Cookies Are…. Staying! Step Into The Herald Group’s Digital Kitchen
By: Colin Hensel, Digital Director
Everyone loves cookies and Google is no exception. The tech giant has announced that after years of promising to eliminate third-party cookies, they will not do so on their flagship internet browser, Google Chrome.
If you don’t know what online cookies are, we’ve got you covered. Have you ever noticed that the shoes you looked at online keep appearing on different sites you visit? That is the result of third-party cookies. These are small pieces of code that different publishers place on your browser, allowing advertisers to track users across websites with highly targeted advertisements.
Google’s 2020 announcement of their intent to eliminate third-party cookies instituted the development of new advertising targeting options that can exist separate from the cookie. As such, the threat of losing the cookie pushed our team to innovate and find alternative ways of reaching our audiences such as:
Keyword Rule Targeting: This is one type of contextual targeting that allows advertisers to place programmatic ads on websites or apps based on the content that appears on the page. Advertisers can specify words and phrases that are in-context and out-of-context for the ad buy and ensure that their message appears right next to those articles. If a page contains your specified word or phrase, your ad will be placed on it.
Page Context AI: This is a more advanced version of contextual targeting in which AI is used to understand the meaning of the page. The advertiser sets the context of the web pages of where they would like the ads to run. Similarly, to keyword rule targeting, ads are placed immediately next to the content that we’re trying to complement or combat.
Browsing Audience: This tactic takes contextual targeting one step further, allowing an advertiser to collect people based on what they are reading and put them in an advertising audience to retarget at a later date.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM targeting allows advertisers to deliver ads to small, select audiences based on their domain. Through this targeting method, you can serve ads to those that have email addresses such as ‘@house.gov’ or ‘@senate.gov’.
And these are just some of the targeting techniques that we have in our toolbox.
At The Herald Group, our team of digital experts love cracking these questions and often employs a matrix of targeting methods for different campaigns. Going beyond cookie based targeting allows us to ensure we are reaching all members of the campaign target audience, regardless of their web browser.
Google’s announcement underscores how uncertain the future of digital advertising can be. While talk of “cookies” and “code” may make your brain hurt, don’t worry. The team of digital strategists at The Herald Group is here to stay up to date on the shifts in digital for the firm and our clients.