The excitement is great: Google's announcement that it will refrain from individual tracking in its own cosmos is causing turmoil and uncertainty in the advertising industry. Many articles with headlines such as “Google stops personalized advertising” have also contributed to this. Time to light things up in the dark with a Q&A.
question: What exactly has Google announced?
answer: Google announced in a blog post to no longer allow individual tracking in its systems in the future. In concrete terms, this means that third-party cookies and corresponding tracking alternatives have no future in the Google sphere - from Chrome browsers to Google's shopping platforms for advertising such as DV360 or Ad Manager. First-party data that companies collect directly is not affected. And of course, Google can continue to use data from its own cosmos to display advertising - i.e. data from search, YouTube or Google Maps.
question: Does the move come as a surprise?
answer: Not really. At the beginning of 2020, Google announced that it would refrain from using third-party cookies from 2022 in order to meet data protection standards in Europe and the USA. This announcement is now given a concrete framework. At best, the announcement that it will completely refrain from using tracking alternatives such as IDs or fingerprints is surprising. Google is also not the first tech giant to implement something like this. Mozilla and Apple browsers have been blocking all corresponding cookies since 2019 and 2020, respectively. Apple also announced that in future, users will be able to decide for themselves whether they want to be tracked within apps or not.
question: Is Google really doing away with personalized advertising?
answer: A matter of definition. In a sense, Google is replacing the options for direct 1-to-1 tracking with target groups of several 1000 people with common interests. These groups are called “Federated Learning of Cohorts”, FLoC for short, and are compliant with data protection regulations. The extent to which these FLoCs will ultimately have the same effectiveness as previous tracking options remains to be seen. In initial tests, 95 percent of conversions were generated per advertising dollar, as with cookie-based advertising. Further tests are to follow in April.
question: Are there already effects on ongoing campaigns?
answer: No Google is currently still experimenting with the FLoC and wants to offer these cohorts to advertisers as target groups from next year.
question: How should advertisers prepare?
answer: Advertisers should sit down with their agencies and internally responsible teams and discuss the impact of the announcement on long-term planning and to what extent an optimal starting position can be created right now. For example, through increased use of first-party data. However, even after the changeover, Google's data base will most likely still be so good that it makes perfect sense to use cohort targeting instead of discontinuing audience targeting. Advertisers should also find out about other tracking alternatives and targeting options. For example, various variants of ID solutions for tracking are currently being discussed.
Do you have any further questions about Google's announcement or would you like to set up a future-proof campaign setup?
Our team is happy to advise you! Get in touch with your adlicious contacts directly or at:
Phone: +49 40 — 648 395 43 email: welcome (at) adlicious.me
