Marketers Want Multiple IDs to Replace Third-Party Cookies

Google delayed the death of third-party cookies on Chrome until 2023, but the end is still imminent. What’s more, with Apple introducing its own privacy rules and legal data privacy standards piling up, marketers and publishers are scrambling to test and adopt new identity solutions to understand and monetize their audiences via ads.

But marketers and publishers asking which will be the next-generation ID to rule them all are misguided, according to a new study by data solutions provider Lotame. The company surveyed 200 senior US marketing and publisher decision-makers, and 33% of marketers said they were open to “any number” of IDs, while another 33% said three identity solutions would do the trick.

“Addressability and connectivity are at greatest threat in the post-cookie world,” said Lotame CEO Andy Monfried. “Testing identity solutions now can not only soften the blow of a cookieless landscape but future-proof a business’ ability to connect with consumers in meaningful and respectful ways.”

Lotame has its own ID, Panorama, which launched in October 2020. The solution brings more than 200 behavioral attributes to open web advertising, which will struggle in the post-cookie era as advertisers turn instead to the walled gardens, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which have robust first-party audience data and targeting capacities.

What else do marketers and publishers think about post-cookie advertising?

The Lotame survey uncovered other attitudes about the death of cookies, including:

• 52% of marketers say they’re embracing new IDs to enable audience targeting. Fifty-nine percent of publishers say it’s for data privacy. Of course, the two are related, as new IDs are supposed to enable privacy-safe audience targeting
• 42% of marketers said revenue will take a hit as a result of cookies’ death. Forty-eight percent of publishers expect to cut staff due to revenue losses tied to the cookie’s disappearance
• 47% of respondents said they were glad Google delayed nixing third-party cookies because they “needed more time to prepare.”