#Cookies

In a stunning turn of events, Google has reversed the decision to remove third-party cookies from the Chrome internet browser. The “death of the cookie” has been top-of-mind for many years for its potential impact on digital advertising; what does this mean for the future of digital advertising? Are cookies going to stay for good? Let’s take a look at the entire picture to understand what this breaking announcement means for your advertising.

GA4’s Report Card; Consumers are Missing Universal Already Digital marketing turned a corner in July 2023 when Universal Analytics rode into the sunset and GA4 stood up to take its place. Genius Monkey covered the major difference between UA and GA4 in in a July 2023 article. Now – after one whole year of nothing but GA4 – how does the new system hold up compared to Universal Analytics? Short answer: not great.

When the world’s third largest software company waves the white flag, people sit up and take notice. A few days ago (June 11, 2024), Oracle announced at an earnings call that it would be leaving the advertising industry after a string of expensive acquisitions, legal troubles, and a mountain of lost revenue. Let’s take a look at the context and see what advertisers can learn from this tech giant’s sad story.

Pour one out, friends; Universal Analytics is no more. Unless you’re using 360, then Google Analytics 4 is now your current and only option from Google for tracking data and stats for your website. There is some good and some bad that comes along with any change, and we’re here to break down what you need to know about GA4. The Good Tracking Across Multiple Devices Universal Analytics focused on desktop interactions with your site; when a user hopped on, UA tracked the “session” as a group of user hits on your site.

Why are so many marketers talking about the cookie? Didn’t Google wipe out cookies this year? Well, not quite. There’s a lot of talk in the digital advertising world related to cookies, privacy, and restrictions, and we’re here to give you all the updates and info you need. Goodbye Cookies The word “cookie” usually refers to the data saved online that can store and remember information about you. When you visit a website, cookies could track your online activity.

Genius Monkey recently made a blog post about Google’s modifications regarding its cookie guidelines for the digital marketing industry. But hold the presses! Google just announced that it was pushing back its timeline from 2021 to 2023 before they kill third-party tracking cookies, giving the brands a chance to plan for more privacy-conscious targeted ads. So, it appears that marketers may have at least two more years before the cookie cremation happens.

Over the last few years, there have been several changes to how browsers handle first and third-party cookies. And now it looks like it might be time to say goodbye to third-party cookies for good. Yet the largest internet browser, Google Chrome, just announced that it is delaying its rollout of removing cookie tracking from mid 2022 until mid 2023 in an attempt to make sure they get things right.

You’ve probably heard by now that by the year 2022, those of us in the digital ad industry must say “adiós” to the third-party cookie. The third-party phase-out was first announced in February 2020, but Google stirred the pot a little over the last month when they announced that they won’t be building alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web. Some companies fear that this will negatively affect their abilities to target the right consumers, but we at Genius Monkey say, “Lighten up, it just ain’t that big of a deal!

In the world of marketing, data is king. Marketers use an abundance of user data to gather leads, increase sales, and personalize the customer experience. These data-first strategies have proven highly successful at converting customers, which is exactly why data is king. Data-driven personalized marketing allows brands to target their campaigns at precise individuals rather than splash their messaging to random mass audiences. But with increasing awareness around data privacy recently, ad personalization has encountered a few road blocks, forcing marketers to change how they collect and/or personalize consumer data in the age of digital privacy.