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The war on third-party cookie tracking, especially with Google and Apple, is in constant flux. Taking a step back and examining the situation as it has evolved (and continues to evolve) is the best way to keep composure as an advertiser in this tumultuous time. This POV is meant to put the current news in perspective and explain the impacts it may have on paid digital advertising (particularly Facebook and Google Ads) and website tracking.

Executive Summary

• While Google and Apple are replacing and fully eliminating the third-party cookie, respectively, they are approaching it entirely differently. Apple eliminated it swiftly with the iOS 14 iPhone update, while Google is planning on releasing a replacement in late 2023. 
• With Apple’s update, Facebook/Instagram has reported some limitations on reporting and targeting accuracy, resulting in diminished results.
• The EU enacted new cookie and data-sharing policies several years ago with GDPR that limits U.S.-based advertisers from accessing European’s data. This is causing backlash from Meta (Facebook). In the U.S., states including California have also enacted policies similar to those in Europe.
• The withdrawal of third-party cookie usage makes it imperative that companies generate their own first-party cookie data — especially for targeting and remarketing digital campaigns.

Research

Apple

As you know, Apple users are now asked for their permission to be tracked on apps and websites with the iOS 14 release. While Apple’s web browser, Safari, has been blocking third-party cookie tracking for almost 2 years now, the company set a new bar for web-based privacy policies (Statt, theverge.com). This bar is spreading to other companies like Google.

What does Apple’s cookie policy entail exactly?

When a user denies app/website tracking, Apple blocks the ability for a company to track the user’s data across websites that are not owned by that company. Any identifying information (i.e., location, advertising ids, emails) will only stay with the first party, according to the Apple AppTrackingTransparency Framework.

How does this affect advertising on social platforms like Facebook?

Mainly, this update provides some reporting and targeting limitations. Advertisers on Facebook will be limited in their ability to track performance of iOS 14 app install campaigns and advertisers will only be able to track 1- and/or 7-day conversion attribution windows for Apple users. As for targeting limitations, Facebook recommends broadening targeting, however, that has an adverse effect on the pinpointed audience targeting advertisers have enjoyed in the past. Broadening targeting must be done more carefully, with a heftier reliance on first-party data. Retargeting and lookalike audiences could be helpful to counteract the audience targeting limitations.

On top of the Apple commotion, Meta has also threatened to discontinue Facebook and Instagram in the European Union based on new “European data regulations that prevent Meta… from transferring, storing and processing Europeans’ data on US-based servers” (Davies, euronews.com). This would have an apparent effect on U.S. advertisers advertising in Europe. Similarly in the U.S., states including California have enacted comparable policies. The DBE team is keeping a sharp eye on this issue and will update you if any monumental steps take place.

Google

Google is moving toward cookie replacement, but on a longer timeline. Bloomberg explains Google’s proposal well: “Google calls its proposed [cookie] replacement Federal Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), a mouthful for new computer science jujitsu that will lump web surfers together around particular interests” (Bergen). Instead of allowing sites to directly track you, Google will place users into interest groups. Vinny Goel, Product Director of Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox, explained that phasing out third-party cookies will happen toward the end of 2023 due to “a rigorous, multi-phased public development process” (blog.google.com). Google is not taking the steps to replacing the third-party cookie lightly. This will help advertisers adjust their media planning in the meantime.

The “Death of the Third-Party Cookie” & Your Website

In the midst of the ‘dying’ third-party cookie, marketers are able to plan for the future. If your website relies on third-party cookie data, now is the time to brainstorm alternative solutions. This freshens up our perspectives of first-party data.

What ways can companies utilize already-known information to engage with audiences?

Jason Cottrell’s Fast Company article, “A Future Without Cookies, ”says companies will likely have to “focus on logging in, signing up, or otherwise granting permission to the host to make a direct and ongoing connection to the user.” The ways this can be executed may become more clear as we draw closer to the 2023 Google deadline. Keeping up with the news and brainstorming possibilities are the best things anyone can do to prepare for the shift.

The Outlook

A world without third-party cookies is becoming a reality. With it, the opportunity for a new kind of customer relationship is surfacing. Daniel Newman from Forbes sees a chance for more truthful brand-consumer relationships. Consumers will have more control over their data, and that may allow them to trust companies more fully. Trust leads to loyalty and retention. And so on and so forth…

The key is keeping our minds open to possibilities as we stride through the perpetually changing world of digital advertising.

Works Cited

“About Targeting Expansion.” Facebook, 

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/128066880933676?id=17627623301948

7.

Bergen, Mark. “Apple and Google Are Killing the (Ad) Cookie. Here’s Why.” 

Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 26 Apr. 2021, 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-26/how-apple-google-are-killing-the-advertising-cookie-quicktake#:~:text=Starting%20on%20Monday%2C%20Apple%20will,prohibition%20is%20coming%20to%20apps.

Cottrell, Jason. “A Future without Cookies.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 9 Aug. 2021, 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90664099/a-future-without-cookies.

Davies, Pascale. “Meta Warns It May Shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe.” 

Euronews, 9 Feb. 2022, https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/07/meta-threatens-to-shut-down-facebook-and-instagram-in-europe-over-data-transfer-issues.

“How the Apple IOS 14 Release May Affect Your Ads and Reporting.” Facebook, 

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/331612538028890?id=42863664817020

2.

“Legal – Use of Cookies – Apple.” Apple Legal, 

https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/cookies/.

Newman, Daniel. “Apple’s Privacy Updates Push CMO’s into a Cookie-Less World.” 

Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 May 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2021/05/19/apples-privacy-updates-push-cmos-into-a-cookie-less-world/?sh=57162edc7c3b.

Statt, Nick. “Apple Updates Safari’s Anti-Tracking Tech with Full Third-Party Cookie 

Blocking.” The Verge, The Verge, 24 Mar. 2020, https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21192830/apple-safari-intelligent-tracking-privacy-full-third-party-cookie-blocking.

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Google is always exploring how to provide the best experience possible while helping advertisers increase conversions.

Recently Google has been focusing a lot of attention on mobile because 40%+ of searches are conducted from mobile devices. In most instances, mobile conversion rates are lower than on desktop (source: WordStream). Think about it, who wants to fill out a long form on a phone?

Google Lead Form Extension Beta Details

Like other Google Ads extensions, the Google Lead Form extension allows an advertiser to take up additional real estate on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). These extensions are set at the Campaign level and are ONLY available on mobile and tablet devices.

Using these extensions in Google Ads allows tracking of leads directly from the ad:

• Any time a lead form is opened, it will be tracked as a lead form click
• When a user submits their info in a lead form, it will be counted as a lead conversion
• You can see your click and conversion performance by segmenting your performance report by Click and Conversion-type

Here are the optional form fields currently available:

• Customer name
• Email
• Phone number
• Postcode

And these are call to actions currently available (choice of one):

• Get quote
• Apply now
• Sign up
• Contact us
• Subscribe
• Download
• Book now
• Get offer

Use to Generate Requests for:

• More info
• Whitepaper downloads
• Signups for events
• Newsletter signups

What Happens When a Lead is Submitted?

Following up with a lead sooner than later is always best. Google provides two ways of doing so. Leads can be downloaded as a CSV file (Google will keep leads available for 30 days) or the leads can feed directly into a CRM.

Example (includes character limits in parenthesis):

Next Steps

Let’s set up a time to review this together and explore if this is a good option for your ad program.

Note: restricted use of lead form ads categories https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/9472930

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According to research conducted by Adestra and Ascenda2 in February of this year, only 32% of the respondents said their paid search and social ads were effective, and just 27% of them said running those programs was difficult.

From our perspective, the reason only 32% said their ads were working was because 73% of them thought setting up and running the programs was easy.

It’s not easy. Not if you’re doing it right.

At DBE we manage for performance. This means we research ahead of the client engagement to determine what should be doable. We work with each client to set realistic goals and to establish KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) around goals that are specific to their unique business situation. (KPIs are especially important for businesses with long sales cycles, for example, B2B heavy equipment or high-end consumer goods—sales that require a lot of research and considerations and frequent visits to various pages of a website).

We then complete research to ensure we’re buying the right keywords in terms of audience, pricing, and competition. We structure elaborate campaigns using ad groups, all forms of ad extensions, and set detailed tracking mechanisms to ensure we can measure not just the last touch point but as many of those attributable to the sale as possible.

We actively manage the paid search and social programs intra-day – testing, assessing, making modifications for performance improvement, and doing more of what’s working, advancing the ball daily. It’s not just modifying the bids, though that’s a big part of the daily work. It’s also about testing extensions with different messages, landing pages, and match types. It is not “just a media buy” by any stretch of the imagination.

Many large agencies and quite a few mid-sized ones are still making money on a commissions basis, as if the model were “ad buys.” That means when their clients spend more on paid search, the agency makes more money. Finding efficiencies in the process doesn’t benefit the agencies, so for them, proof of performance means showing large volumes of clicks. Detailing the actual delivery of those clicks and their costs compared with other options isn’t something they routinely do, and they absolutely don’t provide that level of measurement if their clients aren’t asking for it.

Very often, the people in charge of the paid search budgets on the client side are new to paid search or think of it as just another media buy, and so do their senior managers. And often on the agency side, the people running the paid search and social campaigns don’t have years of experience in their roles and the more seasoned agency executives know if they don’t rock the status quo, no one else will either. Taking it a step further, by staffing with junior players with lower salaries, agencies increase their profit margins. There’s not much incentive to drive for performance when no one is asking the tough questions.

At DBE, we are not commissioned. Our clients pay a retainer based on the experience level and expertise of the professionals assigned to their paid programs. A simple program with 20 or so keywords with a handful of KPIs can be managed by a
DBE specialist with a few years’ experience under the supervision of someone more seasoned. A multi-audience program comprised of hundreds of keywords for a pharma brand is going to be managed by a senior DBE professional with expertise in pharma. Same for complex campaigns for manufacturers with hundreds of SKUs or financial services firms touting engagement around their thought leadership posts as their leading KPI.

So, back to the graph… while 68% of the survey respondents can’t make their search and social ads work well, 100% of DBE’s clients’ programs are hitting their goals and maximizing their ad dollars, leaving competitors wondering what happened!

Want to be on the winning side of the equation?  Give us a call.

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Originally published in the March 2018 issue of “Postings” the member newsletter of the Direct Marketing Club of New York City

While Facebook generates $40 billion in worldwide online ad sales, and Amazon morphs into a $2.8 billion ad platform, Google is still by far the online advertising leader with $73 billion in ad revenues in 2017, according to JP Morgan, via the Wall Street Journal.

As a Google Premier Partner, Digital Brand Expressions (DBE) has a front-row seat to the constant change, experimentation, innovation, occasional goofs, and rampant successes that make the Google AdWords platform a top choice for advertisers.

Yet many marketing leaders don’t realize how complex Google AdWords has become.  That knowledge gap is costing them hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

To understand the misses, let’s cover the basics:  Google AdWords is a global advertising platform for text-only ads served when searchers query Google for information. The ads appear as lines of character-restricted text and contain links to the advertisers’ website. Advertisers choose which keywords/phrases they want associated with their ads, along with what caps they want to set on their bids.

Search ads are not purchased ahead of time; they are bid on in a real-time, hyper-dynamic auction that serves ads to people who enter variations of the keywords/phrases the advertiser specifies. The advertiser doesn’t pay for served ads; they only pay when the ads are clicked.

With that in mind, the key miss is when advertisers think of Google as just another ad buy.

Google doesn’t simply serve the ad from the highest bidder in the highest spot. The system is incredibly sophisticated. Managing AdWords is much more akin to coding than designing and copywriting.

DBE has audited numerous programs for advertisers–and other agencies–and has, 100% of the time, found inefficiencies that were wasting the advertisers’ money. Here are a few we see most frequently:

1. Wrong Keywords: Not every word you could associate with your brand is one a potential purchaser would use to find it. Enticing someone to click who has no interest in taking further action will not only cost you for the click, it also will earn a poor Quality Score from Google. Ads with lower scores cost more to run.
2. Missing match-type options: Advertisers can specify if they want to use Exact Match to show ads when someone enters the desired keywords in an exact order as a search. Exact search tends to cost more, but typically delivers more valuable visitors. Broad Match is the setting that broadens the search query to include any use/variation of the keywords targeted. It typically generates cheaper clicks but also pulls in less relevant traffic.  Other match types are: Phrase, Broad Modified, and Negative.  By not properly leveraging each of these match types, advertisers are paying for clicks that are less likely to produce intended results, i.e., limiting their positive Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).
3. Not Using RLSA. Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) is Google’s version of remarketing via text ads on the search results page – but without the stalking factor typical of display remarketing ads. And here’s why DBE loves RLSA: the ads are served to ANYONE who visited the website, regardless of how they first found it. So, if they heard a podcast, talked with a friend, or even came to your website through search initially, they get tagged, and when they do a Google search, your ad is served to them. And these ads cost less per click than others because of the higher likelihood the searcher will click through.
4. Ad Extension Omissions: Often we find ads running without a full complement of sitelinks extensions, structured snippets, call out extensions and/or other extensions that are available. These extra pieces of information tell more of your story, cost nothing to add to your ads, and help increase ad program performance.

Those are the most common mistakes we see. Here’s another:

With a media-buy mindset, decision makers often fail to adequately budget time and other resources for the active, daily management required for success. Without experienced, certified talent, campaigns can easily fall victim to the mistakes listed above and others, generated by harried and inexperienced ad managers.

To fully realize the benefits of paid search, marketers need to train their teams continually and give them time to keep pace with, test, learn, and apply learnings.  In the always changing ad platforms, you need to make every ad dollar go the distance and generate optimum ROI.

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