Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Transformation
    Operations
    Data
    Experience
    Performance
    Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech
    Mission
    Team
    Newsletter
    Search Engine Land
    Third Door Media

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » Facebook: Cookies Are “A Terribly Unreliable Way To Do Marketing”

Facebook: Cookies Are “A Terribly Unreliable Way To Do Marketing”

“If you gain a young person as a customer, they’ll be your customer for life.” With that claim, Facebook’s Erik Johnson set the stage for a talk about the challenges of mobile marketing and attribution at Web Summit, a tech and marketing conference underway in Dublin, Ireland. His talk served primarily as an overview of […]

Matt McGee on November 4, 2014 at 11:34 am
Erik Johnson, Head of Atlas, speaks at Web Summit 2014 in Dublin, Ireland.

Erik Johnson, Head of Atlas, speaks at Web Summit 2014 in Dublin, Ireland.

“If you gain a young person as a customer, they’ll be your customer for life.”

With that claim, Facebook’s Erik Johnson set the stage for a talk about the challenges of mobile marketing and attribution at Web Summit, a tech and marketing conference underway in Dublin, Ireland. His talk served primarily as an overview of Facebook’s recently launched Atlas ad platform, which the company touts as a cross-device, multi-touch attribution platform that doesn’t rely on cookies (although Facebook’s wording on that has been somewhat confusing to date).

Johnson encouraged attendees on the Marketing Summit stage to think mobile first by understanding how important the web and mobile devices are to young consumers.

“For young people today, being connected is the most important thing in their lives,” Johnson said. “If you talk to them, they’ll say that FOBO is their biggest fear — the fear of being offline.”

But mobile is (obviously) important to more than just young people, and Johnson called it a complicated landscape. Citing third-party research, he said that 60 percent of consumers use at least two devices per day, and 40 percent begin shopping on one device and finish on another.

Three Challenges Of Mobile Marketing

Data like that set the stage for what Johnson described as the three challenges of mobile marketing:

1.) Despite mobile’s growth, marketers say that only about 10 percent of their budgets are being spent on mobile.

Why is that? Johnson says it’s “because we’re using an outdated technology called the cookie.” Cookies, he said, tend to overstate reach and understate the frequency of ads.

2.) Consumers want to see better ads.

Johnson told the audience that cookies average only 59 percent accuracy in demographic targeting, and 21 percent of conversions aren’t captured due to the use of multiple devices.

“It’s a terribly unreliable way to do marketing,” he said. “We don’t know enough about the people we’re serving ads to.”

3.) 94% of sales still happen offline.

That means marketers need a way to show that their online marketing is converting people offline.

The solution, Johnson said, is the kind of people-based marketing that Facebook’s Atlas platform provides. His talk turned advertorial at this point, discussing cross-device, multi-touch attribution and other features of the platform. We’ve covered Facebook’s explanation of Atlas before, so I’ll spare you a repeat of the details.

Stay tuned for more coverage from Web Summit this week.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    Marriott launches its own media retail network

    Why marketers have a love-hate relationship with complexity

    If Harry Potter led marketing operations, where would his team sit?

    How a smart email strategy helped Apple Rose Beauty thrive during the pandemic

    Martech firms among 3rd parties scooping email addresses from websites prior to form submission

About The Author

Matt McGee
Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.

Related Topics

Performance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

June 7, 2022: Master Classes

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Discovering Now: Spring

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

Webinars

Data-Driven Answers to Achieve Omnichannel Success

Is Your Marketing Stack Ready for Omnichannel CX?

Outrank in Organic Search with These 5 Core Tactics

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

The Progressive Marketer’s Ultimate Events Strategy 2022 Worksheet

CMO Guide: How to Plan Smart and Pivot Fast

The Retail Renaissance Report, USA Edition: 4 Keys to Predicting Online & In-Store Demand Across Global Markets

Thinking Bigger About Marketing Budgets

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.