As Google brings back cookies, marketers stick with privacy-first strategies

Marketers may not know what keeping third-party cookies in Chrome means for Google, but they know it is not a green light to return to old habits. The industry-wide shift toward privacy-first marketing strategies continues — whether Chrome catches up or not.

“Google hitting pause on third-party cookie deprecation doesn’t stop the shift,” said Matt Spiegel, EVP at TransUnion. “Marketers can’t keep leaning on a tool that’s losing support across browsers and platforms.” 

He believes marketers are better served by up-to-date strategies, like a privacy-conscious approach unifying identity across touchpoints, than by turning to the past: “Real progress comes from that kind of unified approach — not from clinging to one outdated tool.” 

Google has changed its course on cookies many times, and marketers are tired of it.

“Over five years, several pivots, countless think pieces and one antitrust verdict later—we’re right back where we started,” said Kartal Goksel, CTO at contextual advertising company Seedtag.

Goksel wants marketers to take control and stop reacting to Google’s waffling ways. 

“Let’s stop trying to predict Big Tech’s next move and start focusing on what we can control: showing the right message, in the right moment, in the right place,” he said. “Context—yes, capital ‘C’ Context—never gave up the crown. It was, is, and always will be king.”

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But beyond strategic philosophy, there are tangible limitations to the cookie status quo—even if they continue to be available. 

The limits of cookies

“Even with cookies still around, most ads cannot be targeted or measured across the web, mobiles or emerging channels like CTV,” Mattia Fosci, CEO of marketing data provider Anonymised. He believes the industry needs to embrace the capabilities of AI for more scalable, privacy-safe alternatives. “Open web advertising must evolve or face extinction.”

And while many speculate on Google’s motives and timing—especially in the wake of a U.S. court ruling that labeled the company an adtech monopoly—some are calling out the tech giant’s behavior more directly. 

“Google misled the industry… in a masterclass of disingenuous subterfuge called Privacy Sandbox,” says Field Garthwaite, CEO and co-founder of video data platform IRIS.TV. “Google doesn’t care about privacy; Google only cares about what provides a margin advantageous to Google.”

Still, Andrew Frank of Gartner reminds marketers not to underestimate Google’s staying power: “The global scale and momentum of Google’s walled garden is peerless in the industry and has proven to be extremely durable against disruptive forces.” In other words, while criticism mounts and alternatives emerge, Google’s dominance isn’t disappearing overnight.

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