Cookie-Less Advertising and the Future of Customer Targeting in a Privacy-First Era
Keywords:
Consumer Trust, Contextual Targeting, Cookie-Less Advertising, First-party Data, Privacy RegulationsAbstract
Cookies are being phased out and create issue with targeting precision, ad efficiency, and ROI as they have traditionally enabled advertisers to follow user activity across sites. This paper explores the impact of a cookie-less future on digital advertising, focusing on developing strategies and technologies designed to allow for effective targeting while adhering to privacy regulations. Major findings show the ascendancy of first-party data as a prized asset for advertisers. In contrast, first-party data is more accurate and collected directly from consumers, which means it is also more privacy compliant than third-party data. First-party data also has its challenges when leveraged at scale, namely the kind of tracking and personalization cookies offered. As a more privacy-friendly practice, interest-based advertising has been replaced or supplemented by contextual advertising, which makes advertising targets according to the content of the website rather than the behaviour of the user. But it is not as accurate as the cookie-based ones. Identity resolution technologies are also under consideration as they allow cross-platform tracking and although they remain compliant with privacy laws, are criticized for their centralization of data and potential for misuse. Consumer trust has required transparency with regards to data collection and consent. Despite the obvious advantages it also raises ethical questions of data abuse that need to be balanced carefully between privacy and personalization. The cookie-less future will not only mean challenges but will be an opportunity for advertising as well. Adopters must bring privacy to the forefron by adopting first-party data and privacy-respecting technologies such as AI personalization, and context-based targeting technologies. Such a scenario will depend on transparency and trust from consumers in such advertising.
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