By Felicia Nwosu

At last, the long-awaited cookie less era is finally here, as  Google  is gradually withdrawing  the use of third party cookies  to promote user’s privacy while urging marketers to realign for adaptation.

The global browsing platform officially kicked off with the phasing of out third-party cookies by implementing a default browser feature called Tracking Protection.

The platform has introduced an operational procedure, which when activated, will cut off a website’s access to third-party cookies.

The browser feature has begun rolling out randomly to 1% of Chrome users globally,  debuting its year’s first notable step toward privacy for consumers and third-party cookie deprecation for the industry which urging marketing professionals to initiate some new adaptive measures to enable them navigate easily.

“Marketers will adapt. While it’s an adjustment for everyone, it’s actually a valuable move,” Anthony Yell, Razorfish chief creative officer, who highlighted on the new narrative emphasised the need to adapt.

“It might take some adjustment to communicate as effectively in a world with cookies, a world without cookies is a wonderful thing.”

He explained that new developments come with some difficulties, noting that change is never easy, especially when it means moving away from a 30-year-old tool that provides data to more efficiently target ads to consumers.

Media post in its report revealed that as  part of IAB Tech Lab’s, the technical arm of the IAB standards body’s advocacy towards the move,   was a donation from Index Exchange,  the advanced Privacy Sandbox Demo tool — to the Privacy Sandbox Taskforce.

According to Google, this demo tool will provide an open-source platform to explore and comprehend the functionalities of Google’s Privacy Sandbox Protected Audience APIs.

Although questions are being raised on whether 1% will be big enough impact to test these new processes according to Joseph Dressler, vice president of sales for the Americas, at Adform.

“One percent might seem like a small number, but when considering the size of the open web, Google’s implementation of its Tracking Protection solution will absolutely be felt — and marketers should be ready to question its impact on their overall campaign controls and KPIs,”

While omnichannel transparency seems to be high in demand, Dressler wrote, many still rely on Google Analytics, which has proven repeatedly to have massive holes in how it measures non-cookie environments.

Jeremy Haft, CRO at performance marketing agency Digital Remedy, on his part maintained that  Google will “back off” from completely deprecating cookies, while also stating that  if this initial test proves to be successful, it could impact many areas of advertising.

“For example, limited ability to target most sought-after audiences because options to identify and segment those audiences will become limited. Measurement and attribution models will break due to data being more difficult to action by channel, partner, and media type.”

He added that personalizing consumer ad experience will take a hit leading to more generic and less targeted messaging and creative.

“If Google does end up completely deprecating cookie tracking, this opens up the opportunity for innovation in the industry for new solutions focused on targeting, measurement and attribution.”

But according another expert, Alexandra Theriault, CGO at Lotame, a data solutions company, not all believe that 1% will dramatically alter what has already taken place. Some 30% to 50% of the web already blocks third-party cookies in Safari and Firefox by default, and that has yet to spur meaningful adoption of third-party cookieless solutions from braprivacy. agencies.

“Despite universal IDs being adopted by tens of thousands of publishers globally, the demand from agencies and brands to leverage these alternative solutions is meager.”

Google adding 1% of their piece of the pie isn’t going to drive the intended reaction necessary to prepare the industry for the end of the year.”

The 1% is a test to ensure Google’s Privacy Sandbox changes work, but Theriault believes that the “watered-down targeting capabilities that may offer targeting are a far cry from the precision agencies and brands are accustomed to, and the result will be worse-performing campaigns, a hit to most publisher’s yield, and less relevant ads for consumers.”

“Google’s move to deprecate third-party cookies for millions of Chrome users will be a wake-up call for unprepared advertisers,” said Mathieu Roche, CEO and co-founder at ID5.

Roche believes the change will urge them to move rapidly and adopt and test privacy-conscious alternatives such as universal IDs, Identity Graphs and Data Clean Rooms. He estimates that advertisers only have a few months left to ensure they can effectively engage with their audiences and measure results in the long term.