Preparing your brand and business for a more private web
Marketers are about to experience a significant overhaul in the digital advertising ecosystem with the rollout of a more private web.
Consumers around the world are demanding more online privacy and control, prompting marketers and businesses to evolve and better serve their customers and foster greater levels of trust. Google estimates that searches for "online privacy" has grown by more than 50% globally in 2020 alone.
Users of Google's Chrome browser will witness the removal of support for third-party cookies as part of the browsers overhaul in response to efforts to deliver a more private user experience.
As marketers and the majority of online advertisers use third-party cookies in the execution of their digital campaigns, stakeholders need to plan and act for this privacy focused future. Here is what you need to know:
Enhancing online privacy in the Sandbox
Google's Chrome team has been working on the design, development and implementation of a set of open standards since 2019. The so-called Privacy Sandbox is intended to enhance online privacy in collaboration with wider industry. Improving online transparency, choice and control has been a collaborative effort alongside online advertisers and publishers and also influences the existing web infrastructure.
Other browsers begun blocking third-party cookies in recent years to prevent unwanted consumer tracking. We’ve seen this can lead to unintended consequences and sometimes undermine people’s privacy, encouraging opaque tracking techniques such as fingerprinting. That’s why Google is exploring a fuller range of solutions with industry input.
Progress in the Privacy Sandbox, outlining new proposals including privacy-safe ways to find the right audiences for ads, measure ad campaign effectiveness, and predict and protect against fraud. This will however impact the online advertising industry who has been evaluating and testing these proposals to ensure digital marketers are ready for the changes.
One of the more promising proposals, referred to as Federated Learning of Cohorts — or FLoC — groups together users with similar browsing behaviors, as opposed to identifying people individually. Google's tests using FLoC to reach in-market and affinity audiences showed that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of conversions per rand spent when compared to cookie-based advertising. Marketers can expect to see Chrome open up this new method for public testing from March onwards.
As these tests and proposals continue to be tested and implemented, marketers and brands can prepare for upcoming changes by addressing the following key priority areas in 2022 and beyond:
Create Direct Relationships with Customers
The approach of relying on an external company and third party cookies is coming to an end according to Google. As mindsets shift and the complete overhaul of Google's Chrome web browser approaches, brands will need to focus on building direct relationships with their customers. This is referred to as a first-party data strategy and becomes crucial in 2022. This strategy signifies a direct relationship between the business and the customer, user or student and data should knowingly be shared with express consent.
This occurs during conversion steps in user- or customer journeys in the form of account creation, subscription sign-ups or even online course registration where individuals share information about themselves. There is an implied trust that the business will use the data only for the purpose it declares, or alternatively provide mechanisms for consumers to add or define additional preferences.
Additional loyalty programs such as offers or coupons can also be included in this strategy. Over time business can gain a deeper understanding of the motivations of customers and audiences and ultimately serve them better through more personalised content and offerings. This value exchange facilitates the ongoing give-and-take of the customer experience and should be closely monitored.
As brands continue to develop this relationship, privacy should be kept top of mind and clearly communicate what customers are agreeing to. Consider how accessible and understandable the businesses' privacy policy is and whether it is up-to-date and relevant to current practices. Transparency over how individuals can exercise control over their own data is highly relevant when including this component in the marketing strategy. Can users opt-in, opt-out, update preferences or even request to have information deleted?
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) recently noted that a 1% increase in brand trust can lead to a 3% growth in value. This can create a competitive advantage for big brands which see faster growth in market share.
Clean Up Data and Keep it Connected
"Clean Up First Party Data" is the mantra of our business in 2022.
First-party data should be well maintained, clean and connected with internal systems to avoid the so-called "islands of data".
A 2020 Boston Consulting Group study commissioned by Google indicated that marketers that use first-party data, can generate double the incremental revenue from a single ad placement, communication or outreach.
Take a Long-Term View
South African businesses and brands are yet to see the benefits of their privacy investments as it pertains to improved operational efficiencies, reduced sales delays and increased customer loyalty. This requires a long term view from decision-makers and stakeholders.
The temptation of following the traditional approach of "buying a marketing list" or using identity-based device advertising (often called fingerprinting). Marketers should rather consider whether this short-term "fix" outweighs the long term risk of violating customer expectations of privacy.
Rather spend that time and budget on building trusted customer relationships, invest in strong first-party data and focus on implementing a privacy-focused user experience for your customers.
Privacy is a reality. It is coming, and those brands and businesses that are ill-prepared will get left behind and remain non-compliant. This is the path of major web-browsers such as Google Chrome and what brands would need to build trusted customer relationships.
How will your brand be affected by the removal of third-party cookies? Tell us in the comments.
