In 2020, Google announced that they were planning on blocking third-party cookies from its Chrome internet browser.
In a surprise U-turn, they’ve now abandoned these plans for 2024, according to reports that state Google will be revisiting this in 2025.
But what exactly are cookies, and what difference do Google’s cookie plans (managed by the Privacy Sandbox) mean to your business’ website?
In this blog, we’ll run through the important details about the latest cookie news that you need to know before things change.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that are stored on the computers of anyone who visits your website and accepts cookies.
These files provide information to advertisers about user preferences, helping them track activity across the internet and better target advertising. Essentially, cookies allow businesses to show their ads to people who have demonstrated an interest in their products or similar products.
If Google change the way cookies work, they’re essentially changing the entire digital advertising landscape.
Is Google’s cookie policy changing?
While Google have backtracked on their proposed changes to ban third-party cookies from their platform, they have not written off the possibility entirely.
Instead, they’ve announced that they are working on a new approach that gives users “an informed choice that applies across their web browsing”. This is expected to come in 2025, however more delays are likely.
What is the Privacy Sandbox?
This new approach is being handled by Privacy Sandbox, a technology developer who specialise in digital security and protecting user privacy.
According to Privacy Sandbox:
“…we’ve received feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including regulators like the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), publishers, web developers and standards groups, civil society, and participants in the advertising industry. This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies.”
In short, changes to how cookies work have been delayed as Google tries to find a solution that regulatory bodies and advertisers can agree on. The proposed solution, as of July 2024, is as follows:
“…we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”
While this is still a little vague, it seems that cookies are here to stay, although how we will interface with them in the future remains to be seen.
What does the Privacy Sandbox mean for my business?
This is now the third time that Google have pushed back this change to cookies, with a new estimated delivery date of “early 2025”.
Many advertisers are growing increasingly concerned about the changes, especially as Google dominates the ad market. Many industry specialists have weighed in following a Google-run test of the Privacy Sandbox system. In this test, 1% of Chrome users had cookies disabled.
The ad platform, Criteo, reported that “publishers lost an average of 60% of their revenue from Chrome” during this test. Their testing also revealed that ads were taking much longer to load as a result of latency issues, which harms click-through rates.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed their concerns, stating that, “Google cannot proceed with third-party cookie deprecation until our concerns have been resolved”. Key concerns listed in the CMA’s report include:
- The potential for Google to design or develop Privacy Sandbox tools in such a way as to privilege the market position of Google’s advertising products, such as Google Ad Manager (GAM)
- Long-term governance arrangements for Privacy Sandbox and a lack of independent governance; the CMA is keen that stakeholders have the chance to engage with Google about Privacy Sandbox on an ongoing basis
- Google’s use of first-party data to target and measure ads on its Owned & Operated (O&O) inventory, and the risk that ad spend could move away from open display and into O&O inventory
- Restrictions to cross-site tracking that could harm tools that compete with Privacy Sandbox: the CMA highlights that “Google’s market position allows it to have a significant impact on the viability of alternative technologies that may compete with the Privacy Sandbox tools following the removal of third-party cookies.”
In essence, Google already have a clear lead when it comes to digital advertising. By tightening their grip using the Privacy Sandbox, Google could create a near-monopoly, making it almost impossible for businesses like yours to succeed online without using Google.
If the Privacy Sandbox came into play exactly how it is right now, many experts believe that your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and website SEO would suffer as a result.
As marketers, what can we do?
Changes to cookies will mean that your marketing team will struggle to track user behaviour, potentially seeing a significant drop in targeting success.
This means that your ads will likely suffer a performance drop, at least in the short term.
It’s incredibly important that marketers fully understand how the potential cookie changes will impact their ongoing work.
At Catalyst, we’re watching this closely to see how it develops.
