Those of us in ad tech didn't even have to read Google's announcement about deprecating user tracking to know that cookies and cross-site tracking were a big problem for the industry.

Governments around the world have been relentlessly tightening user privacy rules for years. Those rules mean users are now warned about cookies on every website they visit and, if they choose to "accept" the cookies, they are creepily followed around on the Web for weeks after they do so. Accordingly, users seek refuge in browsers and apps that block cookies—along with the ads and monetization those cookies enable.

Meanwhile, as a technology, cookies don't even work very well, engineered as they were for a different purpose than advertising and a different age that couldn't have imagined the multidevice digital consumer journeys marketers now seek to decipher.

Cookies are the cause of massive discrepancies and data loss between systems, as well as headaches for operators and procurement leads, and they are an unreliable and costly signal for marketers.

So when Google announced it would finally turn the knife on that frail technology too many digital marketing systems still rely on, they did ad tech a favor (despite causing us a few headaches).

Consumer and B2B brands around the world now must reckon with the fact that the most recognizable technological brand in the world, and a powerhouse behind the most important marketing channels in the world, has declared cross-site tracking unfit for use.

Impact on Independent Ad Tech

The good news is that the industry is already reacting the way it should have when GDPR and CCPA kicked in. Initiatives both from independent ad tech companies and from Google itself allow for the most essential ad tech use cases to be supported in a privacy-preserving way.

But let us be clear: The end of cookies will have a dramatic impact on advertisers' ROI if they continue to rely on behavioral targeting techniques.

Google says it will continue to allow independent ad tech to operate according to their own cookie footprints within Google's platforms. That might seem like a palliative when you consider how much of independent ad tech works with Google, yet in the wake of the announcement it's hard to see how a CMO can now defend the choice of working with independent ad tech in light of that tech's use of cookie technology so privacy-intruding that Google is deprecating its own use.

Ad tech needs an enabling path. Fortunately, the technology exists to rise above the confusing, contorted, cookie-filled digital ecosystem that has generated such animosity among consumers, content creators, and the brands that pay for it all.

Post-Cookie Digital Marketing Needs AI

AI is already transforming enterprises around the world, and it's transforming the marketing technology that those enterprises depend on for growth.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Julien Hirth

Julien Hirth is a co-founder of Scibids, a French company that develops AI for marketing.

LinkedIn: Julien Hirth

image of Rémi Lemonnier

Rémi Lemonnier is a co-founder of Scibids, a French company that develops AI for marketing.

LinkedIn: Rémi Lemonnier