You don’t need to be a marketing expert or data scientist to see firsthand the shift in mindset among consumers in the online space. In this post-cookie world, the masses are no longer willing to sit back and accept the way that their information is handled. 

If we are honest about it, did consumers really understand the extent to which their habits and preferences were being used? Maybe, maybe not. 

Note: This article was sponsored by SORT™, but all opinions are my own and I would never recommend a product that I don’t truly believe in myself!

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What we know for sure is that privacy in 2022 has become paramount and a non-negotiable for online consumers. It’s not news that tracking cookies are in the process of being banned across the internet. Although advertising in this post-cookie world is still new to many, media companies were quick to jump on the band wagon.

Browsers such as Firefox and Safari have already phased out third-party cookies. Google Chrome, which holds almost 70% of the market share (as of June 2022) is coming up quickly behind them with its own declaration of being rid of third-party cookies by the end of 2023. Advertisers, marketers, and publishers are unsurprisingly concerned about what that will mean for the future of advertising. 

In the post-cookie world, what opportunities will businesses have to maximize their return on investment (ROI)? As we know, cookies advertising has been used by traditional advertisers to successfully track conversions. Without using cookie tracking, how can they qualify or measure their advertising efforts and if they are working or not? 

The question of the hour though is what does the future of advertising look like post cookies? 

Consumers Want Data Privacy Solutions 

The root of this upheaval in privacy regulations is the consumer’s need and want for more data privacy. And, why wouldn’t they? 

There is nothing wrong with the concept of wanting to have your personal data safeguarded. 

If anything, we could stand to be grateful for this awakening. Regulators across the world, within countries and industries, are putting into practice privacy laws to fulfill this need – which is more than a need, it’s a right. 

Some examples of this are GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation in Europe, Data Privacy Laws in the US, and California have also come out with similar data privacy regulations they’re calling CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) As always, the big players have set the precedent. It is only a matter of time before smaller nations follow suit. 

New Privacy Safe Advertising

How can advertisers now adhere to new guidelines and regulations surrounding data protection and privacy whilst still seeing ROI? Consequently, advertisers are in need of “privacy-safe” solutions. A solution that will allow them to see results and track conversions, but that does not infringe on the data privacy rights of consumers online. 

Now, you might be wondering what privacy safe really means, or at least how it looks in real situations. Here are some characteristics that will allow you to quantify whether or not an advertising solution is privacy safe or not. 

Personal Identifiable Information or PPI collection is the gathering of information that can help to distinguish one person from another, information such as a social security number, date of birth, or simply their name. Clearly, PPIs are not privacy safe and the collection of such data infringes on these regulations set out by the likes of GDPR and CCPA. 

However, there is an exception to this rule. 

First-party data is any personal information that has been given willingly and knowingly by the visitor of the website. Examples of this would be newsletter sign-up forms. So we can see the biggest difference here is by using third-party cookies, data is collected without knowledge or without expressed consent. 

The best thing you can do to safeguard your business is to make sure that your brand is compliant with data privacy laws. A bit of a no-brainer, right? 

Consumer Sentiments on Privacy Safe Advertising Solutions

 Undertone and Lucid carried out a survey of 1,000 participants aged between 18-70 from the US. The purpose of this survey was to establish whether consumers really care and whether a brand goes the extra mile in terms of protecting the data privacy of their website and their website users.

Their findings give a very clear picture of how consumers really feel about their privacy, but not only that, it provides vital information about what consumers now expect from brands in the post-cookie world.

• • 74% of respondents would like advertisements to have a clearly visible seal guaranteeing that the brand is not tracking.

• • 87% of respondents said they have noticed when an advertisement follows them around. Of those, 46% find it suspicious, 41% think it is creepy and 40% are annoyed by it.

• • 83% of people are unhappy that they do not know if a brand is tracking them.

• • 53% of consumers favor brands that protect their privacy.

Source; Undertone article: “New Survey Reveals that Consumers Want Digital Ads to Carry a “Privacy Guaranteed” Seal” Dec 2021

The Solution for Privacy Safe Advertising In a Post-Cookie World? 

We know that traditional advertising works by collecting PII about users and their past behaviors in order to cluster them into similar groups by their interests. Once you know the individual’s interests, you can then target them at mass with advertising. The issue with this approach is that it directly infringes on the consumer’s data privacy.  

A solution that Data Mania can recommend is Undertone’s SORT ™ Technology. It is the only advertising solution that we’ve seen that checks all the privacy safe boxes, so to speak. 

SORT ™ stands for Smart Optimization of Responsive Traits. It is the only cookieless targeting solution that allows advertisers to reach their audience at the exact moment that they are most receptive to seeing an ad. It does not use any cookies whatsoever and it doesn’t track any personally identifiable information. Lastly, it sees only real-time cookie lists, and data signals and never any Information about the user’s past behaviors. 

Furthermore, it uses proprietary machine learning to predict customer mindset in real-time based solely on cookieless signals, all without browser limitations or the device limitations that traditional advertising solutions are currently facing. 

Here are a couple more benefits of using SORT ™ by Undertone: 

• • Complies with GDPR and CCPA 
  • Certified cookieless by Neutronian
  • Consumer-friendly 
  • No integration or opt-in needed by advertiser, publisher or consumer
  • Out-performing cookie-based tactics by up to 2X

Be sure to visit the SORT on Undertone’s website to learn more and check out the case studies while you are there. 

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For the new and aspiring data entrepreneurs reading this, don’t forget to check out my masterclass ‘4 Steps to Monetizing Data Skills’, where I’ll show you how to repackage and market your data skills through your own business. 

Note: This article was sponsored by SORT™, but all opinions are my own and I would never recommend a product that I don’t truly believe in myself!