has relied heavily on third-party data. The data is still out there, it just needs to be mined differently. It may be a matter of trial and error, finding the best channel to reach good ROI.

Studies are still an excellent way to analyze the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Marketing impact studies can measure the effects of single campaigns, how they reach people, increase interest and activate purchases. Or consider buying tailored studies that can be wrapped around your particular needs.

A more profound way to study effectiveness is with ROMI (return-on-marketing-investment). In ROMI modeling, the core is to find out the base-line of sales, which reveals what would happen without marketing. The modeling also points out the most effective channels and visuals. Compared to marketing impact studies, ROMI modeling requires a heftier budget and long-term commitment for the best business impact – it’s a tool for continuous learning and improving.

Utilize contextual advertising for reaching target audiences

Contextual advertising is a great way to target and match relevant ads with the right environment. You’ll want to place your ads in places where the content is just right, and keywords and metadata are your friends in making this happen. This can mean game ads for gaming-related articles or sites, and so on. A dog owner might see an ad for a leash after buying a collar.

Tip: utilizing taxonomies or categories to sort out interests allows for highly effective contextual advertising possibilities based on automation. Taxonomies enable classifying content in a way that reaches specific audiences instead of broader ones.

Adjust your strategy along the way

It’s all about finding the right strategy for your particular digital advertising strategy. The digital environment is constantly changing, and we need to adapt along with it.

Finnish audiences also have their particular quirks brands should keep in mind. We can’t stress this enough: Finns value trustworthy media. Helsingin Sanomat trumps social media every time when it comes to conveying your messages and having your audience convinced.

Sometimes it’s best to strengthen the brand before moving forward, Kurppa notes. “Removing third-party cookies can brutally reveal how strong the brand is, how far they make it in the consumer’s consideration stage,” she points out. “If the brand is not strong enough to support tactical results, increasing brand awareness and preference may be the next step.”

If you’re looking for new ways to target audiences or utilize data, we’re here to help. We’ve helped big and small players establish campaigns across our channels and beyond.

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Find out how Clarins reached its target audience through a multichannel campaign.