Google has announced that it will push back the deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome by more than two years, citing the “need to move at a responsible pace” that allows time for proper “public discussion on the right solutions and for publishers and the advertising industry.” This comes at a time when many expressed worries about the future of the free and open internet, and Google has acknowledged that the delay “is important to avoid jeopardizing the business models of many web publishers which support freely available content.”
It is important to recognize that the deprecation of third-party cookies is in line with broader global trends around consumer data protection, and so while Google’s timeline may have been pushed back, it should not pause the industry’s work to find new and better ways to deliver relevant advertising to consumers.
At PubMatic, our mission is to fuel the endless potential of internet content creators to support a thriving open internet that can continue to deliver quality content and entertainment for free. We do this by driving superior revenue for publishers and increased ROI for marketers and advertisers across the open internet. We have been actively developing the technical infrastructure to support the digital ad ecosystem without third-party cookies. Those efforts are just as important today as they were a week ago; while Google’s cookie deprecation timelines were the spark that ignited our industry’s innovation in this area, the need for better addressability solutions is not new.
However, we agree that the industry overall will be better-served by having more time to develop and test alternative, privacy-first addressability solutions. The future of the open internet depends on getting this right.
We recommend that publishers, advertisers and the industry at-large use this time to double down on efforts to create solutions that satisfy both the requirements of consumer privacy and the performance needs of advertising on the open internet. Given this, PubMatic recommends the following to our customers and partners across the industry as we work to create more privacy-first solutions for safe, data-driven advertising for the future:
- Work together to build solutions that will work long-term:
There are many cross-functional working groups within Prebid, IAB Tech Lab, the W3C and others that are actively working to create solutions that put consumer privacy and data protection at the core. Collaboration will be key. - Prepare by taking a portfolio approach to addressability:
PubMatic believes the path to audience addressability will not be one-size-fits-all and that a portfolio approach to addressability is the most effective and balanced path forward for the advertising ecosystem. Buyers and sellers can utilize a range of options, including first-party data segments, alternative identifiers and contextual strategies to drive superior performance and revenue. With this approach, we can create a stronger, more sustainable addressable advertising ecosystem that delivers superior monetization to publishers, increased ROI for buyers, and strong data protections for all. - Work with partners that can help you test and learn:
At the end of the day, third-party cookies are already nonexistent in other major browsers such as Firefox and Safari. We continue to have the perfect testing ground for approaches without third-party cookies and recommend customers and partners test addressability solutions in these environments. This will help ensure publishers and buyers are better prepared for addressability across the open internet when Chrome finally deprecates the third-party cookie.
Learn more about PubMatic’s addressability solutions here and get prepared for the cookieless future.
