Google’s delay of the 3rd party cookie created quite a fervor last week and have many trying to read between the lines behind the announcement. What it really did was shed further light on the fact that the industry is completely unbalanced with its dependence on Chrome and formerly Safari. Most publishers and advertisers had gotten used to ignoring the fact that 40-50% of their Safari traffic was extremely hard to target or monetize. Now, with the amount of emphasis on Chrome, it’s like we’re sitting on a chair with only 2 legs. What we really need to do is align and use this as a true call to action for a tech rebalance.
If we take a step back, each time Apple or Google drops a new restriction or policy, we shouldn’t have to scramble and adjust our tech and standard or worse brace ourselves for the next iteration of change. Realistically, between now and 2023 we can expect a few more “announcements” from Google and Apple.
Taking a look at the daisy chain between the customer and the advertiser, publishers hold the relationship. So why is the publisher the one getting squeezed? Publishers are dramatically under monetizing their non-cookied (Safari, Firefox, etc) inventory today, and have been for years. A publisher’s business success should not be dependent on a particular browser’s decisions around specific technology attributes, like cookies. Publishers need technology partners that are helping them to stay profitable and to get fair value for the content they create every day. As an industry, we need to continue to fight for the open web.
The way I see it, we have two options. We can continue to complain about the hand that’s been dealt to us or we can use this additional time to build back healthy business relationships. Personally, I prefer the less talk more action approach. Sure, the industry has some work to do to make sure that we put the consumer first but if we pull together to work towards an independent and open internet, we can all align on standards.
