The Era of Cookies is Nearly Over - Here's How FieldTest is Preparing
A question we hear more often these days: What is FieldTest doing to prepare for a post-cookie world? That "post-cookie" world begins sometime in the year 2022, when Google has committed to stop utilizing them for audience targeting in their Chrome browser. While it's true that both Safari and Mozilla ditched the cookie a while back, when factoring in that Chrome accounts for over 60% of web browser market share it does seem like a sizable shift for the industry and is a topic worth discussing.
The good news is there are already several viable alternatives to help soften the blow of losing the cookie and many others that are rolling out before it fully goes away. Contextual Targeting, or technology that allows your ad to be published on a page with content that fits with the product you are selling and / or the customer you are looking to connect with, is one of these options. Here are three powerful ways that make contextual targeting a powerful cookie alternative:
1. Connect with new customers while they are 'in the moment'
It's true that cookie targeting allows you to find customers who are searching for the product, service or solution that you can provide to them. But it's a little trickier. Were they thinking about buying a new car last week and ended up getting one over the weekend? Instead, think about a car company serving ads against articles that are actively preparing someone for the car buying experience. Contextual targeting in many ways allows you to confirm that your customer is still looking for you, making it a valuable alternative to the cookie not just in determining your customers’ browsing habits, but their intent level as well!
2. Target away from unwanted content
Sometimes knowing what you want to target away from is just as important as what content you want to be next to. At any given time there can be a handful of political, societal or cultural themes or events that it makes sense for your ads not to appear next to. There are also content quality standards that you may want to hold onto when publishing your ads. This is another place where contextual targeting really shines. As a more powerful targeting tool than cookie targeting, where as an advertiser you can block specific site categories but you are still at the mercy of each individual site and what they choose to post articles about, contextual provides not only a viable alternative to cookie marketing, but an important step forward for online advertisers.
3. Contextual targeting tech continues to get smarter
All of tis may sound confusing, especially if you’ve spent the last few years familiarizing yourself with the cookie system of digital marketing. A little confusion is understandable but it is really fairly straightforward
So how exactly does it work? Contextual targeting technology scans the web and categorizes content then allows you to publish your ads based on those categories, but that;s not where it ends. As time goes on it continues to learn the subtleties of how articles are written and starts to understand the tone and subtleties of certain words that could easily be misconstrued when taken individually. Contextual targeting options can continue to refine their understanding of the human language in a way that ensures your ads are finding both the correct content and the best possible potential customers and will not only fill the shoes of the soon to be lost cookie, but in many ways will surpass its targeting capabilities in new and exciting ways!
With the era of the cookie coming to a close it is time to to move forward and onto better targeting options for your brand. FieldTest is dedicated to bringing the absolute best digital marketing tools on the planet to our customers and as the industry changes we will be one step ahead of the game, ready to help you deliver high performing digital ads to your customers with custom marketing campaigns on the FieldTest platform.